Cities & Cinema (Routledge Critical Introductions to Urbanism and the City)

256 Pages·2008·2.73 MB·English

by  Barbara Mennel

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 Cinemaputs urban theory and cinema studies in dialogue. The book’s
first section analyzes three important genres of city films that followin 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 gayand 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
2Park 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 purchaseyourown 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
Acatalogue 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 Mastere-bookISBN
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 “favelaeffect” – 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:Atypical 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 havebeen 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
acouple 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
toturn 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 makeincisive 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. Equally sharp and committed, under-
graduates Arace Assadoghli, Daryl Baginski, Rachael Counce, Benjamin
Dorvel, Leah Greenblum, Heather Harr, Delia Hernandez, Jonathan Hill, Joshua