Review of Stanley Corkin, Starring New York (2011) (original) (raw)
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New York is a city in which a substantial number of films depicting urban alienation have been set and filmed, although New York films are neither exclusively nor exhaustive of such films. The conditions for alienation derive from several aspects of urbanism also addressed in this essay. This subject deals with the social and psychological estrangement that is often reflected in antisocial behavior in the City, but may also be an expression of idiosyncratic and esoteric lifestyle choices that result in an urban menagerie of rich and varied social types and groups, among them rogues and loners, and urban cowboys. The deepest problems of modem life flow from the attempt of the individual to maintain the independence and individuality of his existence against the sovereign powers ot society, against the weight of the historical heritage and the external culture and technique of life.
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Cinema Journal, 2015
This article reviews the geographical dynamics of New Hollywood, arguing that the industrial crisis of 1969–1971 catalyzed further decentralization of location shooting beyond Los Angeles, bringing new types of urban space into view. It examines the parallel crisis and restructuring of the film industry and the inner city via two films, The King of Marvin Gardens (Bob Rafelson, 1972) and Rocky (John G. Avildsen, 1976), which are emblematic of distinct phases in the development of New Hollywood. Through their aesthetic strategies, narrative structure, and mapping of cinematic space, these films produced allegories of urban decline and renewal that closely engaged with the transformation of the American city, from the urban crisis of the late 1960s to neoliberal programs of renewal in the late 1970s.
Wes Anderson and the city spaces of indie cinema
New Review of Film and Television Studies, 2011
This paper explores the implications of urban gentrification in the 1990s and 2000s on the development of the American indie cinema. I argue that these implications have been far ranging, such that we are able to speak of a ‘cinema of gentrification’ during this time period. Using Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer (2009) as representative examples, I show how the films of this cinema developed a vexed relationship with the city and with urban life. In particular, I contend, we can productively read Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) through the prism of gentrification. Following from Michel de Certeau, Neil Smith and others, I argue that Anderson's representation of the city in Tenenbaums marks a break within the history of city cinema, as it denies the social and cultural logics of urban identity by instead reducing city space to mere location.