Tags
Antoni Gaudi, Architecture, Art Nouveau, Art Nouveau and Cinema, CoupDeFouet International Congress, I-Media Cities, Jugendstil, Modernisme, The Danish Girl, The Passenger, The Thief of Bagdad
At the moment I am in Barcelona for the 3rd coupDefouet International Art Nouveau congress. This congress is organised every 2-3 years and subjects differ every edition. Main goal is to fully explore and bring to light the value of Art Nouveau heritage.
In this third edition the main thematic strand proposes to look into new perspectives on Art Nouveau heritage of cities by means of cinematographic language. For the sake of documenting everything in detail, I have listed all presentations below. As soon as the papers are available, I will link those to the list as well.
III coupDefouet International Congress 2018 – Day 1
Strand 1 The Filmed City: Art Nouveau and Cinema
This strand aims to look into new perspectives on Art Nouveau heritage of cities by means of cinematographic language, given the coincidence in the time of the birth of both. Papers relating the city with footage from the age of birth and apogee of Art Nouveau, as well as other later filmed material related to this artistic movement, will be selected. Communications may address representation systems from the official or amateur point of view, analysing them on their own or compared with other cities, and also the possibilities of reconstituting what has been preserved, lost or forgotten.
The presentation I was looking forward to the most, was the one by Cyril Barde about the movie The Danish Girl (by Tom Hooper, 2015). Well, Cyril’s views were very interesting. And I agree with him on the fact that is was rather confusing when the couple in the film moved to Paris and we then see them in all these luscious Art Nouveau buildings like the Horta House, the Max Hallet House, the Falstaff and the Hannon House of which we know they are located in Brussels! But some of the explanations he had for scenes and decors in the movie were a little far-fetched for me. I will have to ask him if they were his own interpretations or the official reading of the maker of the film…
The talk by Raffaella Russo Spena made me want to see the movie The Passenger (by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975) with Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider as it was filmed in Gaudi buildings. Apparently some of the locations that form the decor in the movie no longer exist!
And lastly, I will need to find a copy of the movie The Thief of Bagdad (by Raoul Walsh, 1924). The movie tells the story of a thief who falls in love with the daughter of the Caliph of Bagdad and – as I learned from Marta Piñol Lloret’s presentation – is a wonderful example of Oriëntalism in Western arts. There are clear similarities with the work of famous illustrators of the time, such as my favourite Edmund Dulac.
Furthermore we saw a lot of film-material from the early days of filming, showing cities like Barcelona and Alicante during the fin-de-siècle period. But the only conclusion I could draw from these papers / films was that people who were filming during the Art Nouveau period where unfortunately not at all interested in Art Nouveau architecture! They filmed life in the streets but no Art Nouveau building featured in any of their films… So, should we investigate more film-material to find the Art Nouveau buildings? Or was there really no-one interested in Art Nouveau at the time? Time with tell as the I-Media-Cities project develops.
After this long first day of the congress, we all moved to Antoni Gaudi’s Güell Pavilions for a small tour and a buffet dinner at the gardens. Evenings like this are excellent for networking with colleagues, meeting new people and catching-up with old friends!
PS. During the congress I am communicating live from Barcelona, so if you cannot join us here, and like to be in the loop: follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter.
(You can read my blogs about the previous cDf congress in Barcelona here.)
Read More:
III coupDefouet International Congress official website
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Scientific Committee
cDf-tag2018
About Art Nouveau 
Hi
Beware as I had my phone pickpocketed near Sagrada a few weeks ago. I was one of maybe 100 tourists an hour getting robbed there I found out.
If you get a Chance vist Reus, Inland from Tarragona. Lots of great Nouveau & Jugendstil buildings in the centre.
Regards
Gerard
Hi Gerard, thank you for your warning. We visited the Sagrada earlier this week. And maybe I was lucky, but I still have my phone and wallet! We went on an excursion to Reus during the previous Coup de Fouet congress, and we have an excursion to Tarragona tomorrow scheduled! But thank you for the tips anyway. Best regards from sunny Spain!
Many tourists use “the Sagrada” as short for “the Sagrada Família”. Perhaps they think this makes them sound like more familiar with Gaudí’s work or more knowledgeable about Barcelona – as if they had gained an intimacy deserving them to be down to first names, as it were. They should be warned that the real effect of doing this is precisely the opposite, as it is only tourists with little knowledge of Gaudí and his city who ever say this! No Catalan would ever use “Sagrada” as short for Sagrada Família, since “sagrada” is an adjective, and on its own it doesn’t really mean anything.
It is a bit like some Spaniards who try to show off a pretended intimacy with the Rolling Stones and deep knowledge of British modern pop culture by calling the Stones “los Rolling”. Never guessing that by doing so they instantly show how very little they really know about British modern pop culture – or about the Rolling Stones, for that matter.
Thank you for your explanation.