Purpose
Lawrence Webb’s book “The Cinema of Urban Crisis” is a rethinking of urban spaces and a reflection of the situation in cinema in the 1970s. The story describes how filmmakers responded to the urban changes and challenges in the new environment. The main goal of the work is not only the analysis of cinematic works but also the consideration of the general urban dynamics through the lens of cinema.
Structure and Themes
Concerning organization, the work is structured chronologically and thematically, indicating the author’s ability to follow the current urban crisis in the field of cinema. The author portrays the social upheavals of the time, as well as the economic situation and mood of society.
Thesis Evidence
The author supports the thesis of his work by combining the historical part with a critical interpretation of the situation and analysis of films that were released in the 1970s. Thus, the cinema wanted to bring variety to the cinema, which was particularly interesting for the new urban population.
Outstanding Part
The section that stood out to me to the largest extent was the section devoted to cognitive mapping (Webb, 2015). Concerning the reason, this portion of the introductory chapter offers a critical review of Jameson’s and other authors’ essays on the mental cityscapes. It enables the reader to comprehend the state of the art in topics at the intersection of architecture and social sciences.
Connection to Other Sources
The reading resembles two studies, including “Thinking with quarantine urbanism?” by Bianchetti et al. (2020) and “Reframing the contested city through ethnographic film…” by Bathla and Papanicolaou (2022). Both papers deal with the topic of urbanization and consider its relation to the cinema, including the historical aspect and the issue from a contemporary perspective. In particular, the authors disclose the topic of urbanism separately from the relationship with cinema, which allows more insight into the essence of the features.
Table 1 – Source Information.
References
Bathla, N., & Papanicolaou, K. E. (2022). Reframing the contested city through ethnographic film: Beyond the expository on housing and the urban. International Journal of Housing Policy, 22(3), 351–370. Web.
Bianchetti, C., Boano, C., & Di Campli, A. (2020). Thinking with quarantine urbanism?Space and Culture: The Journal, 23(3), 301–306. Web.