Loos Ornamental

Before I go on with my review, I have to say, that I do respect other peoples choices and their taste. Having said that, I won't hold back telling my view of things.

And my view or more my question here is: Are we getting extremely lazy? The answer seems to be "yes", especially if we can't be bothered to pick up a book anymore. And I'm not talking a book/novel that you have to read through (we're beyond that point and that doesn't really matter), but picking up a book with pictures in it! So maybe a little description won't hurt, but you wouldn't have to read the description you could enjoy the pictures.

Some of you might ask, what that has to do with the documentary on hand here. Well it has to do everything with the depiction of Mr. Loos work. You might have heard of the man (architecture business) or not, at the beginning and the end of this film there is a narrator speaking. Other than that, there is not much more. Apart from the street sounds (if you're positive thinking, you could call it ambient sound). In other words, you get pictures shown of architecture. And if it weren't for the wind, some people walking through, you could be excused for thinking, they are actual "pictures" and not film.

While even this might or could be exciting, there is nothing here to enhance your viewing pleasure. No extra lighting, no interesting framing (apart from a few shots, that I'm pretty sure were born out of necessity, because the camera wouldn't fit anywhere else) or anything else for your viewing "pleasure". And again my initial question: Why not pick up a book, with all that (architecture) pictures inside, where you can not only decide, what you want to see, when you want to see it (go to page 25, instead of fast forwarding, if this ever comes out on DVD), can spend as much time watching it without having to push the "pause" button, you save electricity (DVD Player) and if you wonder where this building is or how big it is, there is an answer written down, which you can read? Well I don't know about you, but I do know what I would choose!

Fortunately, this film was shown back-to-back with Schindler's Houses, and both films are clear winners. If you haven't yet heard of Heinz Emigholtz, his features depict the remaining structures of notable architects through the use of sequential exterior and interior shots without voice overs, music and commentary. This is the stuff of everyday life, and its power might very well consist in allowing the viewer to make their own judgments as to the significance of the work under scrutiny. The remaining structures of Adolph Loos take one back to turn-of- the-century Vienna, the era of Klimt, Freud, and Franz Josef.