The Austrian architect Hans Hollein belongs to the world elite of architects since his candle shop Retti in Vienna (1965). His museum in Mönchengladbach (1982) revolutionized museum architecture in our century, and his Haas-Haus (1990) in Vienna became the most disputed post-war building in Vienna.
Filmmaker Ernesto Rimoch looks at the potent combination of love and ambition in this film about a couple who's so happy their daughter is marrying into a rich clan that they throw the best wedding ever, even if they can't afford it.
BEAUTIFUL FUNERALS is a hand-painted double-step-printed film composed of 1) dense blackness variously punctuated by brilliantly colored jewel/flower-like shapes AND 2) interruptive white sections which are fuzzily dotted with blurred whites and criss-crossed by black "brushstrokes" and hard-edge straight black and white lines.
Set on May 18, 1993—the day on which Denmark voted to join the European Union, just a few months after they'd voted not to do so—the film follows eight or so disparate Danes (an escaped mental patient, a newly-famous singer, a business executive, and their assorted families and cohorts) as they unwittingly alter one another's lives, for better and for worse.
A young man makes ends meet by selling camotes in his small providence town, has zero luck getting with the ladies, and is too broke to afford the hookers of the town.
To avenge his murdered best friend, top agent Max Zander slips into the role of the "clown". Hunted by the police, he fights crime under the cover of his mask.
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Have you watched Alles ist Architektur: Porträt Hans Hollein yet? What did you think about it?
