Shorts for Days: Cityscapes
6 Episodes
The sights and sounds, hustle and bustle of the modern metropolis have long inspired filmmakers to develop a corresponding cinematic language to capture its frenetic energy. From the dizzying head-rush of Manhattan as seen through the kaleidoscopic lenses of D. A. Pennebaker and Hollis Frampton to the sly wit of Jean Vigo’s droll portrait of a French resort town to the idiosyncratic musings of Chris Marker’s offbeat Chinese travelogue, these miniature city symphonies pulse with the rhythms and happenstance poetry of the urban landscape.
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06:45Episode 1Penelope Bartlett on Cityscapes
Episode 1
Criterion Channel programmer Penelope Bartlett discusses the films in Shorts for Days: Cityscapes.
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23:42Episode 2À propos de Nice
Episode 2
Directed by Jean Vigo and Boris Kaufman • 1930 • France
Jean Vigo was twenty-five when he made this, his debut film, a silent cinematic poem that reveals, through a thrilling and ironic use of montage, the economic reality hidden behind the facade of the Mediterranean resort town of Nice. The fi...
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05:43Episode 4Daybreak Express
Episode 4
Directed by D. A. Pennebaker • 1953 • United States
Shot in 1953, though not completed until 1957, DAYBREAK EXPRESS was the first film D. A. Pennebaker made, a mad rush of images of New York City captured from a train and edited to the rhythm of Duke Ellington’s song of the same name. A jazz afi...
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19:42Episode 5Sunday in Peking
Episode 5
Directed by Chris Marker • 1956 • France
A rare, tourist’s-eye glimpse into Maoist China, the first of Chris Marker’s inimitable travelogues is a colorful stroll through the city of Beijing set to the filmmaker’s personal reflections on its people, history, and culture.
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09:52Episode 6Surface Tension
Episode 6
Directed by Hollis Frampton • 1968 • United States
A film in three parts: a man talking while a telephone rings, a walking tour of New York, and a goldfish swimming.
