From Roberto Rossellini's pioneering study of post-war Europe, Germany Year Zero (1947).
Our future? From Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982).
Several years ago, I was poking around one of the antique stores on King Street when I discovered two reels of 16mm film for sale, cheap. I bought the reels, took them home, and after doing some repair--the splices were a mess--I ran the film through a projector. The reels were home movies of someone's European vacation, shot in the late-1940s. The central "character" in the footage was a middle-aged woman, and my guess is that her husband was behind the lens. It was fun to watch the woman strike poses in Paris and Venice, but my attention kept wandering to the mise-en-scene behind her; there were piles of rubble everywhere, evidence of Europe's slow recovery from the unimaginable devastation of World War II.
I went back to the antique store and asked the clerk if she remembered where she got the reels. She didn't, and to this day I feel guilty about owning another person's memories.
How do movies represent cities? How do they show urban blight or urban utopia? (Ironic fact: the word "utopia" literally means "noplace.") In class this week, we're going to discuss the city symphony, a genre of films that chart the social and psychological effects people experience when living in a giant urban environment like Manhattan (Manhatta) or Paris (Menilmontant).
To begin our exploration of the city symphony, I'd like you to answer a couple of questions in this week's blog response. First: out of the films we watched this week in class, which ,in your opinion, most accurately captures what it's like to live in a city? (Be sure to explain your choice.) Second: name one non-class film that is noteworthy in its presentation of urban space. I'd pick Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1981), which creates a techno-noir future Los Angeles of exponential overpopulation and seismic cultural shifts. (Next time you see the movie, notice how many street signs are in Japanese: this is an America that no longer belongs to us.) Tell me about a movie city that you can't forget...
Incidentally, the city symphony is alive and well on Youtube. Here's one contemporary example, about my favorite North American city. Chicago.
1) I suppose the film this week that best describes the city would be Manhatta. It started with smokestacks that seem to further the common element of them being more polluted and featured many skyscrapers that show most cities to be big and impressive in their structures with the people being in larger number but at the same time being dwarfed by the structures.
ReplyDelete2) A movie that greatly depicts the way I believe most cinema would show a city would be Batman. The city is large, with its many structures that reach into the sky. The city is overrun with crime as seems to be the consensus in most films. The life in the city is shown to be hustle and bustle as opposed to quiet country life.
1) Out of the films this week, Manhatta most accurately depicts life in the city. The film almost portrays Manhattan (or urban areas in general) as though it were a functioning machine. The majority of the film was dedicated to building the "facade" of a city, to its what supports it, industry (with factories, railroads and steamboats), to what actually holds it together. Which would be the people who live and work in the city. Even the intertitles give insight to the aesthetic beauty of the city in addition to the multiple ethnicities that live urban areas. Probably the most important point is how an area that seems so vast is cramped and impersonal.
ReplyDelete2) A film that best depicts an urban setting would have to be Natural City (Byung-Chun Min, 2003). The film is set in a post apocalyptic world, so the city is portrayed as a gritty yet sophisticated area; with AI, scientist, prostitutes, slums, skyscrapers, etc. Sort of Escape from New York meets Blade Runner
1) Of all the films this week Manhatta (1921) gives the best of example of a way filmmakers use setting, more specifically cities, in films. Manhatta combines photography and cinema and the result is a depiction of city life and all the small components that make up the big picture. It starts with larger shots of the NYC skyline and then goes on to show the masses of people, factories and skyscrapers that make it up. These shots and pictures of industrialization are then contrasted with title cards depicting quotes by poet Walt Whitman.
ReplyDelete2) A film in my opinion that does a good job of depicting a city setting is Baz Lurhmann's Moulin Rogue (2001). Lurhmann does an excellent job of incorporating the city into the story and making a character out of Paris' red light district. The bright, vivid colors, and animation of ornate objects literally brings the city to life and sucks the audience into the decadent world of early 20th century France.
1. I think I have to go with Manhatta as well. It shows a very industrial landscape and often people as machines or ants working towards a common goal. There are smoke stacks, skyscrapers in construction, herds of people being unloaded from boats and goods being shipped on boats, etc and just gives off a very harsh mechanical city vibe all together.
ReplyDelete2. The Basketball Diaries (1995) sticks in my mind in its portrayal of New York City as a harsh urban playground where kids can get in to anything at all and are free to just roam the streets. They jump off giant cliffs in to the dirty river, drink 40s on basketball courts, and of course progress to drug use and robbery, etc. There are other films, such as KIDS - that portray the city in a similar light, which I see as both glamourous in the freedom of it all, and tragic in what the characters make of it.
