Tag: city symphony

Manhatta, 1921, re-visited

image credit: By Ivan2010 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I’m re-visiting City Symphonies. Today it’s Manhatta made in 1921 by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand. The captions are from the writing of Walt Whitman. There’s an interesting article in The New York Times about Manhatta. The film is short – barely 10 minutes – but if you don’t have time for the whole thing,…… Continue reading Manhatta, 1921, re-visited

City Symphony of the Douro river

image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/rabelo-boat-porto-douro-portugal-2344806/

I’ve been pursuing an interest in City Symphonies guided by an article on the British Film Institute website. Douro, Faina Fluvial (Labor on the Douro River) is a 1931 Portuguese film directed by Manoel de Oliveira. The film is a portrait of de Oliveira’s hometown of Porto and the industry that takes place along the…… Continue reading City Symphony of the Douro river

Come and visit Amsterdam on a rainy day in 1929.

image credit: See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I’m re-visiting City Symphonies. Today it’s Regen (Rain) filmed in 1929 by Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens. The film captures 1920’s Amsterdam before, during, and after a downpour. The music is Hanns Eisler’s “14 Arten den Regen zu beschreiben”, (Fourteen Ways of Describing the Rain) added to the film in 1941 https://youtu.be/eNNI7knvh8o The film lasts for…… Continue reading Come and visit Amsterdam on a rainy day in 1929.