New York : London: Routledge, 2006.
Call No: 756.1-25 SAY
Author: Sayyad, Nezar Al
Source: UK/US
Place: New York : London
Publisher: Routledge
PubDate: 2006
PhysDes: xiii, 256 p. : ill. ; 25 cm
Subject: MODERNISM AND THE CINEMA; ARCHITECTURE AND THE CINEMA; ARCHITECTURE IN FILMS; ART AND THE CINEMA; CITIES IN FILMS; HISTORY OF CINEMA; POSTMODERNISM AND THE CINEMA; THEORY; ANNIE HALL (US, Woody Allen, 1977); BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY (G, Walter Ruttman, 1927); BERLIN DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSTADT (G, Walter Ruttman, 1927); BLADE RUNNER (US, Ridley Scott, 1982); BLADE RUNNER: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT (US, Ridley Scott, 1982); BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT (US, Ridley Scott, 1982); BRAZIL (UK, Terry Gilliam, 1985); CINEMA PARADISO (IT/FR, Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988); NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO (IT/FR, Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988); DO THE RIGHT THING (US, Spike Lee, 1989); END OF VIOLENCE, THE (US/FR, Wim Wenders, 1997); FALLING DOWN (US, Joel Schumacher, 1993); IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (US, Frank Capra, 1946); MANHATTAN (US, Wody Allan, 1979); METROPOLIS (GG, Fritz Lang, 1927); METROPOLIS (G, Fritz Lang, 1926); MODERN TIMES (US, Charles Chaplin, 1936); MON ONCLE (FR/IT, Jacques Tati, 1958); MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (UK, Stephen Frears, 1985); PLAYTIME (FR, Jacques Tati, 1967); PLEASANTVILLE (US, Gary Ross, 1998); REAR WINDOW (US, Alfred Hitchcock, 1954); SLIVER (US, Phillip Noyce, 1993); TAXI DRIVER (US, Martin Scorsese, 1976); TRUMAN SHOW, THE (US, Peter Weir, 1998)
Summary: "Cinematic Urbanism presents an urban history of modernity and postmodernity through the lens of cinema while arguing that urbanism cannot be understood outside the space of the celluloid city." "Nezar AlSayyad traces the dissolution of the boundary between real and reel through time and space via a series of films that represent different modernities. He contrasts the 'rational' European city of early twentieth-century industrial modernity as portrayed by Berlin: Symphony of a Big City (1927) with its American counterpart in Modern Times (1936). He illustrates the different forms of small town life and an urbanizing modernity across the Atlantic as exemplified by Cinema Paradiso (1989) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Using Metropolis (1927) and Brazil (1985), he shows how utopian ideals harbour within them their dystopian realities, while Jacques Tati's nostalgia for tradition in Mon Oncle (1958) and Playtime (1967) reveals a cynical modernity and a rebelling against its idealism." "AlSayyad argues that the postmodern city of Blade Runner (1982) and Falling Down (1993) illustrates some of the urban outcomes of a globalizing economy.
Turning to spectacle and surveillance, he examines Rear Window (1954), Sliver (1993), and The End of Violence (1997) as a voyeuristic modernity. To understand the city experienced by individuals of different social backgrounds, he takes Manhattan (1979), Annie Hall (1977), and Taxi Driver (1976), while Do the Right Thing (1989) and My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) are used to explore a modernity of race and ethnicity. Finally, he uses Pleasantville (1998) and The Truman Show (1998) to unpack the hyperreality of exurban postmodernity and to demonstrate how today the real and the reel have become mutually constitutive." "By considering how the real city and the reel city reference each other in an act of mutual representation and definition, this book advances the discussion on cinematic space and theories of the city."--BOOK BLURB.
Notes: Formerly CIP; Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN: 0415700493
Contents: -- about the author -- preface -- Introduction : the cinematic city and the quest for the modern -- 1. Industrial modernity : the flaneur and the tramp in the early twentieth century city -- 2. Urbanizing modernity : the traditional cinematic small town -- 3. Orwellian modernity : utopia/dystopia and the city of the future past -- 4. Cynical modernity, or the modernity of cynicism -- 5. From postmodern condition to cinematic city -- 6. Voyeuristic modernity : the lens, the screen and the city -- 7. The modernity of the sophisticate and the misfit : the city through different eyes -- 8. An alternative modernity : race, ethnicity and the urban experience -- 9. Exurban postmodernity : utopia, simulacra and hyper-reality -- epilogue -- illustration credits and sources -- selected bibliography -- index --
