VIFF 2012 review: Reconversao

The monumental, stone-based work of Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto Moura is given curious treatment by Thom Anderson, who made Los Angeles Plays Itself. The use of stop-motion photography to enhance essentially static imagery of phenomenal spaces quickly grows gimmicky. And the glumly academic narration by Encke King drains all the wit out of Souta Moura’s writings, which already tend toward the fatalistic, considering his repeatedly avowed love of ruins. The shortish film (its title means “reconversion”) nonetheless encourages you to view public spaces through eyes unprejudiced by how buildings and their materials are habitually imagined.