Less-Known City Symphonies

[HerrSchreck]

Of course we know MANHATTA, 24 DOLLAR ISLAND, A BRONX MORNING, BERLIN, SPEEDY, MAN W A MOVIE CAMERA, TAXI DRIVER, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, AFTER HOURS, MEAN STREETS, etc. These are films which are either formal 'city symphonies" or are melodramas of varying degrees wherein the city looms large as a character in itself. More examples in noir abound: THE NAKED CITY, KISS OF DEATH, NORTHSIDE 777, and the rest of the late 40's/early fifties programmers, particularly from Fox (STREET W NO NAME fabulous redo of the less city-symphonic-- though no means bleak-- HOUSE ON 92ND STREET). SIDE STREET by MANN. Ah.. RIFIFI.

I'm looking for pointers on lesser-known urban location films, even if run of the mill-- like THE SEVEN-UPS-- or majesterial-- like EROTIKON or FANTOMAS.. my god, a poem to Paris looking sinister. The first season or two of KOJAK-- NYC heaven! His pilot film, THE MARCUS NELSON MURDERS, a haunting masterpiece of tv crime drama (a crime not on dvd). THE PENALTY's San Fran. TRAFFIC IN SOULS, REGENERATION's NYC of vanished yore. Sublime shorts like the Bitzer UNION SQUARE TO GRAND CENTRAL. Rarities like PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

I would be very grateful to discover some unseen gems via the combined viewership of this board. Even the WARRIORS draws me back over & over again because of the mostly all-location shooting. Someone turn me on to some rare gems, even if the films are ho hum or perhaps even lousy. Locations rarely turn in a crappy performance.

[Scharphedin2]

Wim Wenders' WINGS OF DESIRE and FARAWAY, SO CLOSE are very much in this tradition, I think. The DVD of WINGS OF DESIRE even plays with this element of the film, and has location footage with commentary of some of the many Berlin locales that the film visits. The latter film may or may not live up to the quality of the former, however, taken together these films are still a valuable document to the changes brought about in just a few short years by the fall of the wall.

REYKJAVIK 101 is a film that I would probably not recommend as a great or even good film. Yet, in the spirit of this thread, I do think it is a film that is moderately successful in capturing the spirit of this smallest of European capitols. Many of the Icelanders I know feel very proud of this film.

And, of course, the latter half of BEFORE SUNRISE is an extended stroll through Vienna.

[carax09]

Have you seen D.A. Pennebaker's Daybreak Express(an extra on The Horse's Mouth)? I love how 50's era NYC looks in that with Ellington on the soundtrack. For some interesting WWII location shooting, coupled with newsreel-style narration and film noir atmosphere, there's The House On 92nd Street. I remember as a kid, how the opening of Welcome Back Kotter really made me want to live in that neighborhood (was that in Brooklyn?). Recently, I enjoyed the way Anderson was able to conflate Glass family/Daybreak Express NYC, with a graffiti-laced/punk rock/Jimmy Connors at the US Open aesthetic in The Royal Tenenbaums. Now my hopes are pinned on Game 6 to capture more of that Big Apple magic.

[HerrSchreck]

... fifties programmers, particularly from Fox (STREET W NO NAME fabulous redo of the less city-symphonic-- though no means bleak-- HOUSE ON 92ND STREET).

Check on the 92nd st. Orig post. I swear I almost put the opening of KOTTER in there, KOJAK made me think of it. Reminds me of the great old days when I was a tyke and graffiti was being born on the streets of the Bronx... nostalgia... I always lived right near an elevated subway, like the Brooklyn shots of same in KOTTER.

[solaris72]

Well, it's not shot on location, but there's the Quay brothers' STREET OF CROCODILES. (plus, the Bruno Schulz short story it's adapted from is one of the finest examples of a literary "city symphony")

[Michael Kerpan]

Naruse's "Morning's Tree-Lined Streets" is very much a city symphony. It follows a young country girl, who goes to Tokyo to work -- and does an amazing job of creating (in viewers) her sense of wide-eyed awe at all the new things she sees (and experiences).

Rivette's "Pont du Nord" does a wonderful job of capturing the (mostly) untouristic side of Paris.

[HerrSchreck]

Revisiting FANTOMAS w the (very nice) AEye disc lately shocked me with not only the decent (non stagey, anyway) acting but the huge use of Paris locations. Just beautiful. LES VAMPIRES, though it does use those great deserted locations & vast gloomy mansions, relies a lot more on studio shooting, and doesn't take the camera out into quite the variety of Parisian locations. Nor with quite the same frequency.

