New York has appeared in more movies than Michael Caine, and the
resulting overfamiliarity to moviegoers poses a problem for critics
and filmmakers alike. Audiences often mistake the New York image of
skyscrapers and bright lights for the real thing, when in fact the
City is a network of clearly defined villages, each with a unique
personality. Standard film depictions of New Yorkers as a rush-hour
mass of undifferentiated humanity obscure the connections formed
between people and places in the City's diverse neighborhoods.
Street Smart examines the cultural influences of New York's
neighborhoods on the work of four quintessentially New York
filmmakers: Sidney Lumet, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, and Spike
Lee. The City's heterogeneous economic and ethnic districts, where
people live, work, shop, worship, and go to school, often bear
little relation to the image of New York City created by the
movies. To these directors, their home city is as tangible as the
smell of fried onions in the stairwell of an apartment building,
and it is this New York, not the bustling, glittery illusion
portrayed in earlier films, that shapes their sensibilities and
receives expression in their films. Richard A. Blake shows how the
Jewish enclaves on Manhattan's Lower East Side profoundly influence
Sidney Lumet's most noted characters as they struggle to form and
maintain their identities under challenging circumstances. Both
Woody Allen's light comedies and his more serious cinematic fare
reflect the director's origins in the Flatbush neighborhood in
Brooklyn and the displacement he felt after relocating to
Manhattan. Martin Scorsese's upbringing on Elizabeth Street in
Manhattan's Little Italy resonates in his gritty portraits of urban
modernity. Blake also looks at the films of Spike Lee, whose
adolescence in Fort Greene, a socioeconomically diverse Brooklyn
neighborhood, exposed him to widely ranging views that add depth to
his complicated treatises on power, culture, and race. Lumet,
Allen, Scorsese, and Lee's individual identities were shaped by
their neighborhoods, and in turn, their life experiences have
shaped their artistic vision. In Street Smart, Richard A. Blake
examines the critical influence of "place" on the films of four of
America's most accomplished contemporary filmmakers.
General
Imprint: |
The University Press of Kentucky
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
September 2005 |
First published: |
September 2005 |
Authors: |
Richard A. Blake
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 28mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
360 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8131-2357-8 |
Categories: |
Books >
Arts & Architecture >
Performing arts >
Films, cinema >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8131-2357-7 |
Barcode: |
9780813123578 |
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