A Movietone Specialty: Symphony of a City (US version)
Människor i stad, Arne Sucksdorff, Sweden 1947
Print source: Academy Film Archive, Los Angeles
Running time: 11 minutes
Viewed at The Nitrate Picture Show (NPS), George Eastman Museum, Dryden Theatre, Rochester, 4 May 2018
NPS: "About the print: The film is in excellent condition, with deep, rich contrast and very little scratching nor damage. Shrinkage: 0.63%"
"About the film: Arne Sucksdorff, “the brilliant Swedish artist who has been widely and properly acclaimed for such fresh and evocative short films as Symphony of a City” (New York Times, 1955), won an Academy Award in 1949 for Best Short Subject (One-Reel) with this masterful, poetic depiction of a day in Stockholm." (NPS)
AA: Arne Sucksdorff's classic documentary of Stockholm starts with a birds' eye view in the company of seagulls. The flying motif continues with views of Carl Milles statues with their Icarus obsession (see image above). People are sunbathing, but a heavy rain interrupts them. Boy meets girl. Children are at play, and welders work in the street. A sense of the sacred is present at the church. A verger comes to help the children who have dropped their coins on the floor. Fishermen catch fish with nets, an artist paints them, and seagulls snatch a fishing boy's catch. We return to their birds' eye view, and the boy and a blind man walk together as the night comes and streetlights are lit. There is no spoken sound, only music and sound effects.
A brilliant print with a beautiful dynamics from full black to glistening white and everything in between.
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