taz: Mr. von Bredow, what is so special about the small village of Campione d’Italia?
Anton von Bredow: The source of the wealth of this small Italian town, located as an enclave in Switzerland, was a casino. When it had to close overnight in 2018, the residents lost their identity overnight.
taz: The casino in this small, idyllic village on Lake Lugano is a terrible concrete building that appears like a monster in your film.
From Bredow: This huge windowless block, Europe’s largest casino, is a very honest building. As it stands there, if you were to open it up, it would be larger than the place itself. So he represents complete megalomania. The architect himself called it a symbol of the degeneration of today’s society. The metaphor is the Tower of Babel.
taz: Doesn’t this drama have almost biblical dimensions?
From Bredow: This fall of the villagers from extreme size to absolute decay is tragic. The situation is similar to that of the protagonist of the “Truman Show” when he begins to understand that for 30 years he has lived in the lie of an illusory world constructed around him.
taz: Isn’t the title of the film, “Architecture of Happiness,” extremely ironic?
From Bredow: The cynicism of the title is there in gambling itself. This suggests that you can leave the casino happy. But actually the bank always wins. It’s particularly interesting here because a place has relied on this system to work for generations, but then fails because of its own megalomania.
taz: How did you and your Swiss co-director Michele Cirigliano tell this story on film?
This huge windowless block, Europe’s largest casino, is a very honest building. He represents complete megalomania
From Bredow: We worked with an empathetic, observing camera that allows us to be very close to the people.
taz: How did you find such strong symbols like a Rolls-Royce parked in a garage with a flat tire?
From Bredow: It is the place that offers such motifs. As a filmmaker, you don’t have to do much searching because there is a huge treasure trove of metaphorical images like this.
taz: Don’t these apocalyptic images also represent an elementary story?
“Architecture of Happiness”, D/CH 2025. Director: Anton von Bredow, Michele Cirigliano. 79 mins.
In cinemas from February 5th in Hamburg (Abaton) and Hanover (Raschplatz); from February 19th in Braunschweig (Universum), Bremen (City 46), Kiel (Filmhaus) and Lübeck (municipal cinema)
From Bredow: Exactly! For me the drama of this place is exemplary of processes that take place all over the world on various scales. It’s about the ability of individual people and their communities to face profound changes in their living conditions, so that they go from being the object of change to becoming the subject of renewal
taz: Isn’t it also ironic when you can discover in the credits that your film uses money from the Swiss lottery company stuck?
From Bredow: Yes! Isn’t it great that about a sixth of the film’s total budget comes from Swisslos, which is financed by gambling addiction? That shows where giving us money for our film can lead.