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| Black Island, White Island | |||
This dense, lyrical documentary explores poetry through architecture – or is that vice versa? – by looking at the relationship between Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and Spanish rationalist architect German Rodrigues Arias. The pair met in Barcelona in the 1930s, and when Rodrigues Arias ended up in Chile after the Spanish Civil War, they began an extended collaboration on a series of striking houses on extraordinary sites, from the wild coastline of Isla Negra to the uneven heights of Santiago. Neruda had long been interested in architecture and had his own idiosyncratic, evolving ideas about his dream home. Each building had to fit its purpose as social centre, writing retreat or treasure trove (Neruda was an obsessive collector of ships in bottles and other bric-a-brac) just as it had to meet the challenges of its landscape and reflect the personalities of its inhabitants. The film is as crammed with personal material as the four houses it explores in depth, including archival footage, sketches and architectural drawings, Neruda’s poems and the testimony of the friends and colleagues of both men. As such, it transcends World of Interiors voyeurism and serves the additional functions of a double biography and an oblique history of Spain and Chile, as neither man was unscarred by the upheavals of the 20th century. – Andrew Langridge |
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| Ilsa negra, ilsa blanca, Spain 2004 | |||
Director: Bonaventura Durall i Soler 55 mins, DV In Spanish, with English subtitles Canterbury Film Society |
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