In the the 1920s the movies were still relatively young, and an evolving modernist aesthetic embraced all things new, sleek, fast, and urban. Not surprisingly, a common focus of the cinematic avant-garde during this era was on the power, complexity, and excitement of cities. In both Europe and the US, a small genre of films that became know as "city symphonies" attempted to capture the spirit, uniqueness, and poetry of a city by assembling images of everyday life in that city. These early films and their offsprings often utilized what film historian Bill Nichols has termed the "poetic mode" of documentary film production--an attempt to move away from the "objective" reality of a given situation or people in order to grasp at an inner truth or essence that can only be conveyed by poetical manipulations of mood, tone, time, and space.

The Cinematic City

A propos de Nice (1930)

Directed by Jean Vigo; photographed by Boris Kaufman. "The film depicts life in Nice, France by documenting the people in the city, their daily routines, a carnival and social inequalities. Vigo described the film in an address to the Groupement des Spectateurs d'Avant-Garde: "In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial... the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution." [Wikipedia] "Vigo offers a restructured perception of the world - not so much through a seamless, logical narrative, but rather a fast-paced collection of only tangent- ially related shots. The film provides a look at a reality beyond the prosaic, common variety that so many films give us." [Artificial Eye] DVD 3482; vhs Video/C 999:1151

Information about this film from the Internet Movie Database

Vigo bibliography

Amsterdam Global Village(1966)

Directed by Johan van der Keuken. A fond depiction of filmmaker Johan van der Keuken's home town of Amsterdam and it's people. The film revolves around Khalid, a moped courier who guides the viewer along as he races around town with his cargo of films and photographs. The camera serenely glides through the city's canals, down its streets and across its squares to encounter old and new Amsterdammers who represent a variety of characters from all corners of the globe. 229 min. DVD X389

Johan van der Keuken web site

Berlin, The Symphony of a Great City (Berlin: Die Symphonie der Großtadt)(Germany, 1927)

Directed by Walther (Walter) Ruttmann. A cross section of life in Berlin from dawn to midnight on a late spring day. Uses montage, cutting, and editing to capture the pulse and tempo of this city. Special features on DVD X759: Disc 1. Lichtspeil Opus I-IV (1921-1925, 25 min.) -- Disc 2. Melodie der Welt (1929, 49 min.) ; Weekend (1930, 12 min.) ; In der Nacht (1931, 7 min.) ; Walther Ruttmann: der Visionär bewegter Rhythmen [radio feature] (1987, 86 min.) ; Lobby cards, drawings and paintings. 72 min. DVD X759; DVD 64; also on VHS Video/C 999:2581; also on Video/C 999:307

Ruttmann bibliography

The Bridge (De Brug)(Netherlands, 1927-8)

Directed by Joris Ivens. This landmark abstract study of a massive iron bridge in Rotterdam, with its stark black & white montages and fluid camera, was described in the British journal Closeup (1928) as a 'pure visual symphony'. DVD X1697; Video/C 7811

Ivens bibliography

Bridges-Go-Round (1958)

Directed by Shirley Clarke. Made out of footage rejected by the U.S. State Department for its commissioned "Brussels loops" project, in this film Clarke makes New York City bridges dance using fast editing and superimposition. Clarke made two versions of this film using different soundtracks over an identical picture. One version uses an electronic music score written by Louis and Bebe Barron; the other version uses a jazz score written by Teo Macero. The film is currently released with both versions spliced onto one reel, creating an eight-minute film. 3:42 min. DVD X1452

A Bronx Morning(1931)

A film by Jay Leyda. "A camera on an elevated train enters the Bronx. We look down at morning activity. Three title cards tell us, "The Bronx does business ... and the Bronx lives ... on the street." We look in store windows, at fruit and vegetables on display, and at a newsstand. We see shops and shoppers, carts and autos. A truck dumps coal; the iceman cometh. Drying clothes hang on lines strung between buildings. Women push prams; children look down from balconies, a woman leans out an open window. The streets are busy. Children play dice, stickball, and hopscotch. An ice-cream pushcart arrives. There are cats, dogs, and pigeons. The camera goes to a rooftop for a panorama." [IMDB] 11 min. DVD 2945

Uricchio, William. "The City Viewed: The films of Leyda, Browning, and Weinberg." In: Lovers of cinema : the first American film avant-garde, 1919-1945 / edited by Jan-Christopher Horak. Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, c1995. ( Main (Gardner) Stacks; PFA PN1995.9.E96 L68 1995)

