Aalto - Architect of Emotions

2020 ‘Aalto’ Directed by Virpi Suutari

Documentary about Alvar and Aino Aalto, the great masters of modernism, as well as about people’s personal experiences all over the world in spaces created by them.

Alvar Aalto Aino Aalto Elissa Aalto

90 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Kairit ★★★★½

i’m so fucking horny for art hoes. i want to fuck a building
Review by Janne Widmark ★★★½

All good, nothing to really complain about as it is stylishly done and I think the Aaltos would be real happy about it. The problem is ... me. I love good architecture and design but, uhm, I don't want to know too much about it. I just want to enjoy it. It's kind of like how people complained about giving Michael Myers too much of a backstory in Rob Zombie's Halloween, I guess?
And i would actually prefer to have this as a big fat coffee table book where I could inspect their work in my own pace.
Review by Stefan ★★★

Solid documentary about the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.
I find it difficult to rate a documentary in relation to a movies that I usually rate. It got a different audience and also if you like the documentary can be dependant on if you in this case have special interest in architecture or in Alvar Aalto.
My starting point here is that I dont consider myself to have special interest in architecture and I didnt know much about Alvar Aalto at all. So my lack of special interest in the subject in question takes down my rate on this.
Having said that, as a documentary when it comes to structure and telling the story about this designer/architect and his wife create…
Review by 😳 ★★★★

odd bloke x
Review by Onni ★★★★½ 1

didn’t expect to get ✨so emotional✨ by architecture, scenery, and beautiful cinematography but i most certainly did. -0,5 from the portrayal of Elissa as Aino2.0 :,(
Review by Niklas Bergljung ★★★

Solid documentary but I feel like there's always this undertone of sadness around him and I'm not sure that's exactly what the filmmaker intended to highlight.
Review by Mikko ★★★

go for the sweet architecture and a few juicy quotes. after aino dies (spoiler) the story loses intensity, their relationship put flesh on the bones of the pretty buildings, art etc :)
Review by Matthew Cormack

“... change was in the wind.”
Review by Vee ★★★½

nice to see a documentary with some nuance beyond "misunderstood genius man". and i always forget that i love architecture until i watch some movie with drone shots of a curvy window or some shit. gorgeous.
Review by lex

went into this for the relaxing documentary about architecture emerged with my misandry stronger than ever
Review by kate ★★★★★

leaving the cinema screaming, filled with so much inspiration and motivation to become an architect ,;::;MSN

Recent reviews

Review by Kairit ★★★★½

i’m so fucking horny for art hoes. i want to fuck a building
Review by 😳 ★★★★

odd bloke x
Review by oo_koo ★★★★½

This is as multi-faceted and elegant depiction of objects, spaces and ideas as you'll ever see. Yet the people who created those objects, spaces and ideas remain inelegant mysteries, ultimately obscured and shrouded by their own internal convulsions and indignations. Only their passion and their pain is evident, which perhaps is as it should be.
Review by Claes78 ★★★

En finsk dokumentär om den store finska arkitekten Alvar Aalto och hans fruar Aaino (som gick bort i cancer vid ung ålder) och Elisa . Det är en stor fokus på de byggnader som han ligger bakom och historiena om hans relationer till dom och dess ägare. Aalto var en väldigt passionerad man och i unga dar hade han en hel del affärer. Man får även känslan av att han var en man som tyckte om att bestämma och få sin vilja igenom, både i hushåll och i affärer. Dokumentären balanserar mellan hans privata liv som har tagits fram genom privata brev mellan honom och hans fruar, men även hans karriär och de landmärken som bär hans namn som skapare.…
Review by Anton Vanha-Majamaa ★★★★

Very fine shots of architecture, and an intelligent script, going through Aalto’s life and career thematically, rather than chronologically. The story is told through multiple voices and points of view, which makes it all feel more trustworthy and less like hagiography (which this certainly is not).
Review by Jesper Lundstedt ★★★

Snygg men oerhört torr. Arkitektur är kul att titta på, men ingen av Aalto-konstellationerna var direkt någonting som satte min värld i brand. Det bästa sättet att se denna skulle antagligen vara att stänga av ljudet, sätta på någon Philip Glass-musik och låtsas att det är en konstdokumentär.
Review by Vallandre ★★★½

Uppskattar allt hantverk och arkivfilmen, men känns som att dokumentären är i limbo mellan att vara för arkitektstudenter/arkitektur-nördar, och dels att vara för en bred filmpublik.
Review by Alexis Gray

For me it would have been far more engaging if it focused on his works and why they are important, why is he the architect of emotions as the films title states? Why is the squiggly vase so good?
It was at its best for example when talking about the sanitarium and his empathy in the design so that patients can see out. But it was rarely like that.
Competently made and definitely will have its audience but not what I'm looking for in a documentary about any artist
Review by jakob holiday ★★½

Good stuff but over stuffed.
Review by Mimmi

Would have enjoyed this more if it focused mainly on his work rather than his life, instead of the other way round.
Review by Durkslag ★★★

As an architectural student, I am familiar with the works of Aalto but before watching this film I never knew who he was as a person. This film is clearly a love letter to a great man, but sadly falls a bit short and ended up not keeping me fully engaged all the way through.
The film suffers from a heavy lack of focus. Out of a purely architectural/design perspective, the film is captivating. The shots are beautiful and really capture the essence of the buildings and while the soundtrack was at times repetitive and somewhat overly bombastic, for the most part it complements the shots well. But from a narrative perspective, it falls short.
I now feel like I…
Review by Albert Mechsner ★★★

No es Antonio Gaudí, pero es un interesante documental sobre un arquitecto finlandés que desconocía hasta hoy.