The documentary film Comfortable Century will showcase the interiors of Adolf Loos
Comfortable Century is a feature documentary film produced by Studio Petrohrad, with a planned completion date in December 2020, which explores the fates of the residential interiors in Pilsen designed by architect Adolf Loos. The film is particularly interesting due to the use of projection techniques, which have probably not been utilized to this extent within the documentary genre so far.
“At the beginning, we only had limited archival materials and the idea of shooting the film in a classic way within the given genre without using post-production, but at the same time in the most interesting and considerate way to Loos's work.
The storytelling through video mapping, which works wonderfully in the environment of Loos's interiors, where light highlights the structures of the materials used or reflects off them unpredictably, was the ideal solution. However, since we could not rely on any existing model, we had to develop and refine the entire process ourselves: preparation of materials-projections-shooting, which took us almost two years. Now we are working on the script and trying to secure financing for the production of the film.”
Comfortable Century is a portrait of the twentieth century as it has passed through five Pilsen interiors designed by architect Adolf Loos. These recently rediscovered monuments to the lifestyles of five wealthy Jewish families are a stage where both trivial and key moments occur in the lives of individuals as well as in Central Europe as a whole. The film will not venture beyond the walls of the interiors; instead, they will become the canvas on which the shadows of the past hundred years reemerge. After all, it was Adolf Loos who claimed that people should live in their practical apartments, and the happenings around them should not distract them. He expected the new century to be primarily comfortable. But it was not.
The film presents our past through real episodes from the lives of the people who inhabited these interiors. Individual private moments represent historical moments viewed through the lens of their apartments. The film revives the past through video mapping. Loos's interiors are treated as a canvas revitalized by projections of scenes that have occurred in them from the twenties to the present day. Silhouettes of figures, symbols, and work with imagery are a projection of the lives of the inhabitants. Families and regimes come and go, each bringing something into the apartment that obscures what came before.
We will see the twentieth century through the eyes of the interiors named after their owners. The apartment of Jan and Jana Brummel, the apartment of Josef and Štěpánka Vogl, the apartment of Vilém and Trudy Kraus, the apartment of Hugo and Helena Semler, and the apartment of Oskar and Jana Semler. Each of them is assigned one narrator with a recognizable voice, and the comments are read in different styles. We transition from one apartment to another, individual episodes alternate, complement each other, connect, or contrast with one another, thus creating a historical flow of a local microcosm.
The premiere of the film, whose development was supported by the state Film Fund, participated in the Kinedok evening, was selected for the ExOriente 2019 project, is planned for December 2020 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of architect Adolf Loos as part of the Pilsen premiere. The creators aim for the film to premiere at a prominent international festival and to incorporate fragments from the film into existing or newly created exhibitions in Loos's interiors, thus permanently referring to the principles of Loos's thinking and the people who lived and worked in the interiors. The film will be produced in Czech, English, and German versions, without subtitles.
> www.pohodlnestoleti.cz
“At the beginning, we only had limited archival materials and the idea of shooting the film in a classic way within the given genre without using post-production, but at the same time in the most interesting and considerate way to Loos's work.
The storytelling through video mapping, which works wonderfully in the environment of Loos's interiors, where light highlights the structures of the materials used or reflects off them unpredictably, was the ideal solution. However, since we could not rely on any existing model, we had to develop and refine the entire process ourselves: preparation of materials-projections-shooting, which took us almost two years. Now we are working on the script and trying to secure financing for the production of the film.”
Petr Polák, creative producer of the film and creator of the concept
Comfortable Century is a portrait of the twentieth century as it has passed through five Pilsen interiors designed by architect Adolf Loos. These recently rediscovered monuments to the lifestyles of five wealthy Jewish families are a stage where both trivial and key moments occur in the lives of individuals as well as in Central Europe as a whole. The film will not venture beyond the walls of the interiors; instead, they will become the canvas on which the shadows of the past hundred years reemerge. After all, it was Adolf Loos who claimed that people should live in their practical apartments, and the happenings around them should not distract them. He expected the new century to be primarily comfortable. But it was not.
The film presents our past through real episodes from the lives of the people who inhabited these interiors. Individual private moments represent historical moments viewed through the lens of their apartments. The film revives the past through video mapping. Loos's interiors are treated as a canvas revitalized by projections of scenes that have occurred in them from the twenties to the present day. Silhouettes of figures, symbols, and work with imagery are a projection of the lives of the inhabitants. Families and regimes come and go, each bringing something into the apartment that obscures what came before.
We will see the twentieth century through the eyes of the interiors named after their owners. The apartment of Jan and Jana Brummel, the apartment of Josef and Štěpánka Vogl, the apartment of Vilém and Trudy Kraus, the apartment of Hugo and Helena Semler, and the apartment of Oskar and Jana Semler. Each of them is assigned one narrator with a recognizable voice, and the comments are read in different styles. We transition from one apartment to another, individual episodes alternate, complement each other, connect, or contrast with one another, thus creating a historical flow of a local microcosm.
Jaroslav Kratochvíl, director and co-author of the script
The premiere of the film, whose development was supported by the state Film Fund, participated in the Kinedok evening, was selected for the ExOriente 2019 project, is planned for December 2020 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of architect Adolf Loos as part of the Pilsen premiere. The creators aim for the film to premiere at a prominent international festival and to incorporate fragments from the film into existing or newly created exhibitions in Loos's interiors, thus permanently referring to the principles of Loos's thinking and the people who lived and worked in the interiors. The film will be produced in Czech, English, and German versions, without subtitles.
> www.pohodlnestoleti.cz
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