City2city

Ten short films by artists from 9 different countries, all working on urban subjects. The films offer a new way of appreciating the aesthetics of our global cities as they are perceived by cutting-edge video artists and experimental filmakers. Crossings / Marina Chernikova (5 min.) -- Nil / Nose Chan (11 min.) -- Worst case scenario / John Smith (19 min.) -- Sarajevo vertical / Toby Cornish (11 min) -- From 7 PM to 7 PM / Alli Savolainen (5 min.) -- Exchangeable cities / Kentaro Taki (9 min.) -- Street crossing / Pablo Altés (6 min.) -- Es geht auch schneller / Ulrich Fischer (9 min.) -- Hors chants / Dudouet & Kaplan (7 min.) -- Je n'ai pas du tout l'intention de sombrer / Augustin Gimel (5 min.). 80 min. DVD X1130

City Symphony

Films by Dominic Angerame. A collection of five distinct films centering around the city environment in a constant state of change, focusing on images of construction and destruction of modern structures in the urban environment.

Continuum Continuum centers on the people who perform hard manual labor, such as tarring roofs, digging up streets, etc. 1987. 15 min. DVD 7418

Deconstruction Sight Shows how in the modern methods of construction activities men and women have become insignificant behind mammoth tools of destruction. The machines have taken over. 1955. 13 min. DVD 7417

In the Course of Human Events In the course of human events centers its visuals on the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway which was structurally damaged during the 1989 earthquake. 1997. 25 min. DVD 7416

The Line of Fire In The Line of fire the filmmaker returns the next day to his apartment building that had burned the previous day to film the aftermath. 1997. 9 min. DVD 7415

Premonition In Premonition the concrete world of the American infra-structure and its demise are made strangely poetic in this expressionist documentary which shows the vacant San Francisco Embarcadero Freeway after it has outlived its usefulness, but before its destruction. 1995. 11 min. DVD 7414

Empire of the Moon (1991)

Directed by John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson. Empire of the Moon wryly deconstructs the experience of being a tourist and the yearning to possess the magic of a place. Paris, gorgeously photographed in black-and-white, is the setting for cultural explorations ranging from the mundane to the sublime, as visitors trek from icon to icon, snapping the same photos, climbing the same steps, and at times experiencing the transformative wonder they came to find. DVD 9574

Études des mouvements a Paris (Netherlands, 1927)

A film by Joris Ivens. 4 min. DVD X1697

Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance(1983)

Directed by Godfrey Reggio. Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi Indian word meaning variously: crazy life, life in turmoil, life disintegrating, life out of balance, and a state of life that calls for another way of life. Uniting breathtaking imagery with a haunting score, this experimental film contrasts the tranquil beauty of nature with the frenzied hum of contemporary urban society. 87 min. DVD 1330; vhs 999:440

Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation(1988)

Directed by Godfrey Reggio. This visually spectacular film calls into question everything we think we know about contemporary society. By juxtaposing images of ancient cultures with those of modern life, this experimental film masterfully portrays the human cost of progress. 97 min. DVD 1331

Man With The Movie Camera (Man With a Movie Camera) (Chelovek s Kinoapparatom) (1929)

Directed by Dziga Vertov. Photographer, Mikhail Kaufman. An experimental film without any plot, showing, through a succession of street and interior scenes, all the tricks of which the instrument is capable creating a boldly detailed portrait of the Moscow of the l920s. Uses numerous cinematic techniques such as split screens, multiple superimpositions and variable speeds to study the relation between cinema and reality.

Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

DVD 88 Kino. Original music composed and performed by the Alloy Orchestra following the instructions written by Dziga Vertov. 68 min. Special features: Audio essay by Yuri Tsivian.

DVD 2992 Kino. Music by Michael Nyman and his band. 68 min.

