Welles's choice for ugliest building in the world

[Alan Brody]

Came across this while web surfing:

"The Church of the Sacred Family, or Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia as it is known locally, is one of Barcelona’s most prestigious attractions. While it is true that Orson Wells, when he was writing about the bombing raids of the Civil War, regarded it as a misfortune that the ugliest building in the world, the church of the Sacred Family, was spared, there are many today who would take a very different view."

http://www.searchforhotels.com/barcelon ... redfamily/

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/ ... sacred.jpg

[colwood]

While definetely a "unique" building, I gotta disagree with Welles. While the shape is unfortunate, the architecture is amazing.

[ToddBaesen]

As this comes from a totally unreliable source, my guess is Welles never said any such thing about Gaudi's fabulous church in Barcelona. From everything we know, Welles was never even in Spain during the bombing raids of the Civil war in Spain. Next thing you know, we'll have Welles reporting on Picasso painting Guernica, after he saw the bombs falling from German planes on that small village in Spain, which inspired Picasso to paint one of his many masterpieces. Just as Welles reported on Oda Kodar seducing Pablo Picasso into painting 22 portraits of her in F FOR FAKE.

Now, quite obviously, Welles was doing his theater and radio shows in New York City in 1937, so my guess is this is a very garbled report of what Hemingway may have thought of Gaudi's masterpiece while he was in Spain at the time.

But this brings up the question of reliability of stories like this about Mr. Welles - especially anything that seems suspect - including Welles own own comments, as everyone who has seen F FOR FAKE knows.

As Picasso said (and Welles quotes) in F FOR FAKE: "Truth is a lie." Welles adds, "A lie which helps us to understand reality." Now how's that for a surrealist slogan. I'd say it measures up to one of Luis Bunuel's favorites: "It is forbidden to forbid."

[Alan Brody]

Todd, your theory that Welles was being confused with Hemingway is not implausible, since it would be easy to confuse the two, both of them being so closely identified with Spain. The article doesn't give the source of the Welles quote, but it would probably be a simple matter to check out it's accuracy if all of Orson Welles's published written works have been accounted for. If it was Hemingway that said it, then I wonder if it was some kind of ulterior political statement.

If it was Welles that said it, then it would be ironic, given that he considered the Chartres cathedral in France to be the greatest work of western civilization. Both buildings are fantastic pieces of architecture. Why would there have been such a difference in his mind between the two? Wouldn't he have recognized Gaudi as a kindred spirit, since La Sagrada Familia is one of the most famous unfinished works in the world? Welles himself left behind half a dozen cinematic La Sagradas.

Here are a couple of interesting Youtube videos about the Gaudi cathedral, especially the computer simulation of what it would look like if it were ever to be finished:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irlQiGnUuMQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqOux5ttkHI

[Tony]

Are they finishing it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r9M4zlX ... re=related

[Alan Brody]

Yes, apparently they are trying to finish it. One website says that it is scheduled to be completed by approximately 2020. Of course, it may not even stand that long if this video is accurate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9j0_Niv ... re=related