Cities and Cinema
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Cities and Cinema Films about cities abound. They provide fantasies for those who recognize their city and those for whom the city is a faraway dream or nightmare. How does cinema rework city planners’ hopes and city dwellers’ fears of modern urbanism? Can an analysis of city films answer some of the questions posed in urban studies? What kinds of vision for the future and images of the past do city films offer? What are the changes that city films have undergone? Cities and Cinema puts urban theory and cinema studies in dialogue. The book’s first section analyzes three important genres of city films that follow in historical sequence, each associated with a particular city, moving from the city film of the Weimar Republic to the film noir associated with Los Angeles and the image of Paris in the cinema of the French New Wave. The second section discusses socio-historical themes of urban studies, beginning with the relationship of film industries and individual cities, continuing with the portrayal of war-torn and divided cities, and ending with the cinematic expression of utopia and dystopia in urban science fiction. The last section negotiates the question of identity and place in a global world, moving from the portrayal of ghettos and barrios to the city as a setting for gay and lesbian desire, to end with the representation of the global city in transnational cinematic practices. The book suggests that modernity links urbanism and cinema. It accounts for the significant changes that city film has undergone through processes of globalization, during which the city has developed from an icon in national cinema to a privileged site for transnational cinematic practices. It is a key text for students and researchers of Film Studies, Urban Studies, and Cultural Studies. Barbara Mennel is an Assistant Professor of German Studies and Cinema Studies in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies and in the Film and Media Studies Program in the English Department at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She is author of The Representation of Masochism and Queer Desire in Film and Literature (2007). Routledge critical introductions to urbanism and the city Edited by Malcolm Miles, University of Plymouth, UK and John Rennie Short, University of Maryland, USA International Advisory Board: Franco Bianchini Jane Rendell Kim Dovey Saskia Sassen Stephen Graham David Sibley Tim Hall Erik Swyngedouw Phil Hubbard Elizabeth Wilson Peter Marcuse The series is designed to allow undergraduate readers to make sense of, and find a critical way into, urbanism. It will: ● cover a broad range of themes ● introduce key ideas and sources ● allow the author to articulate her/his own position ● introduce complex arguments clearly and accessibly ● bridge disciplines, and theory and practice ● be affordable and well designed. The series covers social, political, economic, cultural and spatial concerns. It will appeal to students in architecture, cultural studies, geography, popular culture, sociology, urban studies, urban planning. It will be trans-disciplinary. Firmly situated in the present, it also introduces material from the cities of modernity and post-modernity. Published: Cities and Consumption – Mark Jayne Cities and Cultures – Malcolm Miles Cities and Nature – Lisa Benton-Short and John Rennie Short Cities and Economies – Yeong-Hyun Kim and John Rennie Short Cities and Cinema – Barbara Mennel Forthcoming: Cities, Politics and Power – Simon Parker Children, Youth and the City – Kathrin Hörshelmann and Lorraine van Blerk Cities and Gender – Helen Jarvis, Jonathan Cloke and Paula Kantor Cities and Cinema By Barbara Mennel First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2008 Barbara Mennel All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Mennel, Barbara Caroline. Cities and cinema / by Barbara Mennel. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Cities and towns in motion pictures. 