Manhatta(USA, 1921)

Directed and photographed by Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler. "In 1921 two Americans, Charles Sheeler (1883-1965), a painter, and Paul Strand (l890-1976), a still photographer, made a one reel documentary film based on the Walt Whitman poem "Mannahatta." The motion picture version, spelled Manhatta, is an abstract study of New York City that expresses the greatness of the city by manipulating the images portrayed on the screen. What made this film different from previous movies of the type later called documentaries was that it explored the potentials of the movie camera to produce a film that was at the same time a factual representation of the city as well as an expression of art that aroused aesthetic emotions about the metropolis." [The City Symphony- The Original Reality Show", by Angelo J. Pompano] 10 min. Included on DVD 2840; DVD 4670; DVD 4191

Of Time and the City: A Love Song and a Eulogy (UK, 2008)

Directed by Terence Davies. Terence Davies lifts viewers up into the world of fantasy and collective emotion as he presents popular and classical music, voices, radio clips, and a powerful poignant voiceover of his birthplace Liverpool. Includes themes such as Catholicism, homosexuality, violence, death, loss, the glory of cinema, outsiderness, and childhood. 74 min. DVD X1604

Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Paris a l'aube(France, 1960)

Directed by Johan van der Keuken. A lyrical ode to Paris filmed at dawn, made in collaboration with James Blue and set to music by Derry Hall. 10 min. DVD X389

Johan van der Keuken web site

Paris, je t'aime (I Love Paris) (2006)

The world's top directors and some of America's top stars create a panoramic portrait of Paris in these 18 short films about the City of Lights. Each filmmaker brings their own personal touch, underlining the wide variety of styles, genres, encounters and the various atmospheres and lifestyles that prevail in the neighborhoods of Paris. Disc 1: Behind-the-scenes featurette; previews ; Disc 2: 18 behind-the-scene featurettes; video & split screen; storyboard. Quartier des Enfants Rouges / written and directed by Olivier Assayas -- Quartier Latin / directed by Frederic Auburtin, Gerard Depardieu ; written by Gena Rowlands -- Quais de Seine / directed by Gurinder Chadha ; written by Paul Mayeda Berges, Gurinder Chadha -- Tour Eiffel / written and directed by Sylvain Chomet -- Tuileries / written and directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen -- Bastille / written and directed by Isabel Coixet -- Père-Lachaise / written and directed by Wes Craven -- Parc Monceau / written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron -- Porte de Choisy / directed by Christopher Doyle ; written by Christopher Doyle, Gabrielle Keng, Kathy Li -- Pigalle / written and directed by Richard LaGravenese -- Quartier de la Madeleine / written and directed by Vincenzo Natali -- 14th arrondissement / directed by Alexander Payne ; written by Nadine Eid, Alexander Payne -- Montmartre / written and directed by Bruno Podalydès -- Loin du 16ieme / written and directed by Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas -- Place des Fetes / written and directed by Oliver Schmitz -- Place des Victoires / written and directed by Nobuhiro Suwa -- Faubourg Saint-Denis / written and directed by Tom Tykwer -- Le Marais / written and directed by Gus Van Sant. Additional directors, Frederic Auburtin, Gerard Depardieu, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuaron, Christopher Doyle, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Alexander Payne, Bruno Podalydes, Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas, Oliver Schmitz, Nobuhiro Suwa, Tom Tykwer, Gus van Sant ; music, Pierre Adenot. Fanny Ardant, Leila Bekhti, Melchior Beslon, Juliette Binoche, Seydou Boro, Steve Buscemi, Sergio Castellitto, Willem Dafoe, Gerard Depardieu, Cyril Descours, Marianne Faithfull, Ben Gazzara, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins, Olga Kurylenko, Li Xin, Elias McConnell, Aissa Maiga, Margo Martindale, Yolande Moreau, Emily Mortimer, Florence Muller, Nick Nolte, Bruno Podalydes, Natalie Portman, Paul Putner, Miranda Richardson, Gena Rowlands, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ludivine Sagnier, Barbet Schroeder, Rufus Sewell, Gaspard Ulliel, Elijah Wood. 110 min. DVD 8839

Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Paris qui dort (The Crazy Ray) (France, 1923)

Directed by René Clair. Cast: Henri Rollan, Madeline Rodrigues, Albert Prejean, Myla Seller. This first film by René Clair (notable for its comic and trick effects), was mostly shot on the Eiffel Tower. One man, the night watchman on the Eiffel tower, finds himself the only one awake in Paris. Everyone else has been frozen in time by a mysterious ray invented by a mad scientist. He is shortly joined by a group who were flying in an airplane at the time of the catastrophe. Together they try to convince the scientist to awaken the people. 62 min. Included on DVD 1368; also vhs 999:3235

Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) (Germany, 1930)

