Cinema and the City

CINEMA AND THE CITY Updated 11/12/15 Version One

Art History 082:275:01

Cinema Studies 175:267:01

Professor Carla Yanni 60 College Avenue, Second floor, College Ave Campus and by appointment [email protected]

LIV, T 10:20-1:20, T BECK 252, W 6:40-9:30, W TILLETT 246, Section 01, Yanni, Index 18035

This 200-level class will present a visual and historical analysis of urban space as seen through the medium of cinema. This is primarily an architectural history class, but the subject goes beyond individual buildings--the subject here is the city and its representation. Movies illustrate theories of urban planning; on-location shooting can reveal aspects of urban life, and fanciful set designs can expose the unrealistic goals of some architects. Themes to be explored include the contrast between the country and the city (Sunrise), the dynamism of the metropolis (Berlin: Symphony of a Great City), the city as a disciplinary space of social control (Metropolis), utopian and dystopian cities (Blade Runner), the city as a modernist totality (Things to Come), the hyper-real world of New Urbanism (The Truman Show) and climate change and sustainability (Wall-E.)

COURSE STRUCTURE Each week will include two sessions. One class (Tues 10:20 to 1:20) will be divided into two parts. The first part will be a discussion based on the film we screened the previous week. The second half will be a lecture (with opportunity for discussion) that introduces the student to themes in architectural and urban history that are relevant to the film we’ll be watching next. The other session (Wed 6:40 to 9:00) will be movie screening. Attendance will be taken.

LEARNING GOALS The course is conceived as an introduction to the major ideas of urbanism in the twentieth and twenty-first century. An important goal is for students to build skills that will enable them to "read" cities in terms of their shaping factors. Analyzing a film is one skill, but there are others: students will learn to interpret plans and drawings, and many of the readings will be primary sources. Assessment of the above learning goals will be accomplished through the Art History Department's 3-year assessment plan for upper-level undergraduate courses in the major.

EVALUATION This course requires active class participation (20%). Students are expected to attend all lectures and screenings. Students must be prepared for discussion at class sessions. There is one group project (20%). There is a midterm (30%) and a final (30%).

All of the readings will be posted on Sakai. There is no text book.

Week 1. Jan 19 Introduction to Cinema and the City Lecture on major themes: How do architectural historians, geographers, and social historians look at and understand the city? How are cities presented in film?

Screen in class Manhatta (1921, Strand and Sheeler) Screen in class King Kong (1933, Cooper and Schoedsack) (no Wednesday screening this week)

Week 2. Introduction to Cities and Cinema, Continued Screen Excerpt in Class: Berlin Symphony of a City Read: Lewis Mumford, “What is a City?“ in LeGates and Stout, City Reader, 85-89 Read: AlSayyad, Industrial Modernity, Cinematic City, chapter 1

Wednesday screening Oliver Twist, (1948, David Lean) 1 hr and 54 minutes

Week 3. The Nineteenth-Century City and Industrialization

Read: Friedrich Engels, "The Great Towns" from The Condition of the Working Class in England, excerpt in LeGates and Stout, The City Reader, 50-58

Film for Discussion Oliver Twist

Week 4. The Machine in the City; The City as Machine

Read: Synopsis of Sunrise in Dietrich Neumann, Film Architecture: Set Design from Metropolis to Blade Runner (Hereafter, Film Architecture) 104-107 (All the readings from Film Architecture are in one PDF.) Read: Wolfgang Schivelbusch, "Tracks in the City," The Railroad City: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century (1977) Read: Neumann, “Before and After Metropolis,” in Film Architecture Set Design from Metropolis to Blade Runner, 33-38

Group Projects Due in Class

Wednesday screening Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, (1928, Murnau) 94 minutes

Film for Discussion Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Week 5. Social Control and Power in the City Read: Andreas Huyssen, "The Vamp in the Machine: Fritz Lang's Metropolis," New German Critique (1981) Read Synopsis of Metropolis in Film Architecture, 94-98

Wednesday Screening Metropolis, (1926, Fritz Lang) 153 minutes

Film for Discussion Metropolis

Week 6. Modernism in Architecture and Urban Planning Read: Georg Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life," (1903) Read: Synopsis of Things to Come in Film Architecture, 118-121 Read: Interview with Le Corbusier, John Peter, An Oral History of Modern Architecture (1994) Read: Le Corbusier, “City of Three Million,” excerpted in Gates and LeStout, The City Reader Also on this week Explanation of Group project – details to follow

Wednesday Screening Things to Come, (1936, Menzies) 100 minutes

Film for Discussion Things to Come

Week 7. Film Noir Read: to be determined

Wednesday Screening: Sweet Smell of Success, (1957, MacKendrick) 96 minutes

Film for Discussion Sweet Smell of Success

Week 8. MIDTERM: NO SCREENING THIS WEEK The midterm will fall on March 1.