2. City and town life in motion pictures. I. Title. PN1995.9.C513M46 2008 791.43′621732—dc22 2007037747 ISBN 0-203-01560-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–36445–0 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–36446–9 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–01560–6 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–36445–4 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–36446–1 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–01560–5 (ebk) Contents List of figures vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction: the founding myth of cinema, or the “train effect” 1 Introduction to Section I 19 1 Modernity and the city film: Berlin 21 2 The dark city and film noir: Los Angeles 46 3 The city of love: Paris 61 Introduction to Section II 81 4 City film industry: Hong Kong 83 5 The city in ruins and the divided city: Berlin, Belfast, and Beirut 103 6 Utopia and dystopia: fantastic and virtual cities 130 Introduction to Section III 151 7 Ghettos and barrios 153 8 The city as queer playground 176 9 The global city and cities in globalization 195 Conclusion: from the “train effect” to the “favela effect” – how to do further research 210 vi • Contents Notes 218 Bibliography 220 Filmography 230 Index 236 Figures I F. W. Murnau. The Last Laugh (1924): Modern traffic 5 1.1 The Last Laugh: The city at night 22 1.2 The Last Laugh: A typical Berlin working-class tenement court yard 24 1.3 Advertisement for Walter Ruttmann’s Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927) 31 1.4 G. W. Pabst. Joyless Street (1925) 33 1.5 The shooting of Joyless Street 34 1.6 The empty street as setting in Fritz Lang’s M (1931) 35 1.7 The shadow of the mass murderer meeting his next victim 36 1.8 Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927): Traffic 39 1.9 Creating the set for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) 40 1.10 Mies van der Rohe’s modernist vision of architecture 42 1.11 Metropolis: The spectacle of the modern cityscape 43 3.1 Agnès Varda. Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962): Production still with Agnès Varda in the mirror 73 3.2 Cléo from 5 to 7: Art students approaching the cab 74 3.3 Jean-Luc Godard. Breathless (1960): Michel and Patricia on the Champs Elisées 77 5.1 René Clément. Is Paris Burning? (1966): The empty city shot from below 107 5.2 Is Paris Burning?: The city comes alive 108 5.3 Wolfgang Staudte. The Murderers Are among Us (1946): Walking through the landscape of ruins 114 5.4 Carol Reed. The Third Man (1949): The hunt for Harry Lime 124 5.5 The Third Man: Skewed angles 125 5.6 The Third Man: Holly Martins on a pile of rubbish 126 5.7 The Third Man: The return of expressionism 127 6.1 Ridley Scott. Blade Runner (1982): The postmodern, dark city 147 viii • List of figures 7.1 Charles Burnett. Killer of Sheep (1977): The aesthetics of the everyday 165 7.2 Pier Paolo Pasolini. Accattone (1961): Walking through the construction sites in Rome’s outskirts 167 7.3 Perry Henzell. The Harder They Come (1972): Running through shacks 173 8.1 John Schlesinger. Midnight Cowboy (1969): Dustin Hoffmann (“Ratso” Rizzo) and Jon Voight (Joe Buck) on the set 181 Acknowledgments First and foremost I have to thank John Rennie Short with whom I had the pleasure of teaching a course on “Cinema and the City” for the Humanities Scholars Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, out of which this volume emerged. I not only learned from his lectures but also cherished our regular meals accompanied by animated conversations about our respective fields. And I am deeply indebted to Amy Abugo Ongiri, without whom this book could not have been written. Long ago she introduced me to Blaxploitation and Hong Kong action film, and during the writing of the book she generously shared her extensive collection of materials with me. She also read drafts of a couple of chapters in a pinch – thanks. More importantly, however, this book is deeply influenced by her thinking about film and popular culture. Ingeborg Majer O’Sickey provided a lake-view in upstate New York for a joint writing–retreat and was a passionate and insightful sounding-board for the project. Her intention to turn the book into a course provided me with an imaginary audience. I am also indebted to Jeffrey Schneider and Jaimey Fisher who both took time out of their busy schedules to read and make incisive comments on sections of the manuscript that left their imprints on concepts integral to the book’s argument. During the fall of 2006 I was nourished and sustained by the students in two courses I was privileged to teach at the University of Florida, Gainesville, a graduate course, “Theories of Globalization and the Cinema,” and an under- graduate course, “Literature, Film, and the Arts of Berlin.” Graduate students Hendrik Aulbach, Jonathan Barnes, Heather Bigley, Jo Carlisle, Matthew Feltman, Claudia Hoffmann, Dominik Jaschke, Yun Jo, James Liner, Peter Mersch, Fayola Neely, James Phillips, Kay Sender, and Rabia Shah offered original and thought- provoking approaches to some of the films discussed in this volume, pushed my thinking on theories of globalization and, most importantly, created community around our shared intellectual pursuit.