Directed by Kurt (Curt) Siodmak, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer. Script, Billy Wilder. Follows the romantic misadventures of a taxi driver and his married salesman friend as they spend one Sunday trying to pick up a shopgirl and a model. Their flirtations take them from the bustling streets of Berlin to a beach on the Wannsee lake, where they spend the day with the women, then return to their lives in the city at the end of the day. Special features: Biographical information on directors and screenwriters and the 1951 short film "This year -- London" / directed by John Krish. 73 min. DVD 4176; vhs 999:3694

Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Löffler, Petra. "The ordinary life of ordinary people: Menschen am Sonntag." In: Edgar G. Ulmer : essays on the king of the B's / edited by Bernd Herzogenrath ; foreword by Arianné Ulmer Cipes. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, c2009. (Main (Gardner) Stacks PN1998.3.U46 E57 2009)

Rain (Regen)(Netherlands, 1929)

Co-directed with Mannus Franken). "A day in the life of a rain-shower. As a city symphony Joris Ivens films Amsterdam and its changing appearence during a rain-shower. A very poetic film with changing moods, following the change from sunny Amsterdam streets to rain drops in the canals and the pooring rain on windows, umbrellas, trams and streets, untill it clears up and the sun breaks through once again. Although it seems to be one day it took Ivens a long time to film what he wanted to film (for even in Amsterdam it doesn't rain every day). With The Bridge, Rain became his major breakthrough as an avant-garde film artist. In 1932 Joris Ivens asked Lou Lichtveld (who also made the music for Philips Radio) to make a sound version of it, and in 1941 the film inspired Hanns Eisler to compose his "Fourteen ways to describe rain" in the context of a 'Film Music Project'." [Foundation Joris Ivens] DVD 4191; also on DVD X1697; Video/C 7811 and Video 999:108

Ivens bibliography

Der Riese.(Germany, 1983)

A film by Michael Klier. The filmmaker uses material drawn from surveillance cameras scattered throughout Germany to create a 1980s version of the "city film." Parades, subway platforms, and traffic in the rain flit through its mechanical consciousness. 80 min. Video/C MM963

Rien Que Les Heures (Nothing But the Hours)(France, 1926)

Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. Cast: Nina Chousvalowa, Philippe Heriat, Clifford McLaglen. An early quasi-documentary depicting the passage of time during one day in Paris, showing the same characters reappearing at different tasks. The film was the first attempt to express creatively the life of a city on the screen and to dramatize familiar things in familiar surroundings, giving birth to a popular genre. It returned to Lumiere's free-flowing naturalism and outdoor locations but with the added dimension of effective and rhythmic montage. 36 min. Video/C 999:2989

Rotterdam Europoort(1966)

A film by Joris Ivens. "After more than thirty years of work abroad, Ivens was invited by the municipality to make a film in Rotterdam again, where he had shot his well-known The Bridge (1928). Rotterdam-Europoort, whose production took two years, became a layered hybrid of fact and fiction, poetry and legend: a modern interpretation of The Flying Dutchman. Not devoid of critical remarks, it was a challenging way to promote the port. Besides its imagery, the film is also special for its sound, and Ivens subsequently encouraged soundman Tom Tholen to direct films himself. With Ivens as a consultant, Tholen made Touch, for the port promotion council, next to Bacher (on the music of Bach) for the Adriaan Volker dredging company, whose history has been related to the development of the port. These personal impressions are, like Ivens' film, also characterised by an innovative use of sound and vision." 20 min. DVD X1699

La Seine a rencontré Paris (1957)

"Quotidian scenes of Paris along the quays beside the River Seine. Fishing, snoozing, cutting hair, washing clothes. Lovers embrace as nuns gaze. Students sketch, models pose. A diver recovers a boy's lost bicycle. C'est la vie. It's "a river like any other". Sprightly accordion music rounds out the atmosphere." [IMDB] A film by Joris Ivens. 31 min. DVD X1699

Skyscraper Symphony(1929)

A film by Robert Florey. A montage of the skyscrapers of Manhattan opens with a succession of stationary views of the upper portions of numerous buildings. This is followed by a wide variety of fluid shots, which also begin to show more and more of the surrounding city, in addition to the skyscrapers themselves. 9 min. DVD 2944

Taves, Brian. "Robert Florey and the Hollywood Avant-Garde." In: Lovers of cinema : the first American film avant-garde, 1919-1945 / edited by Jan-Christopher Horak. Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, c1995. ( Main (Gardner) Stacks; PFA PN1995.9.E96 L68 1995)

The Solitary Life of Cranes

Part city symphony, part visual poem, explores the invisible life of a city, its patterns and hidden secrets, as seen through the eyes of crane drivers working high above its streets. Within the loose structure of a day, starting with the drivers climbing up at dawn and ending with them coming down after a nightshift, the film observes the city as it awakens with a bustle of activity, through the lull of midday and the manic rush in the evening, until it calms down again deep into the night. Throughout the film, the drivers share their thoughts and reflections on the city and life in general. Director, Eva Weber. Dist.: Cinema Guild. 2008. 27 min. DVD X2111

Unseen Cinema 5: Early American Avant-garde Film, 1894-1941: Picturing a Metropolis: New York City Unveiled.

