The City in Film

Films reflect the remarkable changes in urban life that have occurred since the turn of the twentieth century and represent the promises and failures of globalisation, urban development, and living with strangers. As an aesthetic form, film emerged at the turn of the last century and soon became a new way of representing the built environment and imagining urban form. As early as the 1920s, film also reflected urban theories and influenced planning practices in many countries. As a social scene, cinema created a viewing public through a shared leisure experience (?going to the movies?) and urban form (the movie house on main street or in the mall). Visions of the modern city also reflect (and sometimes reinforce) societal desires and fears. Stage sets, digital imagery, sound, lighting, and stories about contemporary and futuristic cities depict both idealistic utopian hopes for socially just and beautiful worlds, as well as fears of ?the Other? (aliens, foreigners, nature, women, persons of colour), of unchecked government power or of corrupt corporate control. In this module, students will view and discuss films from 1908 to the present produced and viewed in multiple countries, with a focus on European countries and the U.S. Students will gain an understanding of such themes as: urban aesthetics, design, and planning; urban form and technology; social and cultural conflict in cities; political and economic processes tied to urbanisation (including colonialism, globalisation, real estate development, deindustrialisation); changing racial and gender relationships; and utopian and dystopian views of urban futures.