Written by Clare, Tullamore Library
In my early 20s I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to live and study in Italy. My home for one year was located in the beautiful medieval walled city of Siena at the foot of the stunning Tuscan hills. I lived with an Italian family and attended a language school aptly called after the famous poet, Dante Alighieri, who penned The Divine Comedy. During my time in Siena I had an opportunity to see the formidable Il Palio horserace, which takes place twice a year in the main Piazza Del Campo. It was a sight to behold, with highly charged emotions and a tension that was palpable. I even made it on to the local TV channel’s news update – my three seconds of fame! On another occasion, as I walked through the cobblestone streets, I could sense an air of excitement that seemed ubiquitous. I quickly learned that a celebrity had just been observed drinking coffee in the Piazza. That celebrity was in fact Russell Crowe, as they were filming the Academy Award winning film Gladiator (2000) in the nearby Orcia Valley, a stunning area with rolling hills and cypress trees. I think it was at this juncture in my life that I fell in love with cities, both old and new. The anticipation of venturing to a town or village in Italy, or anywhere for that matter, brought great joy to my curious mind. The idea of visualising Julius Caesar in his political seat at the Roman Forum or Tutankhamun, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, in his full regalia addressing his subjects. This amazes me.
My love of travelling:
How other people live, eat, socialize; it all fascinates me, not just in the ancient world, but also in our present one. Therefore, travelling is one of my favourite pastimes and I have been lucky enough to see some amazing places around the world. I was always interested in maps and flags when I was a child and by countries that appeared vast, remote and a million miles from Ireland. I always remember saying to myself, “when I grow up I am going to travel to Mongolia”. In 2006 I managed to fulfil that dream and went on the Trans-Siberian Express through Russia, Mongolia and China. I spent most of the time pinching myself wondering if this was actually happening. I passed through eight different time zones and was awed by the vistas.
So it’s not a surprise that when I began my studies as a mature student in Maynooth University I instantly knew that I would be choosing geography as an academic discipline, but I never realised that a module called The City in Film would fall into that category. My curiosity got the better of me and I enrolled in this module. I was not disappointed and found it to be a fascinating subject. I love film and I love cities, so it was a match made in heaven. The premise of the course was to investigate how film can reflect the remarkable changes in urban life which have occurred since the turn of the twentieth century and represent the promises and failures of globalization through urban form, aesthetics, planning and design (Geography Department, Maynooth University 2021).
How cities are the embodiment of modernity:
The epitome of modernity is the re-construction of global cities of great enormity and structure. The majestic boulevards of Paris, the monumental edifices of St. Petersburg and the austere mechanization of Berlin and New York, to name but a few. Modernity was a period in history that coincided with the Renaissance and a time of great innovation, science and the Age of Enlightenment. In turn, the industrialization of the urban space coincided with the birth of the medium of film. From the beginning, film showed a fascination for the city with early films such as Berlin: symphony of a great city (1927) directed by Walter Ruttmann Berlin: symphony of a great city (1927) – YouTube . This highlights the effect of modernity and the massive migratory movement of people from rural to urban spaces. In addition, it emphasised that movement is central to film. It gives the spectator a deepened sense of reality and dimension, in that it is symbolic of the transience of time and space (Gunning, 2006 cited in Mennel, 2008:8).
Walter Ruttman documented the vibrancy and tapestry of city life; a kind of utopian world if you will. In Berlin: symphony of a great city (1927) we are propelled into a hyperbolic world obsessed with time and motion. Even though this is a silent movie, the accompanying orchestra in the background prompt our emotions as we are navigated through the day from sunrise to sunset. The film greets spectators with the quiet streets of Berlin at daybreak, synchronized with the slow movement of an adagio. However, as the music crescendos we are aware of the much anticipated next phase of the day, work begins and the industrial world takes over as the music reaches a fortissimo. Throughout the bustle of industry and commerce, the metaphorical figure of the train is a constant. In early cinema trains embodied, according to Mennel (2008:8) the “perception of time and space in modernity”. However, the positive image that Ruttmann painted was also challenged by scholars such as Georg Simmelwhoendeavoured to reflect this modernity by drawing on utopian and dystopian worlds that generated an excess of sensory stimuli. This stimulus, Georg Simmel suggests in his famous essay, Metropolis and Mental Life, (1950) has forced the individual into a “blasé attitude”, invoking a sense of indifference or “incapacity to react” (1950). He believed that the “blasé” individual equipped themselves with these apathetic attitudes so as to co-exist with the overwhelming forces of social, economic and political life, all components of modernity. The city was a place of intellect and calculation where the head ruled and not the heart. Therefore, intuition and feeling became an unimaginable source of sensory flow and where spirituality regressed. Simmel was himself a witness to the rapid growth of industrialisation and urbanization. He was therefore noticeably concerned with its impact on the individual and the psyche this being the dystopian aspect of urban life.
Charles Dickens managed to capture the essence of The Industrial Revolution in his novel Hard Times(1854), which was later made in to a British silent drama film in 1915 by Thomas Bentley and subsequently re-imagined by many directors in later years. It underpins the emerging influences of capitalism in which the fictious Coketown is reflected as a locus for industrial productivity with a penchant to realism (Kearns, 1992:865); a realism which Dickens polemically condemns as an impeachment on the individuals own self-expression and the dampening of all things “fanciful” (Hard Times), as echoed by Simmel.
Final Word:
The city in all its guises, as a centre of intellect and economic prowess or as a place of self-expression and independence, is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. In the post-pandemic world, I will be resuming my passion for travel and hope that my next escapade will take me to far flung countries such as Kazakhstan, Georgia and Armenia (one can continue to dream until it becomes a reality). I will also be sourcing some travel books from the library catalogue to give me some background information and historical facts before I go (librariesireland.iii.com).
Useful Resources:
Universal class is a free online resource, where library members can take all kinds of interesting classes. There are over 400 to chose from, but if you’re interested in film then I’d recommend ‘Film Appreciation’ or ‘Screenwriting 101’.
If you’re planning a trip abroad, then Transparent Languages is a fantastic resource for picking up a few useful words and phrases. This handy app gives library users unlimited access to more than 110 languages, including English for speakers of over 30 languages.
References:
Mennel, Barbara (2008) Cities and Cinema; Critical Introduction to Urbanism and the City London and New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
Ruttmann, Walter (1927) Berlin: Symphony of a great City (1927, Germany) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywk6Deq9FOQ
Georg Simmel, ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life [1903]’, in Malcolm Miles, Tim Hall, and Ian Borden, eds., The City Cultures Reader (New York: Routledge, 2000), pp. 12-19
Georg Simmel, ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life [1903]’in Alsayyad, Nezar Cinematic Urbanism: ‘A History of Modern from Reel to Real (UK: Routledge, 2006),
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