Accounting for taste

Shot over three years in the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Italy, Olga Špátová's excellent documentary Eye Above Prague tells the life story of the late, controversial architect Jan Kaplický and his efforts to design and build a new National Library in Prague.

Beginning with Kaplický's earliest memories of wartime, the film recounts the forces that culminated in his decision to emigrate, his international success as a world-class architect and his joy at winning the competition for the new library design. Kaplický's triumphant return - the construction of the library was to be his crowning achievement - soured when President Václav Klaus made the first in a series of vitriolic denouncements of his design. Support for such sentiments gained momentum and, despite the public support of former President Václav Havel and many others, ultimately succeeded in scuttling plans to make Kaplický's vision a reality.

Many hold out hope that the design (a giant, amorphous organic shape referred to derisively as "the blob") will eventually be constructed. But Kaplický's personal tale reached a tragic conclusion when the aging architect died of a coronary Jan. 14, 2009, the very day his daughter was born.

Produced by Kaplický's wife, Eliška, Eye Above Prague is hardly an objective assessment of events as they unfolded. It paints a damning portrait of opponents of Kaplický's design. Klaus' theatrical denunciations elicited waves of laughter at the preview screening April 14, a media event attended by various principals in the film. Prague Mayor Pavel Bém comes off as an unctuous, toadying sycophant when he abruptly reverses his support for the project and proceeds to vigorously oppose it.

The forces that conspired to block a structure that some feared would blot the city's famous skyline were transparently Machiavellian in nature. It is impossible not to sympathize with the soft-spoken architect as opponents leap on technicalities of all sorts to stop the project, even resorting in some cases to distorting the truth and vicious ad hominem attacks.

Apart from recounting the politicking and back-stabbing that went on, the film necessarily functions as a short course on modern architecture, a field in which Kaplický was a giant. His many achievements and the elegance and utility of his designs - along with buildings, he designed bridges, cars, cutlery and even clothing - are discussed in illuminating detail. The technical discussion sheds light on a fascinating world of high-concept creativity and massive practical ambitions. Whatever one's opinion of the aesthetics of the proposed library (and everyone has an opinion, to be sure), the complexity and singularity of its design cannot help but impress.

The film is also a celebration of an extraordinary life and a poignant love story that takes viewers inside a tight-knit cadre of family, friends and colleagues. It concludes with a letter from Havel to Kaplický's young daughter, in which he addresses her future self and speaks prophetically and movingly about the eventual construction of her father's library - a fitting final sequence. Surely, Eye Above Prague is less a document of a battle lost than another chapter in an ongoing saga that is far from over.

A retrospective of Kaplický's career and models and plans for his National Library proposal are currently on display at the DOX Center for Contemporary Art, located at Osadní 34, Prague 7-Holešovice. Open Mon. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Wed.-Fri. 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

James Walling can be reached at
jwalling@praguepost.com