Apropos de Nice (Vigo) ..... Now watch this clip of the last scene from Metropolis and see if you can ... A clip from Midnight Cowboy (1969) by John Schlesinger. It.
MODERNITY AND THE METROPOLIS Presentation by Nathaniel Epstein Cinema and the Modern City Prof. Silvia Vega-Llona, Ph.D. February 1, 2016
What I Want to Accomplish in My Talk Today • Share important conceptual ideas about cities based on the writings of Elsaesser and Simmel.
• Structural aspects of cities (e.g. boulevards, sanitation, types of housing, amenities such as department stores and cinemas) • How city life impacts mental life (as discussed by Simmel)
• Share information about persons who are named in the readings and who played an important role in the process of modernization of cities. • Haussmann • Le Corbusier
• Share photographs to provide you with an image of cities in the process of becoming modernized. • Share cinematic information about 3 important films that take place in cities in the early 20th Century • Kuhle Wampe (Brecht) • Metropolis (Lang) • Apropos de Nice (Vigo)
• Use examples from these 3 films to illustrate ideas discussed in the Elsaesser and Simmel readings. • The Metropolis and Mental Life (Simmel) • Metropolis (Elsaesser) • City of Light, Gardens of Delight (Elsaesser)
• Use clips from other movies about cities that illustrate ways in which city life influences mental processes and behaviors discussed by Simmel.
The Cinematic-City Paradigm
Elsaesser • Paradigm suggested by Elsaesser • The combination of elements that comprise modernization. This concept uses an historical perspective to examine the development of forces that shaped the social and mental life of people living in cities. New technological advances played a major role in shaping these forces. • The technological advances enabled photography and cinema • Important technological advances: • New uses of light • Architectural advances in the planned layout of the cities (for example, skyscrapers, wide boulevards, and department stores) • New forms of transportation that enabled more rapid locomotion from one place to another • Creation of new media such as photography and the cinema. • The technological advances contributed to changed behavior • Consumerism (buying goods in department stores with the implication that not all of these purchases are needed) • Time spent watching movies
An Alternate Interpretation of the Cinematic City Paradigm Goffman
• My alternate interpretation is based on the dramaturgical model of social interaction described by sociologist Erving Goffman in his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)
• Goffman uses theatrical concepts to help us understand the ways people interact. He uses concepts such as:
• Frontstage and backstage. (Just as different behaviors take place out of view of an audience in the theatre, so too do people show one thing when they are being observed and show other things when they are not under observation.) • Audiences • Performers • Teams
• Using these theatrical concepts Goffman can comment on his observations of the way people behave in everyday life.
Using Cinema Concepts to Explain Life in the City • Just as Goffman used a dramaturgical perspective to help us understand daily interaction, we can use a Cinematic perspective to understand life in the city. • In cinema, we pay attention to • types of characters • Setting (mise en scene) • Types of shots i.e. perspective (long, medium, over the shoulder etc.) • Time and space. Time can be compressed or elongated.
• We can use these same concepts to understand life in the city. • Cities have character types (a la Benjamin: the flaneur, the gambler, the rag picker, the prostitute etc.) • Cities have settings in which the action takes place (e.g. in front of department store windows, while shopping, or visiting a sporting event etc.) • Perspective (for example, from street level, from high up on a skyscraper looking down) • Time and space. Rapid transit systems can speed up travel or a leisurely stroll can slow it down.
Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
• Observed life in Paris in the early part of the 20th Century. • Wrote about archetypal figures that were fixtures of life in Paris. Among these were: • The Flâneur • The prostitute • The rag picker
The Flâneur • In the Cinematic City paradigm, types of characters play roles in the stories that city dwellers see. The flâneur is a type of character that Benjamin found interesting in the dramas of city life. • The flâneur was a “type” that could be seen in Paris at the end of the 19th century. The flâneur was someone who would stroll around the city in a leisurely way looking at the sights and at the people he encountered. • Look for an image of a flâneur in the clips I will show later.
The flâneur
The Prostitute • Like the flâneur, the prostitute was another archetypal fixture, another “cinematic character” that could be seen in Paris. • Eugène Atget was a photographer who was commissioned to photograph scenes of prostitutes on the streets of Paris in the 1920’s. The next few slides will show some of the remarkable photos he took.