Reveals hitherto unknown accomplishments of American filmmakers from the invention of cinema until World War II. Disc 5: "Depicts dynamic images of New York City and scenes of New Yorkers among the skyscrapers, streets, and night life of America's greatest city during a half century of progress, while at the same time showing changes in film style and the history of cinema experiments." Contents: Early views" -- The Blizzard (1899) / creators unknown -- Lower Broadway (1902) / Robert K. Bonine -- Beginning of a skyscraper (1902) / Robert K. Bonine -- Panorama from Times Building, New York (1905) / Wallace McCutcheon -- Skyscrapers of NYC from North River (1903) / J.B. Smith -- Panorama from Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903) / G.W. "Billy" Bitzer -- "Tricks of the trade" -- Demolishing and building up the Star Theatre (1902) / Frederick S. Armitage -- Coney Island at night (1905) / Edwin S. Porter -- Interior New York Subway 14th Street to 42nd Street (1905) / G.W. "Billy" Bitzer -- Seeing New York by yacht (1902) / Frederick Armitage & A.E. Weed -- Looney Lens: Split skyscrapers (1924) / Al Brick -- Looney Lens: Tenth Avenue, NYC (1924) / Al Brick -- Scenes from Ford Educational Weekly (1916-24) / creators unknown -- 8th Avenue elevated train at 112th Street -- The trellis : work of sunshine and shade -- View of Herald Square Station -- Aerial view of Sixth Ave. train at 28th, 26th, 24th -- Manhatta (1921) / Charles Sheeler & Paul Strand -- Twenty four Dollar Island (c. 1926) / Robert Flaherty -- Skyscraper symphony (1929) / Robert Florey -- Manhattan medley (1931) / Bonney Powell -- A Bronx morning (1931) / Jay Leyda -- Footnote to fact (1933) / Lewis Jacobs -- "Seeing the world," part one: a visit to New York, N.Y. (1937) / Rudy Burckhardt -- The Pursuit of happiness (1940) / Rudy Burckhardt -- Gold Diggers of 1935 : "Lullaby of Broadway" (1935) / Busby Berkeley -- Autumn fire (1930-33) / Herman Weinberg. DVD 4670

Urban Visions

11 short films from London, Paris, New York, Helsinki, Milan and elsewhere, presenting different visions of urban life as art, fiction, and social commentary. These films will take you, beyond borders, to discover urban subcultures under a new light. Urban Visons includes both the extraordinary as well as the perfectly ordinary. It's about everyday life, real and unreal, as seen through the eyes of independent and cutting-edge film-makers with a dedication to form, rhythm, and color. These works are witness to a new wave of film as art without limits of creativity and style and free of technical and financial constraints. Urban Visions proves that now just like the big city, anything is possible. Push / Gorka Aguado (4:29) -- One last thing / Hilton Earl (5:15) -- Fausse solitude / Pierre-Yves Cruaud (5:45) -- Der letzte Flug / Lombardi-Clan (11:24) -- Pako / Nosfe (1:27) -- Hi-fi / Sean Baker (5:34) -- Novanta / GG Tarantola (12:10) -- When the floor became the ceiling / Rudolf Buitendach (6:03) -- Raus aus seinen Kleidern / Corinna Schnitt (7:18) -- Promenaux / Stefano Canapa (11:19) -- The strip mall trilogy / Roger Beebe (9:06). Dist: Lowave DVD 6393

Waverley Steps(UK, 1948)

Directed by John Eldridge. Like Walther Ruttmann's Berlin Symphony of a Great City (which it quotes in its opening shots), Waverley steps is an ode to the spirit of a city--in this case, Edinburgh. "It touces on such themes as life and death, romance and divorce, work and entertainment, which were staples of the city symphony genre. It's highly controlled and polished cinematography, as well as its carefully arranged and acted vignettes, pull this film away from the genre's documentary impulse. 31 min. Video/C 5028