PlaCe/Land2 lecture

Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Cinema: Shaping the View of Our Cities World Film Location Book Series / Material copyright Š2011 Intellect Ltd.

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

‘For a child, landscapes and cityscapes evoke emotions, associations, ideas and stories.

We tend to forget this when we grow older.’ Wim Wenders

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

The Red Balloon (1956) Paris

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Superman (1978) Metropolis/New York

Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Metropolis (1927) The ‘Utopian’ Ideal

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Inspiration: The Big Picture Magazine A visually-focussed film magazine that goes beyond the borders of the screen to reveal cinema’s unique power to entertain, inspire and connect to every one of us.

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

On Location Feature Spotlight on a handful of films set in a chosen city for each issue. How does time or circumstance change a location – its significance to the film/actors/etc.

Location as ‘character’ and location as cultural signifier.

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Gabriel Solomons MA Presentation Thursday, November 17th

The Big Picture Issue 07 March/April 2010

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

The Big Picture Issue 08 May/June 2010

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

World Film Locations Series The World Film Locations series explores and reveals the relationship between the city and cinema.

The city continues to play a central role in a multitude of films, helping us to frame our understanding of place and of the world around us. Whether as elaborate directorial loveletters or as time specific cultural settings, the city acts as a vital character in helping to tell a story.

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Questions: ➝ How is cinema helping to shape our view of the city? ➝ What is the role of the city in film? ➝ How can we engage with and better understand different cultures through the medium of film?

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

‘Film is a city art. It has come into existence and it has blossomed together with the great cities of the world since the end of the nineteenth century.’ Wim Wenders

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

‘The spectacle of the cinema both drew on and contributed to the increased pace of modern city life...’ David B Clarke (The Cinematic City)

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

People watching themselves

Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory (1895) City residents watching themselves

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Skyscrapers of New York (1906) Filmed by Fred A Dobson

Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Crime: An urban phenomena

Immigration: Lost in the ‘big city’

The Keystone Cops (1916)

The Immigrant (1917)

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

‘...Think of Florence, Paris, London, New York. Nobody visiting them for the first time is a stranger, because they’ve already visited them in paintings, novels, history books and films.’

Spoken by the character of ‘Thaw’ in Alasdair Gray’s novel Lanark (1981)

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

‘Movies aren’t about places, they’re about stories. If we notice the location we’re not really watching the movie. It’s what’s up front that counts.’

Thom Andersen

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Many movie landmarks exercise an odd, spectral power when encountered in real life; stubborn traces of the film still lingering behind the everyday.

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Rebel Without A Cause (1955) Griffith Park Observatory, Los Angeles

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

The Third Man (1949) Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt, Vienna

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Do the Right Thing (1989) Stuyvesant Avenue, Brooklyn, New York

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Re-imagining location through memory

Man on Wire (2008) Ground Zero, Lower Manhattan, NY

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

‘I’m not sure why it is we seek out that feeling; an impulse somewhere between mere sightseeing and something far deeper; the desire for a single tiny moment in which the boundaries between the film, our memory of the film, and quotidian reality blur into one another and collapse.’

Danny Leigh (Film critic)

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Film location tours

Vertigo (1958) Photo Caveh Zahedi

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Requiem for a Dream (2000) Photo Peter Dirkx

Robbery (1967) Photo ‘Roll the Dice’ (Flickr)

Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

‘all cities within film, as an artificial representation of the city, are fantastic and symbolic. However, it is within the fantasy genre film where the city as an ideological concept is most richly evident.’ Anna Claydon (CityScope: The Cinema and the City)

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Socio-Political reference

Aftermath of the Los Angeles riots (1990) (Photo: Ted Sequoia)

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Escape from LA (1996)

Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Socio-Political reference

They Live (1988) Consumerism, Reagan era policy, pro-capitalism / anti-liberal

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Falling Down (1993) Deterioration of society, mistrust, housing crisis, policing corruption

Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Alternate views

Manhattan (1979) The ‘idealised’ and romantisized city

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Taxi Driver (1976) The city as oppressive and isolating

Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Cities of ‘The Other’

Killer of Sheep (1977) Watts district of Los Angeles

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City of God (2002) Rio De Janeiro

Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

World Film Locations Launch Event BFI, London September 30th, 2011

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Gabriel Solomons PlaCe/Land2 Presentation Thursday, November 24th

Thankyou www.intellectbooks.com Facebook: World Film Locations Free Ipad app on itunes store

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