All of it sublime owing to Feulliade's unbelievably uncanny ability to take a straight head on shot of anything, lit normally-- a room, a business card, a street, a window-- and make it seem loaded with menace. I dunno how the freakin guy managed to do it. The haunted look he manages to give to all those streets, ivy-covered front yards & iron gates, etc... the best!

[Michael Kerpan]

At first look, I found Fantomas more engaging than Vampires -- and the use of locations is definitely one of the attractions. No one has ever topped the "barrel yard" scene.

[HerrSchreck]

At first look, I found Fantomas more engaging than Vampires -- and the use of locations is definitely one of the attractions. No one has ever topped the "barrel yard" scene.

You're talking about that basement location where Juve & the reporter find the entry point leading up to the vent-grate (where the dead snake is eventually pulled from), and with the nearby barrel that Fantomas hides in using a hollowed out wine-bottle to breathe?

I couldn't agree more. Feulliade reminds me quite a bit of the look of some of the better German silents from the early 20's-- BACKSTAIRS, SHATTERED, DIE STRASSE, even LAST LAUGH-- where even melodramas about love are so infused with undertones of gloom & death that even love stories look like horror movies. Love all of this stuff to death!

Have you seen D.A. Pennebaker's Daybreak Express(an extra on The Horse's Mouth)? I love how 50's era NYC looks in that with Ellington on the soundtrack. .

Shit I actually just realized i think I've seen this film. It was at a preview screening of a film I got invited to down inna Village at the new old Waverly (a crazy nightmare of a menage a trois doc called THREE OF HEARTS-- two gay guys bring a woman into the relationship, have a child, get married 3 way, have another kid w the other guy.. each guy must have his own child!.., then the relationship meltsdown for the passive half of the two guys, right as the girl is going into labor for kid#2, leaving the extrovert gay guy & the straight girl holding the ball I mean two children and no actual attraction to each other... phew, therapy for as far as the eye can see), ANYhow they showed an old grainy NY short w a lot of subway footage w Ellington in the background, and I do recall remarking who Pennebaker was to my girlfriend. It's shot on 16mm or maybe even super8, is in color, right?

[scotty]

Everyone's seen it, but Cleo from 5 to 7 is a great Paris film, much of it shot while moving through the streets.

[sevenarts]

They're not necessarily lesser-known, but two fairly recent great ones not mentioned so far are Mann's Collateral and Lee's 25th Hour. Gorgeous city portraits of, respectively, LA and NYC.

[chaddoli]

I would say Mike Leigh's NAKED fits this category. (Though I've never been), it's London is certainly a central character of the film, the world Johnny inhabits.

[carax09]

Yes, Daybreak Express is in color and I remember it to have a wonderful orange-y glow throughout. I think it was shot on a spring-wound 16mm Bolex. It's pretty amazing what those things were able to produce with the right person lensing. Speaking of city symphonies shot on 16mm, have you seen the recent bfi release of Free Cinema---the majority of which are wonderful documentaries featuring cities and towns all over the UK in the mid to late fifties. It's interesting to compare the London of that era with the contemporary London as seen in Finesterre---a doc on the city and it's inhabitants from a few years ago.

[zedz]

It's great that the Silent Era list has sparked off some intriguing new topics. I'm sure there are lots of films that fit here that will come to me eventually, but off the top of my head there's Lonesome - a great New York film - and Kaufman / Kopalin's Moscow. The latter is allegedly the inspiration for Ruttmann's Berlin. Has anybody seen it?

More recently, Alain Tanner's In the White City provides a very moody portrait of Lisbon (the most photogenic European city?). Even The Battle of Algiers sort of works on this level.

[HerrSchreck]

Yes, Daybreak Express is in color and I remember it to have a wonderful orange-y glow throughout. I think it was shot on a spring-wound 16mm Bolex. It's pretty amazing what those things were able to produce with the right person lensing. Speaking of city symphonies shot on 16mm, have you seen the recent bfi release of Free Cinema---the majority of which are wonderful documentaries featuring cities and towns all over the UK in the mid to late fifties. It's interesting to compare the London of that era with the contemporary London as seen in Finesterre---a doc on the city and it's inhabitants from a few years ago.

No I haven't acquired the FREE CINEMA box and its torturous too as I know how good the damn thing is supposed to be. On my list-- trying to acquire it without import duties. That reminds me of two nice all location films on one very nice BFI disc: PEOPLE ON SUNDAY, the late german silent shot all on location around Berlin (clearly influenced by Ruttmans wonderful film) with amateur actors who really were what they portrayed in the film vocationwise (cabbies, aspiring model/actress, etc)... along with a wonderfully good natured extra on there (with a beautiful transfer btw, whereas the above feature is interlaced this extra is progressive) called THIS YEAR LONDON, with a bunch of HINDLE WAKES-type factory workers going on holiday, and the national travel bureaus guide acting as narrator & escort as the group sees the sights around town. A very sweet film whcih is smooth as silk. An excellent all-location disc.

