Kali Spencer

Richard Simpson

ENGL 342

10/07/20

The City Symphony

After having watched Manhatta by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler (1921), Regen by Joris Ivens (1929), and A Propos de Nice by Jean Vigo (1930) I began to ask myself what the purpose of the city symphony was and what sort of message it was trying to convey to the audience. Upon first viewing, the film may appear to be nothing more than relatively still shots of a city over a period of time. After a deeper analysis though I’ve come to the conclusion that the city symphony is a style of documentary that, borrowing from other art forms, is able to represent the modernity and lived experiences of people at a certain place in time.

The city symphony seems to me to be a very avant-garde form of film making for the time it was being produced. Differing from other films at the time such as the silent films of Charlie Chaplain the city symphony follows a nontypical narrative with the city as the subject. By doing so and making the city itself the main focus of the film the directors are able to highlight the dynamism of metropolises around the world. 

    Due to the lack of narrative pacing, the films seem to borrow from the structure found in other art forms such as poetry and music. This is shown particularly well in the film Manhatta by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler. The film is no doubt influenced by the poem Manhatta by Walt Whitman. Whitman’s poem is an ode to the city just as the film is. In highlighting different locations around the city, Strand and Sheeler are able to capture the intricacies and unique beauty that the city holds just as each line in Whitman’s poem does. This makes the film a form of visual poetry. In adopting the form of poetry the film has a sort of rhythm to it that mimics the internal rhythm and pulse of the city. In this way, the city symphony is a medium capable of presenting space and time in a novel manner that is true to the lived experiences of those living in the city.