Eugène Atget
Images of Prostitutes Photographed by Atget
The images are stark and impressive. The dates are uncertain, but probably early in the 1920s, after the first World War. The images are far removed from the upper class, and the crudeness of the surroundings, old cobblestones and shabby stone walls and cheap shutters all tell us a great deal about the lower depths.
The Rag Picker • Another archetypal figure, an interesting type of character in the Cinematic City drama that could be seen in Paris was the rag picker. Atget also took some wonderful photos of the rag picker. Here is one of them.
Other Iconic Images of Paris in the 1920’s • Here is an example of how a setting is an important element in the Cinematic City paradigm. In the Cinematic City paradigm, the Circus is a setting in which the drama of life in the city plays out.
The Outdoor Cafe • The outdoor café was another iconic sight when strolling along the streets of 1920’s Paris. In the Cinematic City paradigm, this is another setting in which the drama of life in the city plays out.
Architectural Advances: The Work of Haussmann1 In the Cinematic City paradigm as it applied to Paris, Haussmann played an important role as a “set designer.” The actions he took changed the face of Paris and permitted new scenes to play out. • Rapid population growth of Paris (1800 to 1850) • Population doubles to more than 1 million. • Causes overcrowding
• City consists of unplanned streets. They are narrow and winding. • Unsanitary. Sewage in the streets. Breeding ground for disease. • Inefficient for traffic and commerce.
Here Is what a typical Parisian street looked like at that time:
Photo and background information from Museum of the City Exhibit (Baron Haussmann and the modernization of Paris)
Louis Napoleon III Asks Haussmann to Modernize Paris • L. Napoleon wanted to make it more difficult for revolutions to take place. • Narrow winding streets made it easier to fight, set up barricades, and hide. • L. Napoleon wanted to modernize Paris so it would be recognized as a worthy capital • L. Napoleon saw how London had been modernized after a fire in 1666. • L. Napoleon had great fondness for new technology • L. Napoleon charged Haussmann with the task of creating a plan to modernize Paris.
Haussmann’s Plan2 • A greatly expanded sewer system. • The construction of wide boulevards. • Gas lighting for the streets. • The formulation of public building regulations. • The construction of monuments. • An updated and uniform facade for the city’s buildings. • A reorganized and symmetrical road system. • The construction of new parks. • The division of Paris into arrondissements (Districts) and the expansion of the city’s limits
Information about the plan copied from Museum of the City Exhibit (Baron Haussmann and the modernization of Paris
Paris Before and After Implementation of Haussmann’s Plan
A picture taken during the construction of the Avenue de L’opera.
A picture of the modern Avenue de L’opera. Imagine what different stories could be staged in the bottom setting compared to what the stage looked like before.
Haussmann Created Wide Boulevards Example of a wide tree-lined boulevard
Street Map Pre-Haussmann Paris Construction and After Modifications • Pre-Haussmann construction
Modern Paris, (After Haussmann modifications) the main boulevards added by Haussmann are outlined in red.
Haussmann Supervised the Creation of Multi-storied Buildings with NeoClassical Facades in Paris • A building in the typical neoclassical style employed by Haussmann
Le Corbusier: Make Architecture, Not Revolution
About Georg Simmel • German sociologist (1858-1918) • Contributed to the development of the symbolic interactionist school of sociology which was a prominent perspective in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. • Major interest in the sociology of the city. • His essay on Metropolis and Mental Life was one of his most important essays.
• Simmel proposed ideas similar to those proposed by • Durkheim, concerning the relationship between the individual and society. • Marx, concerning ideas about alienation.
• Simmel was interested in how the personality of the individual was influenced by life in the city.
Important Ideas From Metropolis and Mental Life • Main problem of existence: individual tries to maintain his independence and individuality in the face of the powers wielded by society • The problem of maintaining individuality is that a person also has to work with others (because of division of labor) so he is interdependent with them. How can you have to depend on others to do their part and still be independent? • Characteristic of mental life in the city: • intensification of emotional life because the person is constantly bombarded with shifting internal and external stimuli. • It is vital for people to be able to notice changes. • In rural areas environment does not change much, it doesn’t take a lot of mental energy to think about what you see. • in small towns, in contrast to cities, because there is so much less constantly changing stimuli, mental life relies more on feelings and emotional relationships. • In cities “Instead of reacting emotionally, the metropolitan type reacts primarily in a rational manner.”
Important Ideas From Metropolis and Mental Life (Continued) • By stripping away the emotional response as the preponderant response, the city becomes a good place for certain activities such as commerce. So the money economy becomes central to city life. • The money economy makes punctuality and exactness very important. • The conditions of city life contribute to the typical blasé outlook of city residents. They also become reserved. • City life involves trade-offs. There are many positive things but you pay a price for their convenience. • “From one angle life is made infinitely more easy in the sense that stimulations, interests, and the taking up of time and attention, present themselves from all sides and carry it in a stream which scarcely requires any individual efforts for its ongoing. But from another angle, life is composed more and more of these impersonal cultural elements and existing goods and values which seek to suppress peculiar personal interests and incomparabilities. As a result, in order that this most personal element be saved, extremities and peculiarities and individualizations must be produced and they must be overexaggerated merely to be brought into the awareness even of the individual himself.” (Simmel, 19)
A Clip from Kuhle Wampe that Illustrate Ideas I have presented • Watch the clip about changing the world and see if you can identify any elements of the Cinematic City paradigms and/or aspects of mental life in the Metropolis discussed by Simmel. We will discuss it after you see it.
Another Scene from Kuhle Wampe • Now watch this clip of a suicide scene and see if you can identify any elements of the Cinematic City paradigms and/or aspects of mental life in the Metropolis discussed by Simmel. We will discuss it after you see it.
A Scene from Metropolis • Now watch this clip of the last scene from Metropolis and see if you can identify any elements of the Cinematic City paradigms and/or aspects of mental life in the Metropolis discussed by Simmel. We will discuss it after you see it.
Time and Space Manipulation from The Lonedale Operator (1911) • A film by D.W. Griffith, this clip illustrates how editing can manipulate time and space.
Time and Space Manipulation • Look at these two images from Metropolis. We will discuss how they depict time and space manipulation.
Archetypal Figure in Metropolis
Architecture of the City from Metropolis
Clips from More Modern Movies that Also Illustrate these Ideas • A clip from The Big City (1963) also known as Mahanagar by Satyajit Ray. It takes place in Calcutta and cinematically portrays how people eventually get engulfed by the population and large size of the city. What aspects of the cinematic city do you notice?
A Clip from Midnight Cowboy • A clip from Midnight Cowboy (1969) by John Schlesinger. It takes place in Manhattan. It is about a gigolo from rural Texas named Joe Buck who moves to the Big Apple to make it big. What aspects of the cinematic city do you notice?
Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver (1976) illustrates an Important Idea Proposed by Simmel • Simmel said: “From one angle life is made infinitely more easy in the sense that stimulations, interests, and the taking up of time and attention, present themselves from all sides and carry it in a stream which scarcely requires any individual efforts for its ongoing. But from another angle, life is composed more and more of these impersonal cultural elements and existing goods and values which seek to suppress peculiar personal interests and incomparabilities. As a result, in order that this most personal element be saved, extremities and peculiarities and individualizations must be produced and they must be overexaggerated merely to be brought into the awareness even of the individual himself.” (Simmel, 19)
A Clip from Roger and Me (1989) • This clip is from the documentary by Michael Moore, Roger and Me (1989). The film details the fall of the General Motors plant and subsequent effects on the workers of Flint, MI. Watch and discuss after the clip ends.
A Clip from Up (2008) • This clip from Up (2008) shows a much lighter depiction of eviction. In this animated film we can fantasize about ways to escape the economic perils of the city. Compare this with Roger and Me. Wouldn’t it be great to escape by flying away? We will discuss this clip after viewing.
How the three films deal with the shock of new city • A Propos de Nice (1930)- depicts Nice through experimental documentary. Jean Vigo uses trick editing and shots to show life in Nice. There is very little narrative structure. • Metropolis (1927) is an allegorical tale of the modern city. It is also a famous example of the scifi genre. The film has strong elements of good vs. evil as well as religious themes. • Kuhle Wampe (1932) is far more stark and realistic than Metropolis. It deals with the city through realism.