[bufordsharkley]

Manhattan has never looked better (truer?) on film than in Shadows and Killer's Kiss.

The location shooting in the latter makes up for a good chunk of the movie's value. Not that it's otherwise valueless; it's just damned fine location shooting.

[HerrSchreck]

On a whim had picked up something I'd had on back burner for awhile, which fits perfectly into the spirit of this thread: YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN by Curtiz. Yeah Doris Day but I really liked this film as a time-passer, and McCords cinematography is killing. This guy was Connie Hall's idol and here's a perfect example why, far more impressive than say TREASURE SIERRA MADRE. Gleaming, beautiful Jimmy WOng Howe style interiors, perfect, then some of the most gorgeous NYC exteriors you'll ever, ever see when Douglas' character falls into the sauce and is dragging his ass around the Bowery. You see the old third Av El, the reeking tenements, the second hand shops, etc. A beautiful looking movie and a lesson in how cinematography can exalt a so so film.

[a.khan]

I always thought Kerrigan's "Claire Dolan" was a great compromise between a Manhattan symphony and the director's own personal fascination with architecture.

[MichaelB]

There's a memorably vivid (and to this native Londoner's eyes, wholly convincing) depiction of the seamier side of the British capital in Paul Andrew Williams' London to Brighton - so vividly drawn, in fact, that the Brighton half is disappointing by comparison.

[Gregory]

Schreck: These two DVDs seem like something you'd definitely enjoy: here and here.
I haven't ordered them (yet), so I can't speak for the quality, but for less than $10 it's hard to go wrong. I don't know these folks but I think they just amass all kinds of public domain stuff and do digital transfers of them in small quantities.
Another one from the same people, titled "Good Citizenship Citizen Citizens USA America USA," has "The Town"(1945) directed by Josef von Sternberg.

[Robotron]

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned Playtime, one of the most definitive of the aforementioned genre (unless that one is too obvious and I'm needlessly making a fool of myself).

[Scharphedin2]

Another one from the same people, titled "Good Citizenship Citizen Citizens USA America USA," has "The Town"(1945) directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Not sure that it has been mentioned anywhere else, but the admittedly very poor release of Sam Wood's Our Town (a kind of city symphony in its own right) from a company called FOCUSFilm (!?) also has Sternberg's "The Town" as an extra. If memory serves me right, "The Town" actually looks better on the disc than the main feature (which is not saying much).

[HerrSchreck]

Schreck: These two DVDs seem like something you'd definitely enjoy: here and here.
I haven't ordered them (yet), so I can't speak for the quality, but for less than $10 it's hard to go wrong. I don't know these folks but I think they just amass all kinds of public domain stuff and do digital transfers of them in small quantities.
Another one from the same people, titled "Good Citizenship Citizen Citizens USA America USA," has "The Town"(1945) directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Good looking out, some of that stuff looks sublime, though the first link sold out already this morning (probably due to the advert of the link). Some of the second (older) material seems to have bits & pieces available elsewhere (i e Bitzers ride from Union Sq to the old Grand Central-- one of zedz' favorites; some of the police material, i e their capture of river pirates, from THE POLICE FORCE OF NEW YORK CITY by th Edison Co, which I've had on my old REGENERATION vhs for years... but there is so much much more aside from that it seems like an automatic for me).

I find PLAYTIME an unusual suggestion, since there's virtually no exposition of the city (mostly indoors, all synthetic sets).. in fact it's almost an anti city symphony, as it pleads against the artificiality of our modern environment by refusing to show any actual architecture, except via door & window reflections (and even then youre not catching sight of the real thing!)

Watching this film then watching THE FOUNTAINHEAD is a mindfuck-- one lambasts the steel & glass godlessness of modern architectural homogenization, and one blasts the 'anti-progress" "copycat" style of neo greek/roman architecture all the rage up to the end of WW2. For myself, as an individual living with the fruits of "modern" & "postmodern" culture, I'm with Tati on this issue. I can't stand the buildings going up and obliterating my cherished old NYC, and those buildings going up these days look very much like Cooper's in the Rand fable.

[foggy eyes]

You'll have seen it, but Vigo's À propos de Nice hasn't been mentioned. There's probably a case to be made for Sunrise, The Crowd and On the Town too.

[Guest]

VERTIGO certainly is another narrative city symphony. In fact, Hitchcock's way of shooting San Francisco lifts VERTIGO above the term "narrative". Then there's Antonioni's L'ECLISSE, Lang's M and of course Godard's masterwork TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER.