Seminar 4: Cities and Film

I will admit that I had drawn a blank when it came to applying this topic to animation, but thanks to James, it finally hit me (And a few others) that cities, buildings, and any sort of architectural designs are obviously environments and settings, that if designed and presented in a certain way, can create the perfect mood and establish a large part of a film, or animation. Sometimes the application of things to a certain area can be so darn obvious, that it is frustrating that we pointlessly ended up thinking too hard on it.

The Fountainhead (1949)

Howard Roark continues to struggle through life as he refuses to adhere to the conventionalism of others, despite giving the opportunity to make it big, he chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision. Despite an establishment centred on tradition-worship, Howard continues fighting against it, sticking to his practice as what the public sees as modern architecture.

The film, and pretty much the book it was based on focuses on themes of individualism, not in terms of politics, but the individuals themselves, namely Howard, despite being written in the 30s during World War II when it wouldn't be surprising for books to be written on world affairs and such. The theme of architecture was chosen for the analogy of the ideas offered to the author herself, especially in the context of the ascent of modern architecture. Roark searches for truth and honesty and expresses them in his work, remaining uncompromised when changes are suggested, mirroring modern architecture's trajectory from dissatisfaction with earlier design trends to emphasise individual creativity.

"Through almost seven hundred pages of elaborate plot, stilted speeches, and overwrought emotions, (Ayn) Rand's ideological cartoon of a book (she also wrote the screenplay) pits the individual, whose undaunted ego is the fountainhead of all praise-worthy human activity, against the common man, Rand's rabble, who fearing the individual, attempts to destroy or reduce him to its own base level. To translate her philosophy into fiction, the author cast her hero as an architect" ~ Albrechy, D. (1986), Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies, London, Thames and Hudson, Page 168

Psycho (1960)

The Bates household had been presented as the all-american dream (Oneiric in a sense) home of sorts at the very beginning (As well as in some of the trailers shown at the time), in most Alfred Hitchcock films, characteristically they start off in an idyllic and relaxed atmosphere. Scenes and buildings reflect a somewhat naïve and amusing balance of bourgeois (Conventional, middle class) life. 

As the story begins, however, a sense of foreboding begins to convey a negative content to the buildings. The very same architecture turns gradually into a generator and container of fear, and in the end, terror seems to have poisoned space itself (Pallasamaa, J. (2001), The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema, page 25). In the original black and white version, the stark contrasting shadows are able to enhance the sinister feel that this house gives off as the story progresses, even during the day, a sense of foreboding is felt with each new character that dares enter it.

It is interesting to note how certain rooms are associated with certain characters we already know that the seemingly forbidden areas of the household are associated with Norma Bates, such as her bedroom and her basement, which are barely seen until near the end of the film. 

Norman's parlour was his sanctuary, where he probably had felt the safest as he gets to momentarily have some time alone to himself, and away from the verbal abuse of his 'mother', surrounded by the things he loves such as his bird taxidermy collection (Perhaps getting some sense of comfort as these lifeless creatures watches him from above, almost as if guarding him, keeping him company, possibly agreeing and supporting him). 

The Shining (1980)

The Stanley Hotel in a way also ties in with the bourgeois existence, in the beginning before it was closed for the winter, where there were still guests and staff around, it appears to be a seemingly peaceful and lovely place to stay. Despite that however, despite the beauty and magnificence of the landscape, it becomes apparent that not all is at it seems, especially once Jack and his family is isolated from the rest of the world.

The opening is a pretty obvious give away to the overall mood of the film (Unlike Alfred Hitchcock's films, which are considered a rarity these days in terms of pacing and atmosphere), with the soft but ominous music that plays in the background, as well as the tracking shot of the car as it drives its way down a long winding path up the mountains, that establishes just how far out and secluded their destination happens to be. The sense that there is nowhere to escape or no one to call for help if something should go wrong...

The interior of the hotel, despite how vibrantly coloured it is and grandiosely classic the architectural elements are (Such as materials, wallpapers, windows and doors, furniture, etc.), as the story progresses, the overall feel of the setting begins to become more suffocating and claustrophobic in nature. Jack however, out of the three occupants in this huge, quiet, empty hotel, becomes the most overwhelmed (With his alcoholism obviously contributing to that), but also seemingly becomes a part of the hotel itself (Particularly that ending that still draws many questions to this day), as it would seem his supposed moments of 'sanity', or when he is feeling the most calm, is when he is speaking to people that are meant to be there, such as the bartender.

Most successful horror works are able to make full use of the psychological aspect of space when it comes to the settings and of course, how things are shot through the camera... sort of celebrates it, while also ironically, the beauty of the city and the dark side of it

Grand Theft Auto V

Onto something a little different... The critically acclaimed "Grand Theft Auto V" has been known for it's satirising of the glamorous city life, particularly in the fictional city of Los Santos (Based on Los Angeles), where one of the main characters, Michael Townley/De Santa had chosen to leave his old criminal life behind in hopes of starting anew with his family there. 

While it has been made clear that the playable main characters are in no way the good guys, the people that they have to deal with are no better, these 'plastic', rotten, arrogant people that think they are living the life and are above all else, characteristics that begin to manifest in Michael's family as they themselves become taken a hold of by the luxurious lifestyle that he himself had provided to them in the first place.

Out of the three main characters, Michael is probably the most connected to the city of Los Santos (While not being a city native like Franklin), developing a rather bittersweet relationship to the city. As he realises towards the end of the game that while he still hates himself, he is also able to accept himself in a way, and is quite contented with his new life in the city (A little humorous note is how frequently he purchases unhealthy highly caffeinated drinks from the Bean Machine, a spoof of Star Bucks and Coffee Bean, which of course pokes fun at consumer behaviour behind such chains).

While a huge and sprawling metropolis of contemporary culture, being the game that it is, the city obviously has its dark side to it. While it is already mentioned that the wealthier or simply well off people are made to be these plastic or just plain rotten wad, a variety of gangs inhabit every crook and cranny of the city (This probably feels more apparent in the online mode where the population of online characters created by us, the players, cause way more chaos than any of the computer controlled gang bangers ever could). It is not often that the player will chance upon any decent or normal folks, and if there were, they are probably killed off before we even notice they are there.

Los Santos' beautiful design is just a cover up for all the messed up, crazy, awful people that inhabit it in all honesty, and that just makes it easier for us to kill them...

Lecture Notes 5: Cities and Film

This lecture will look into the city in terms of Modernism and Postmodernism, the possibility of an urban sociology, the city as public and private space, and the relation of the individual to the crowd in the city.

Industrialisation

• The first known urban sociologist is Georg Simmel (1958-1918) who wrote "Metropolis" and "Mental Life" in 1903
• For the Dresden Exhibition , Simmel was asked to lecture on the role of intellectual life in the city but instead reverses the idea and writes about the effect of the city on the individual
• "the resistance of the individual to being levelled, swallowed up in the social-technological mechanism." ~ Georg Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life", 1903
• It was believe that architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) coined the term modernism, creator of the modern skyscraper, an influential architect and critic of the Chicago school. he was a mentor to Frank Lloyd
• "form ever follows function" ~ Louis Sullivan
• The Guaranty Building was built in 1894 by Adler and him in Buffalo NY

•  The Guaranty Building was divided into 4 zones, different styles of blocks distinguish the three visible zones of the building from one another: 

1. The basement being the mechanical and utility area with no decorative elements since it was below ground
2. The next zone was the ground floor zone, namely the public area for shops, entrances and lobbies 
3. The third zone was the office floors done in a practical (Expectedly mundane) design with identical office cells clustered together around the central elevator shafts
4. And the final zone was the terminating zone, consisting of elevator equipment, utilities and a few offices

Carson Pirie Scott store (1904)

• Skyscrapers represent the upwardly mobile city of business opportunity
• Fire cleared buildings in Chicago in 1871 and made way for Louis Sullivan new aspirational buildings

• "Manhatta" (1921) was a short documentary film by Paul Strand and Charles Scheeler while revels in the has rising from city smoke stacks, pieces of texts from Whalt Whitman's poetry were used for part of the title cards, the film being an obvious reference to the city of Manhattan (Hehe…). The objective was to explore the relationship between photography and film, with camera movements being kept a minimum, and the relationship of people with buildings, transport, etc. It was an attempt to show the filmmakers' love for the city of New York.
• Charles Scheeler was an advertising photographer for Ford Moto Company, his works reflecting industrialism and modernism

A production line created for maximum productivity with minimum effort
through repetitive mechanical action

• The term Fordism was coined by Antonio Gramsci in his essay "Americanism and Fordism", it is a notion of a modern economic and social system based on an industrialised and standardised form of mass production
• This subject has been brought up numerous times in classic cartoons, such as Looney Tunes (Acme anyone?), I couldn't find a particular example (I mean there definitely a lot of them around it's just a lot harder to find them than I thought) so have the music that normally goes with those scenes of Fordism and Taylorism instead:

• "the eponymous manufacturing system designed to spew out standardised, low cost goods and afford its workers decent enough wages to buy them" ~ De Grazia: 2005:4

• Charlie Chaplin parodied this in "Modern Times" (1936), portraying an industrial worker employed on an assembly line, who is driven mad after being subjected to several awful mishaps involving machinery, and causes chaos in the factory he works, he gets accused of being a communist, goes to jail, meets a girl, works as a waited, before ending up becoming a performer
• Charlie was investigated into later on because of this film, being placed under suspicion for actually being a communist
• "In handicrafts and manufacture, the workman makes use of a tool, in the factory, the machine makes use of him" ~ Marx cited in "Adamson" 2010, Pg75
• During the stock market crash of 1929, factories closed and unemployment rates went up dramatically, leading to the Great Depression

• "The Man with a Movie Camera" (1929) by Dziga Vertov, was a Russian silent documentary film with no story and no actors, a revolutionary film at the time for using various cinematic techniques that Vertov himself invented, deployed and developed (Such as double exposure, fast and slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, extreme close ups, tracking shots, etc.). Vertov's film strove to awaken the Soviet citizen through truth and ultimately bring about understanding and action. It celebrates industrialisation, mechanisation, transport and communication. It explores locations where bodies come together in masses, much like Manhatta and the celebration of machinery.

Noir

• Weegee (Arthur Fellig) worked in the Lower East Side of New York City as a press photographer during the 30s and 40s, developing his signature style of stark black and white shots of unflinchingly realistic scenes of urban life, crime, injury and death by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity
• The nickname Weegee is phonetic rendering of Ouija (Spirit board), because of his frequent, seemingly prescient arrivals at scenes only minutes after crimes, fires or other emergencies were repotted to authorities

• "The Naked City" (1984) is a black and white film noir based on a story by Malvin Wald, depicting a police investigation that follows the murder of a young model. A veteran cop is placed in charge of the case and he sets about, with the help of other beat cops and detectives to find the girl's killer. The movie is shot partially in a documentary style
• The film was selected for preservation in the USNFR by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historical, or aesthetically significant"
• "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them." ~ Tag line in the "Naked City"

• Team Bondi's "L.A Noire" (2011) is the first video game to be shown at the Tribecca Film, the game incorporates "MotionScan" where actors are recorded by 32 surrounding cameras to capture facial expressions from every angle
• This technology is central to the game's interrogation mechanics as players must ust the suspects' reaction to questioning to judge whether they are lying or not

• As the title suggests, the game draws heavily from both plot and aesthetic elements of film noir (There are even several cases named after well known noir films, such as "The Naked City"), the game uses a distinctive colouring style in homage to the visual style of film noir, including an option to play the game in black and white (If your eyesight is good enough that is). The post war setting is the backdrop for plot elements that reference the detective films of the 40s (Especially from "L.A Confidential"), such as corruption and drugs, with a jazz soundtrack
• More information can be found in this write up I did in the past

Flaneur

• The term flaneur comes from the French masculine noun flaneur - which as the basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", "loafer" - which itself comes from the French verb flamer, which means "to stroll"
• Charles Baudelaire propose a version of the flaneur that of "a person who walks the city in order to experience it"
• Art should capture this
• Simultaneously apart from and a part for the crowd

• The flaneur version of a photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitring, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flaneur finds the world 'picturesque'
• The female version is the invisible Flaneuse, with the flaneur almost always being male
• Janet Wolff refers to the idea that it wasn't common at the time for women to be outside on the streets at the time (1985)
• Susan Buck-Morss suggests that the only figure a woman on the street can be is either a prostitute or a bag lady
• "The Detective" (1980), a woman named Calle gets her mother to employ a detective to follow her, proceeding to lead the unknowing detective around parts of Paris that were particularly important to her, thereby reversing the expected position of the observed subject
• Such projects, with their suggestions of intimacy, also questioned the role of the spectator, with viewers often feeling a sense of unease as they became unwitting collaborators in these violations of privacy
• The deliberately constructed and artificial nature of the documentary 'evidence' used in Calle's work questioned the nature of all truths
• Calle wanted to proved photographic evidence of her existence, his photos and notes on her are later on displayed next to her photos and notes of him
• Documentation of 9/11 where images from many different people were taken of the incident, these images were then all put together and remained anonymous, a democracy of photographs

• Lorca di Corcia "Heads" (2001), is able to capture these dramatic, thoughtful scenes of his subjects, with accidental poses, unintended movements and insignificant expressions, almost looks staged even
• In 2006, a NY trial court issued a ruling in a case involving one of his photographs, a photo subject of his argued that his privacy and religious rights had been violated by both the taking and publishing of the photograph of him. The judge dismissed this lawsuit, finding the photograph taken on street is art- not commerce- and therefore protected by the First Amendment
• The judge ruled that NY courts have "recognised that art can be sold, at least in limited editions, and still retain its artistic character"
• "First Amendment of art is not limited to only starving artists. A profit motive in itself does not necessarily compel a conclusion that art has been used for trade purposes"