My first thought about a movie that best portrays a city was Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002) mainly because of the first sequence in which Cillian Murphy walks through the streets of a completely deserted London. The shots are beautiful and haunting at the same time and remains one of my favorite opening sequences in a film. But, I disqualified that movie because they leave London after like 25 minutes of the movie. I'd have to say one of the best depictions of a city in a film is the movie In Bruges (2008). It's about two English hitmen who have to lay low after a botched hit in Bruges, Belgium. The two characters are basically opposites and one sees the city as boring and old while the other sees it as a beautiful and historical. Regardless, the city shapes what happens to these men throughout the story and Bruges becomes almost a character itself. The idea for the film came about when the director visted Bruges on vacation and was immediately mesmerized by it's beauty and interesteing history. Then, after a couple of hours he was bored with it. So he created a film that could capture both sides of the mind when visiting that old European city.
ReplyDelete1. To be honest I have almost no real experience with cities themselves, having only been in Charlotte a couple of times and nothing much more. So, I'm actually going to go with Manhatta as my choice, although for perhaps different reasons than listed above. Manhatta emphasizes the steam- and smog-spewing rooftops found in NYC at the time. This is my image of cities, the fantasy landscape depicted in films such as Batman.
ReplyDelete2. The film I'll go with is the Third Man. I love this film and one of the reasons is how it depicts a European city post-WWII. The city is old and damaged, yet still retains a classical beauty. The streets gleam in black and white when they're wet. It's a beautiful film that's enhanced by a view of a city that is being bitterly divided after immense damage.
1. If anyones ever been to New York City, they would know that Manhatta is just a retro version of the exact same scenario one would encounter if they went to the city today. There are tons of people, but they are impersonal and rushing towards their individual destinations. In Manhatta, a sense of detachment from the environment is felt (like someone may feel in cities that are practically all concrete and no trees).
ReplyDelete2. Se7en depicts the city in a cold, distancing manner. In Se7en, there are strangers everywhere, crackheads smoking rock, and schemers scheming in poverty stricken sections of the city. The city is depicted as a dirty and dangerous place, with grungy buildings and alleyways around every block.
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ReplyDeleteOut of all the movies we saw this week I feel that Manhatta was the best at representing the way I am use to seeing big cities. It showed the industrialization in the city and the way the people interact in the city. All fast paced and impersonal. The non-class film that I find to be a great representation of an urban space or at-least one that I find to be easy to remember is The Crow directed by Alex Proyas in 1994. It was a haunting portrayal of a dark and twisted city filled with all kinds of lowlife scum who ran the place. In the movie the city was gloomy and it rained all the time. The whole city was a reflection of the main character disposition.
ReplyDelete1. Just like everyone else has said, Manhatta is the one film we watched that depicts urban lifestyle the best. If you go to Manhattan or probably most other urban areas, you will see people working and crowds everywhere. Manhatta definitely showed that within the film.
ReplyDelete2. I know it's going to sound stupid, but it was a movie I just recently watched that I never realized depicts NYC pretty well. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. It's not the best movie set in a city, but after being in New York at least 4 times a year since I was a kid I realized how well it actually shows the city; it could even be considered a character in the film because how much it affects the plot. Theres a kid who is in this huge city; he sees the crowds of wealthy people rushing around, and then he also sees some of the poorer people like that lady in Central Park (and it also gives a feel to how close you can get to the pigeons without them flying away). It shows the crazy people that live there and also shows some of the crime. Of course none of the actual plot is realistic. A kid would never actually do that well in the city by himself, but I think Home Alone is great at showing all the different sides of New York City.
I feel like there is a division between how cities are portrayed in movies/film/television depending on their geographic location. Manhatta, I think, very accurately captures how New York and east coast cities seem to always be illustrated; an over-crowded, heavily industrized, gritty mass of concrete. The music and high contrast of the images in Manhatta help to convey the high stress feeling of this version of the city.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, cities that are meant to represent urban California are photographed in a vibrant, bright, and alive nanner and not in such a distopian context.
I myself, like the dark sinester image of the city and feel like the movie Watchmen portrayes this concept well. The lighting throughout the movie is low and dark. Crime is rampant and skyscrapers line the horizon preventing sunlight from reaching the filthy and overpopulated streets below.
1. Yeah, I'm going to have to go with everyone else and say that Manhatta was the in class film that best described a city and urban life. Shots portrayed the extreme mass of humanity contained in the city while others showed the beauty and cultural experience that can be New York.
ReplyDelete2. I must say that picking an outside film for its quality in depicting a city is difficult as I believe that no mainstream film is truly interested in a truthful depiction. All films that contain depictions of cities stylize that depiction to fit the particular mood of the scene in question. Films that are designed to be joyous and fun use shots of more upper-class parts of town in order to fit that mood while other films look to portray the seamy, dirty underbelly of cities in a more noir standard. Reality would be more of a mix of the two, but filmmakers are rarely interested in producing films featuring two directly contrasting emotional values. That being said, the film that I believe best depicts a city would be the portrayal of Saigon, Vietnam in "Good Morning Vietnam." (Even though the movie was filmed in Thailand, not Vietnam) While the film did portray a stylized version of Vietnam, the country at the time was a bit of a stylized version of itself. As the two very different cultures mixed certain oddities were produced, such as the GI bar run by Jimmy Wah. The film showed the depravity of the city as it catered to the Americans and the extreme poverty surrounding the area as well as the overcrowding of the city.
