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Skyscraper Symphony
Skyscraper Symphony
Directed by	Robert Florey
Release date	1929;
Running time	9 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent

Skyscraper Symphony (1929) is an avant-garde silent short film by French-American filmmaker Robert Florey.^[1] The film was shot in the early morning hours in New York City. It captured skyscrapers which, by the late 1920s had become a global trademark of the city and became a representation of the ever-developing technologies in America, as well as the rapid growth of capitalism. Florey’s focus on the booming metropolitan in the post-World War I era has solidified this film as a “city symphony,” and he draws upon his own experience as a tourist in America to capture the excitement and uncertainty of being in New York City.

Synopsis

The film consists of a sequence of low-angle shots of skyscrapers in Manhattan. The beginning and end of the film’s shots are primarily static, with one shot fading slowly into the next. The middle portion of the film has abrupt and rapid cuts between shots, with the camera capturing the buildings in shaky, canted movements.^[2]

Reception

Musicologist Hannah Lewis has compared the "striking angles, zooms, panning, and unsteady camera angles" which "disorient" viewers of Skyscraper Symphony to techniques used by montage theorists.^[3]

References

^ "National Film Preservation Foundation: Skyscraper Symphony (1929)". www.filmpreservation.org. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
^ Murphy, Amy (December 1, 2016). "Review: Masterworks of American Avant-Garde Experimental Film 1920–1970, produced by David Shepard and curated by Bruce Posner". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 75 (4): 515–518. doi:10.1525/jsah.2016.75.4.515. ISSN 0037-9808.
^ Lewis, Hannah (Spring 2017). "'Love Me Tonight' (1932) and the Development of the Integrated Film Musical". The Musical Quarterly. 100 (1): 3–32 – via JSTOR.

Bibliography

Jacobs, Steven; Kinik, Anthony; Hielscher, Eva (2019). The city symphony phenomenon: cinema, art, and urban modernity between the wars. AFI film readers. New York [New York]: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-138-66527-9.