Cities and Films Lecture

the lecture looks at -
 •The city in Modernism

•The possibility of an urban sociology

•The city as public and private space

•The city in Postmodernism

•The relation of the individual to the crowd in the city

Georg Simmel-

Louis Sullivan

- chicago building picture

an business opportunity, the american dream of everything is up for grabs, this attracts people to the cities 

video - manhatta paul stand 1921 and charles scheeler

Charles Scheeler

shape of the forms and industry influenced by the abstract art of the time

Fordism: mechanised labour relations.

its not just about workers producing the goods its about them creating a good product and then the workers buy the product too.

Modern times charlie chaplin 1936

background to the era - stock market crash, flood in 1937 

man with a movie camera -1929

shows a range of cinematic techniques that were not really used at the time. 

art should capture this type of image of the city - the flaneur

flaneur becomes an important part in architecture  

photographer as flaneur 

flaneuse - whats the experience of a women in the city

if a female figure is alone in the city it's represented as dread - automat 1927

sophie calle suite venitienne -1980

follows a man and captures his reflections of behaviour - flows like a love story.

venice - in sophies work it gives her a kind of maze, which allows you to get lost but is still a space thats fixed. It's like a labyrinth.

dont look now 1973 - nicolas roeg - movie talk about

the detective - hires a detective while he's taking photos of the woman being followed she is taking photos of the detective taking photos. 

cindy sherman - apparently shows another woman alone in the city. disagree with this cause of the camera angle shot. 

sep 11th 01 9/11 here is new york book/exhibition - democracy of photographs, compare the two photos but talk about the camera angle. below looking up usually means power and intimidation? so why use that camera angle when you could use so many other intimidating ones.

Weegee - Arthur Felig - people think he's in touch with spirits  just a nickname, arrives on the scene because he was the only photographer who had a police radio. had a dark room in the back of his car.

book  and film - naked city

L.A. Noire - the same era of the film noire - 

metropolis depicts a city of the future in 1929 the height of modernism. 

Bladerunner made in 1982 depicts los angeles in 2019 very retro set in film noire style but is predicting the future, mixing up the timeline 

Lorca di Corcia Heads (2001) NY- shows your alone in the crowd that you dont talk to anyone on the subway feeling - uses a certain flash on his camera that goes off when they step in a certain place which captures a glowing highlighted effect.

concealed camera - haunting quality? 

representation of the city as a bombardment of information, using lots of saturated colour and depth of field so we dont have a focus, hes not asking us to pick a person from the crowd, there is no main subject the whole city is. 

surveillance part - 

towers rebuilt video - runa islam

very interesting lecture!