Seeing Blade Runner (How do you italicize in the comment box) made me first think of the Fifth Element. Flying cars and really high rises. My favorite part is when they have to go down to get to the fog. That didn't seem very original to me. So I went on a mini quest and I came up with Run Lola Run. Why did I choose this? Well, I was trying to picture Run Lola Run without the city background. (Incidentally Berlin, but I don't think they ever mention that). The movie just didn't seem the same
ReplyDeletewithout the slate grey stone walls flying past in the background. Run Lola Run becomes a speeding tour of the city, down its streets and across it's bridges. Can you imagine if they had just used cow fields? That would have been boring.
All of the films interpereated different aspects of human behaviour, and what happens when people interact with technology. To answer witch film depicted city life the most accurately is like having to compare a capitalist system to a socialist system. Both do the same thing, but go about it in different ways. I know the point is to be totally subjective about the film interpretation. For me H2O depicted the essence of life very accurately, I may in fact say the most pure, no pun intended. The way water moves against itself and objects is totally arbitrary and random, yet creates beautiful patterns. Bigger urban sprawls, like the one on Manhattan Island may be chaotic and the people imperosnal, but there is an undeniable beauty about how everybody as a whole coexists constantly moving inbetween and around each other, everybody flowing in opposite directions, all chaotically yet in perfect unison. It is an enigma which is born only from the likes of a megalopolis supercity like NYC or Tokyo.
ReplyDeleteHere is a good example of the human movement I am talking about. It is from one of the best city depiction films I have seen, Baraka.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5nbiQs2lGw
Manhatta was good, but it took more of a naturalistic view on depicting the spirit of the city. I would compare this film to the photography work of Ansel Adams, which depicst nature in a very naturalistic and sublime way. Whoever is familiar with Ansel Adams photography will understand this comparison.
Koyaanisqatsi depicts human life so genuinely I feel. I love the feel of this film (or any in this particular film series). The cinematography i feel really captures the human spirit. The scene where the moon goes behind the skyscraper as the lights are switching.
Here's a link to the entire damn movie. MGM has it uploaded to their youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sps6C9u7ras
A city in a film that has always stood out to me is the way victoran Delft, Netherlands is portrayed in Werner Herzog's 1979 version of Nosferatu. This is a period piece, so all the buildings filmed look Victorian. The bizarre part about it is the lack of people in most of the city shots. Herzog has created such a vacuous environment because of this. The one scene that gets me is the aerial shot of the empty courtyard, and Klaus Kinski walks across the courtyard from the bottom of the frame carrying his own casket. Wow.
1) Add me to the list. Manhatta is the best depiction of a city we have seen so far. My favorite part about that particular film was the ending. The majority of the film showed the day to day activities of life in the city. It tended to show the city as one giant, dirty indistrial plant. Despite the grime, the city was portrayed positively, but the final shot enforced the point. It showed the city from a distance with the setting sun in the background. To me, the contrast between the inner workings of the city and the outside view is what 'made' the film.
ReplyDelete2) Coruscant, from Star Wars. The entire planet is one giant city. Completely different than any other planet in the series.
Manhatta did a good job of depicting the hustle and bustle of new york but i have to disagree with the idea of an impersonal vibe that apparently goes along with manhattan. If you look at a crowded city side walk it will definatley look impersonal but that's the same way with any town. If you walk down king street you don't stop and talk to every stranger that crosses your path because people have things to do and places to go. If you spend a little time in manhattan you will see that it has a rich, diverse, and historical culture that is far from impersonal. I would have to say an outside film that depicted a city well was city of god. Although I've never been to rio the film was able to depict the corruption that was happening at the same time while also showing the natural beauty of the city.
ReplyDeleteI agree with casey. For me, Manhattan has a warm feel because of the life eminating from the city. Growing up in the south, one would think that I feel the other way. I love to see a lot of people, I just don't necessarily enjoy speaking to most of them.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Manhatta does a good job of capturing scenic city views. It especially does a the job of capturing the essence of New York during the time it was released.
ReplyDeleteBesides what is written above, I’ve seen some interesting portrays of cities as mass support networks that are often misunderstood. Think of the Spiderman movies where citizens of NYC throw debris from a bridge to distract the green goblin or when citizens on the subway tried to protect spider man from Doc Oct. Another situation of this is in Be Kind Rewind, where members of an intercity community begin as being threatening and end up helping out their local movie shop.
ReplyDelete