Week 9. Syncopated Cities (Part I) Clips from musicals, including On the Town and 42nd Street Read: Bukatman, “Syncopated Cities” in Matters of Gravity : Special Effects and Supermen in the 20th Century (2003)

Los Angeles in-class project

Wednesday Screening: L.A. Confidential, (1997, Hanson) 138 minutes Film for Discussion L.A. Confidential

Week 10. Narratives of Decay and Blight: Urban Renewal in the 1960s

Film for discussion West Side Story Read: Samuel Zipp, Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in New York, chapter 5

Wednesday Screening West Side Story, (1961, Wise and Robbins) 152 minutes

Week 11. Race Relations and 1980s New York

Read AlSayyad, Cinematic Urbanism, “Do the Right Thing,” Chapter 3 Read Jane Jacobs, “Uses of Sidewalks,” City Reader, 103-108

Wednesday screening: Do the Right Thing, (1989, Spike Lee) 120 minutes

Film for discussion Do the Right Thing

Week 12. Postmodernism Read Bukatman, Blade Runner BFI classics, 6-64 Read: Synopsis of Blade Runner in Film Architecture, 148-156 Read: AlSayyad, Cinematic City, chapter 5

Wednesday Screening: Blade Runner, (1982, Ridley Scott) 117 minutes Film for Discussion Blade Runner

Week 13. Theories of New Urbanism, Rejection of Modernist City Read Andres Duany, “New Urbanism Bites Back”, 2000 Read AlSayyad, Cinematic Urbanism “Truman Show,” chapter 9

Wednesday screening: The Truman Show, (1998, Weir) 103 minutes

Film for discussion The Truman Show

Week 14. Sustainability Read Laura Sevier, “Building Sustainable Houses from Rubbish,” The Ecologist, 2010. http://www.theecologist.org/how_to_make_a_difference/recycling_and_waste/361020/ case_study_building_sustainable_houses_from_rubbish.html

Wednesday screening, Wall-E (2008, Andrew Stanton) 98 minutes

Film for Discussion Wall-E

Week 15. Last Day of Classes, Review for Final

Additional Bibliography The Cinematic City by David Clarke Cities in Transition: The Moving Image and the Modern Metropolis by Andrew Webber Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context by Mark Shiel Projected Cities: Cinema and Urban Space by Stephen Barber Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film by Paula J. Massood Celluloid Skyline by James Sanders BFI book series, short, smart books on classic films: Sunrise, Metropolis, Sweet Smell of Success, Do the Right Thing, and Blade Runner

Current Academic Integrity Policy: http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml Violations include: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, denying others access to information or material, and facilitating violations of academic integrity.

THE FINAL EXAM WILL BE HELD DURING FINALS WEEK BUT IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE. ONLY FILMS FROM MIDTERM TO END OF THE SEMESTER WILL BE INCLUDED. http://finalexams.rutgers.edu/

Students with disabilities requesting accommodations must follow the procedures outlined at http://disabilityservices.rutgers.edu/request.html

Why I take attendance, even though we are all grown-ups here: As an educator, I place a high value on coming to class well-prepared and deeply motivated, and I expect the same from my students. (This means you!) I believe that in a successful college class, the professor and the students create a community of engaged scholars who explore an intellectual subject (in our case, cities and cinema) together. There are in-class assignments and projects that will require your attention. If you want to do well in this class, you will need to keep up with the readings, attend class, participate in a meaningful way, and take responsibility for your own education. Therefore, students are expected to attend all classes and screenings. If you expect to miss class, please use the University absence reporting website https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/ to indicate the date and reason for your absence. An email is automatically sent to me.

After three unexcused absences, from either class or a screening, each additional absence will cause ½ grade to be taken off your final grade. (For example, a B+ becomes a B.)

For family emergencies and illnesses, please contact me directly. I can be flexible about the absence policy, but I need to know the situation as soon as possible.

I am indebted to Scott Bukatman, film theorist, Stanford University, for many of the ideas that inform this syllabus.