fig. a: judging a book by its front cover
The City Symphony Phenomenon: Cinema, Art, and Urban Modernity Between the Wars, the book I co-wrote and co-edited with my colleagues Steven Jacobs and Eva Hielscher, and which was originally released in 2019 in a pricey hardcover edition, is now out in a considerably less pricey paperback edition.
This project was set in motion by a symposium that took place in Ghent, Belgium over the course of two days in December 2014. The idea behind this original event was to broaden our knowledge of the city symphony cycle, experimental nonfiction films, made between 1920 and 1940 in particular, that sought to capture the energies, complexities, and dynamism of the modern metropolis. Instead of continuing to focus on the most famous versions of the genre (Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin, Symphony of a Great City [1927], Dziga Vertov’s Man With a Movie Camera [1929], and Jean Vigo’s À propos de Nice [1930], not to mention the first of the precursors, Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler’s Manhattta [1921]), we would screen and discuss a dozen lesser-known examples in order to see what could be learned by widening the field of vision. Introductions were presented by scholars from across Europe and North America, the films in question were screened, often with live musical accompaniment (most of them were silent), lively discussions ensued, and all of it took place in a well-appointed movie theatre and was open to the public. Many of these presentations, and the discussions and debates that helped refine them, became the core of the book project.
fig. b: judging a book by its back cover
By 2015, Eva, Steven, and I had managed to track down about 35-40 city symphonies, many of which had long been overlooked or forgotten entirely. We were quite proud of this achievement, and there’s no question that it provided us with a deeper understanding of the genre. However, we continued to scour archives and libraries, and work with curators and other interested parties to find other city symphonies, and our list of films grew considerably. By the time we completed our project, we’d managed to identify over 80 films that together contributed to the “city symphony phenomenon” between the years 1920-1940, and we’d helped organize two programs of city symphonies at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy (as part of the 2017 and 2018 editions).
Our book is made up of three parts:
A lengthy and in-depth introduction that covers the genre, its characteristics, its scope, and the reasons for the demise of its “classical” era.
A collection of 16 case studies written by ourselves along with about a dozen other international scholars, including Malte Hagener, Michael Cowan, Christa Blümlinger, Malcolm Turvey, Merrill Schleier, John David Rhodes, Ivo Blom, Floris Paalman, Tom Gunning, Jan-Christopher Horak, and Cristina Meneguello.
A survey of the city symphonies of the inter-war period, including short discussions of 80+ films, plus production notes,, technical features, archival sources, and other information.
One of the design features that we’re particularly pleased with has to do with the book’s visuals, its stills, photos, and other illustrations. We wanted the text to be image-rich. The topic—”cinema, art, and urban modernity”—demanded it. So we devised a grid, or “mosaic” system to place multiple images from a single film where otherwise only one would have gone, thereby providing a stronger sense of the film’s iconography, its aesthetics, and its montage. Here are just a few examples:
The book has received strong reviews, including the following:
"The City Symphony Phenomenon: Cinema, Art, and Urban Modernity Between the Wars, a product of scholarly sleuthing and obsession, is a fascinating and valuable achievement."—Charles Musser (Yale University), book review, Film Quarterly, Summer 2019
"With the publication of The City Symphony Phenomenon: Cinema, Art, and Urban Modernity Between the Wars, editors Steven Jacobs, Eva Hielscher, and Anthony Kinik have created an invaluable contribution to the understanding of this compelling form of international film modernism… In choosing the term phenomenon, and in viewing it as a filmmaking movement engaging both amateur and professionals alike, this book makes a compelling case for not only revising notions of how film scholars understand the concept of genre, but demanding a re-evaluation of the boundary conditions under which such scholarly claims are theorized and validated."—S. Topiary Landberg (UC Santa Cruz), book review, The Canadian Journal of Film Studies, Volume 30 Issue 1, Spring 2021
It directly inspired a comprehensive retrospective of the genre at Anthology Film Archives in New York City in January 2019, soon after its initial release, as well as a seminar (“Expanding and Reconsidering the City Symphony”) at the Society for Cinema & Media Studies conference in Seattle in March 2019.
And now it’s available in a paperback edition.
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