City Life

CITY LIFE - The International Episode Film

‘Do you know her? Where does she lie? What is her name?’ ‘She has no name and she lies nowhere. And I’ll tell you again why I am describing her. Of all imaginable cities, you must leave her out those whose elements cluster together without being bound by a thread of some kind, or an internal set of rules, or a story. Cities are like dreams: everything imaginable is the stuff of dreams, but even the most unexpected dream is an enigma which conceals a desire, or its opposite fear. Cities, like dreams, are also built up of desires and fears, even if their story-line is hidden, their rules absurd, their perspective misleading, and every enterprise conceals another’.

Italo Calvino
(The invisible cities)

DIRECTORS
Rijneke & van Leeuwaarden – Rotterdam
Béla Tarr – Budapest
Tato Kotetishvili – Tbilisi José
Luis Guerin – Barcelona
Carlos Reichenbach – São Paulo
Ousmane William M'Baye – Dakar
Eagle Pennell – Houston
Gabor Altorjay - Hamburg
Krzysztof Kieslowski – Warsaw
Clemens Klopfenstein - Bevagna
Alejandro Agresti - Buenos Aires
Mrinal Sen - Calcutta

INITIATED, CREATED AND PRODUCED BY
Dirk Rijneke & Mildred van Leeuwaarden
Rotterdam Films/City Life Foundation

TWELVE PORTRAITS OF METROPOLITAN LIFE
CITY LIFE, the monumental award winning episode film can best be characterized as a kaleidoscopic panorama of the world. CITY LIFE is a visual anthology of twelve short stories by twelve innovative directors from all over the world. In each contribution each filmmaker presents his personal view of these cities he knows so well. In this way an inside view of the political, cultural and social changes in the cities of the world of the 1990s is provided.

Each short is a separate and self-contained feature presented in an elaborate framework of sound and image. The sinking of the Titanic, a floating city of sorts, and the tower of Babel, symbolizing the diversity of cultures, serve as links between the various contributions. The cohesion of the episodes is intensified by the music, composed by Zbigniew Preisner, regular composer for Krzysztof Kieslowski.

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 avant-garde 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-sidedness 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 LIFE
Nowadays 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.

Dirk Rijneke & Mildred van Leeuwaarden
(Creators and producers of City Life)

Altorjay, Kotetishvili, Klopfenstein, Tarr, Anna &Theo, Ousmane, van Leeuwaarden, Agresti, Rijneke, Kieslowski, Heijs, Reichenbach

THE CITY
As a meeting point of trade, industry, politics, science and culture, the city has played an important role in the history of mankind from its earliest times. The combination of human beings and their activities is a motor which drives economic, cultural, and social developments, the value of which can be felt in places far beyond the confines of the city. As a hub of (inter)national contacts, the city offers a window on the world; and conversely, the city determines the face of the country in which it lies.
While all cities have factors in common, each one distinguishes itself by its geographical position, by the composition of its inhabitants, and by its historical and cultural development. Since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, which boosted the population of cities in the Western hemisphere, the majority of the world's inhabitants have been moving in to live in cities. This movement is still going on. In the Third World, the urban population will have doubled within the next twenty years. Soon there will be five 'super-cities' each containing fifteen million or more inhabitants, four of which will be found in developing countries: Sao Paulo, Calcutta, and Greater Bombay. The whole planet is changing, formerly rural, it is becoming urban. The notion of a 'world-city' is coming into being.
"The city is a cluster of human activities, so formed, that besides official happenings, there exists a chain-reaction of spontaneous activities; so that the original scenario, which has a certain stability, is put into a state of continual flux. This makes the whole outcome uncertain."

Rem Koolhaas
(Architect and Member advisory board City Life)

CITY LIFE, the film
The first episode, ROTTERDAM, an upbeat to the CITY LIFE series, introduces a view on urban developments in the nineties. We are given a straightforward look at capitalist thinking. Rotterdam provides a view of urban development, juxtaposing a young successful female city planner and a group of street kids killing their time in a subway. The city planner has already chosen her career and made it a success. The kids on the other hand can still determine their future, but it will be influenced by her ideas. Two worlds, two jungles.
In restless TBILISI the Georgian people are demonstrating for freedom. In this troublesome surroundings the turbulent life of a young artist enfolds. He is torn between drugs, his pregnant girlfriend, his family, comrades and his political involvement.
Daily hundreds of poverty-stricken immigrants are drawn into the sprawling city of SÃO PAULO with its many millions of inhabitants. They come to town for sheer survival. Four youngsters with differing perspectives about life and happiness have come to the city with great expectations: Will the 'American dream' come true for them in this metropolis?
In HOUSTON a young manager loses his well-paid and status oriented job with an oil company. He roams through the city, realizing that his life of luxury is over and that his credit cards may soon become overheated. For him the 'American dream' is not fulfilled. Once a winner, he ends up being a loser.
People do not have time for materialistic dreams in WARSAW, here they have to work in order to survive. The story follows six Warsaw natives, one each day, through their daily rituals of life. At breakfast of the seventh day, it becomes clear that these people are members of the one and the same family, giving deeper meaning to the characters' struggle for life.
The protagonist in BUENOS AIRES dreams himself a macho life: he is the greatest Don Juan of the southern hemisphere. Sitting alone on his bed at night he realizes that his tragedy is that his self-styled hero's part can't be shared with others, only sparking off envy.
The city of BUDAPEST is running empty. The last inhabitants leave the city, an evocation of the mood of the Hungarian people, balancing on the edge of a totally new society. The yoke of communism has been shed, the temptations of capitalism are luring. In the Mediterranean port of BARCELONA two young unemployed girls living in a renovation area drift around the city desperately looking for a job. Eventually their own house is being destroyed and they become homeless.
The husband in DAKAR disappeared. Aided by soothsayers and the authorities, the woman of the house and her cousin venture into an intensive search, resulting in an illuminating view of a hypocritical society, dominated by Islamic values. At night they find the husband, wasting his money in a clando, a semi clandestine bordello and shebeen.
In a commune in HAMBURG - luxurious city in the 'civilized' West - the roles have been reversed drastically: The men look after the children while the women earn a living and are in charge. The female machismo has finally come to life.
An art painter leaves chilly Switzerland and his great love, attracted to the paradisiacal atmosphere of the ancient Italian city of BEVAGNA. Here he tries to find harmony and inspiration. A story about xenophobia in Arcadia.
The mega-city of CALCUTTA is a city abounding with contrasts: overcrowded and empty, poor and rich, with floods and draughts alternating. The city as a fermenting organism that grows and flourishes and always excites. A city to love and to hate.

