Summaries

Synopsis

The CITY LIFE project is a cooperation between filmmakers and their cultures and is not to be regarded as a competition between filmmakers. Invited are eleven directors from different continents, aiming to create a global view of rapidly changing societies.Selected for this project have been directors whose previous work has been notable for their personal vision of recent developments in modern life, as well as for the exploration of new cinematographic means of expression. So the one expresses his fascination with a city's chaos, the diversity of people, movements, events, while another may express more lyrically his, or her, love for a city's monuments.In addition to the assignment to show life in their city, each participating filmmaker was expected to refer to the discovery of the spot where on its 1912 maiden voyage the 'Titanic' sank and to the plans to raise the ship. Like other big ships the 'Titanic' was designed for most of man's needs: to accommodate an entire and autonomous community; the floating city. Her wreck reminds one of the sunken city of Atlantis.Although the city features as the central element and functions as a mirror of society in the entire project, the choice of cities in CITY LIFE was indicated by the directors themselves, who know their own cities from experience and know what is of interest.Cities have always exerted a fascination - not only the 'tangible' city, with its streets, buildings, and squares - but the 'invisible' city, - its symbols, associations, memories, noises, smells, ideals, fears, movements, encounters. It goes without saying that such a many-sided phenomenon inspires not only architects and city-planners, but also writers, artists, and philosophers. The way people think about a city is stimulated by the way they feel about some particular aspect of it - revulsion, respect, obsession. Their visions of it are a mixture of the city's reality, and their personal experiences, dreams, and associations.

Filmmakers have been attracted by the idea of a city, from the cinema's earliest days. Largely through the works of such av-ant-garden directors of the twenties as Walter Ruttman, Alberto DE Cavalcanti, and Dziga Vertov, the city has come to play an important role in the history of the cinema. The best-known example is still Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS (1925), which gave an ominous picture of the city of the future. Script writers and directors have continued to find inspiration in the many-seediness of city life. In the fifties it was a favorite subject of those filmmakers belonging to the Nouvelle Vague, and in the sixties and seventies, Antonioni, Fellini and Scorsese are some of the directors who have built whole films centering round city life.

CITY LIFENowadays not only the film, but television too has penetrated everywhere, filmmakers all over the world are drawing on their own cultural background to build up a visual language to express it. Twenty years ago, only one Western city was used as the pivot of an episodic film (PARIS VUS PAR). Now, for the first time, there was a possibility of inviting filmmakers from all over the world to take part in a similar project.

Participants in this project are directors whose previous work has been notable for its personal vision of recent developments in modern life, as well as for the exploration of new cinematographic means of expression. So the one expresses his fascination with a city's chaos, the diversity of its people, movements, events, while another may express more lyrically his, or her, love for a city's history and monuments.

In addition to the assignment to show life in their city, each participating filmmaker was expected to refer to the discovery of the spot where on its 1912 maiden voyage the 'Titanic' sank and to the plans to raise the ship. Like other big ships the 'Titanic' was designed for most of man's needs: to accommodate an entire and autonomous community; the floating city. Her wreck reminds one of the sunken city of Atlantis.