Il Girasole

On the slope of a gentle hill on the northern boundary of the Po basin in Northern Italy stands a remarkable house. A modernist villa in the middle of a park, with its metallic façade shining above an enormous circular base of reddish stone. The extraordinary structure of the Casa Girasole (The Sunflower) follows the way of the sun across the sky – and the inhabitants’ vista over the surrounding landscape – during the day, driven by an electric motor that can turn the entire house by 360°. It was built in the early 1930s by the Italian architects Angelo Invernizzi and Ettore Fagiuoli and is an important example of Italian Futurismo in architecture. Preserved entirely in its original state, including the original furniture and curtains, it makes traceable the fascination for modern technology, but also the already slightly broken optimism, of that period. The documentary film I Girasole: A House Near Verona by Christoph Schaub and Marcel Meili enables the viewer to take part in a day at the house that turns around its vertical axis once. The movie introduces both the architecture and atmosphere of the building, its various rooms, furnishings and decoration. It gives a memoir of the house’s history and of the time and feeling of life in which it was conceived. The film was awarded the 1st prize at the 1995 biennale Film and Architecture in Graz (Austria). The DVD is complemented by a booklet with introductory essays and illustrations. Film in original Italian version and alternative versions with English, German and French subtitles. Text in booklet in English and German.