CITY LIFE, THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL EPISODE FILM (1990)
7000 meters, 240 minutes,35 mm, colour

CREATED AND PRODUCED BY
Dirk Rijneke & Mildred van Leeuwaarden
Rotterdam Films/City Life Foundation

CITY LIFE
Members of the board
Rem Koolhaas
Paul Steinhauser
Huub Bals
Willem Nagelkerke

ORIGINAL MUSIC COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY
Zbigniew Preisner

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Jan Heijs

SUPPORTED BY
NCO, National Commission for Development Co-operation, Amsterdam
Rotterdam '88
Economic Affairs, City of Rotterdam
Co-Production Fund, The Netherlands
Dutch Filmfund, Amsterdam
Ministry of WVC, International Relations
NOS television, The Netherlands
DRS television, Switzerland
TV3, Catalunya, Spain
Gosteleradio, GOS
EBU, European Broadcasting Union
EATC, European Alliance for Television and Culture

WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF
DOCUMENTARY MEDIA, Copenhagen
BABEL, Broadcasting Across the Barriers of European Language
MEDIA, Commission of the European Communities

PARTNERS
Grusia Film Tbilisi Georgia
Hamburger Filmbüro Germany
Goethe Institut
Producciones Cinematograficas Guerin Barcelona
Mrinal Sen Productions Calcutta India
Les Films Mame Yande Dakar Senegal
Southwest Alternate Media Project Houston U.S.A.
Fundacão do Cinema Brasileiro Rio de Janeiro Brasil
Casa de Imagens São Paulo
Art Center Studio Warsaw Poland
Movimiento Falso Buenos Aires Argentina
Hungaro Film Budapest Hungary
Hungarian Film Institute
Ombra Films Italy

CITY LIFE was the opening film at the 19th Rotterdam Film Festival and closed The Forum at the 40th Berlin Film Festival. It won prizes in Great Britain, U.S.A. and Russia.

FESTIVALS
Rotterdam Film Festival The Netherlands (Opening night)
International Young Forum Filmfestspiele Berlin(Closing Night)
Hong Kong Film Festival
Festival des Films du Monde Montréal Canada
Festival International de Cinema Figueira da Foz Portugal
International Film and Television Festival Birmingham U.K.
Chicago International Film Festival U.S.A
Mostra Internacional de Cinema São Paulo Brazil
Festival International du Film d'Amiens
Seattle International Film Festival U.S.A.
Tampere International Film Festival
Annual Worldfest Houston U.S.A.
Moscow International Film Festival Russia
International Film Festival Cairo Egypt
Göteborg Film Festival Sweden
Bergamo Film Meeting
International Film Festival of India New Delhi

SPECIAL SCREENINGS (amongst others)
Miro Foundation Barcelona, Spain
Best of Berlin, Venice and Rotterdam, Antwerp, Belgium
Symposium Urban Renewal, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Symposium 'Zukunft von Großsiedlungen - Zukunft von Marzah
Habitat Forum, Berlin Germany
Kino im Dock, Hamburg, Germany
Cinema Center, Moscow, Gos
Cities behind the screen - Türsak, Ankara, Turkey
Cinema Theatre, Calcutta, India
Europäische Filmreihe, Vienna, Austria
Symposium 'City 2001', Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Festival Buitenbeeld, Doesburg, the Netherlands
City Film Festival Mov[cit]ies, Vienna, Austria
Cinematek Norway
Filmoteca Spain
Centre Pompidou Paris
MOMA New York

a Rijneke/ van Leeuwaarden
Rotterdam Films Production
© 1990 City Life the film
Rotterdam Films/City Life Foundation
Provenierssingel 33, 3033 EG Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
info@rotterdamfilms.nl | www.rotterdamfilms.com