The Cinema and the City

Abstract

THE CINEMA AND THE CITY The poignant images of forty-second street in Midnight Cowboy and of Spanish Harlem in Popi are recent products of a long cinematic tradition. The historic threads running through the portrayal of the city in films are (I) the juxtaposition of hope and despair and (2) the use of experimental techniques. EARLY CONNECTIONS The motion picture appeared on the scene as the Western World groped toward a new urban consciousness. Cinematic images have thus become one of the great historic records of that effort. At the same time, the dissemination of films has played a role in the development of that very consciousness. evident as far back as the nickelodean age. For example, in 1908 the Vitagraph Studio gave a special urban flavor t o Romeo and Juliet by using the architecture of New York's Central Park Mall as a background for the death of Mercutio. Such Edison films as The Suffrugette offered distinctly urban themes and scenery.' vealed an early link between the cinema and the urban novels of Charles Dickens. There is evidence that Dickens was the favorite author of film pioneer, D. W. Griffith.2 The urban images of the English novelist may have inspired Griffith's descriptive expertise. The bustle of Paris traffic and the disparity of wealth depicted in the last chapter of a Tale ofTwo Cities reveals the kind of montage whichThe inevitable intertwining of the cinema and the city was The great film artist and theoritician, Sergei Eisenstein, re-