The City (La Ciudad)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: B-
David Riker takes on an ambitious project in The City
(La Ciudad, 1999) by trying to make a multi-part story about current
immigrants and their isolation trying to make it in New York at the new turn of
the century. To his credit, the film is
realistic and well acted, especially considering most of the actors are
first-time non-professionals. Unfortunately,
he does not break new ground or come up with anything innovative and necessary
to present their plight beyond the expected suffering.
Of course, this is a whole cross-section of people being
ignored, a situation that has only become worse and more viciously argued by
political pundits after the events of 9/11/01, especially in New York. Whether those events would have made a
difference in this film or even prevented it from being made is something to
consider, so it is now a sort of time capsule of the final years of what the
state of poverty, loneliness and even hopelessness for immigrants (and in
effect poor non-immigrants) as the sweatshops return in record numbers and
force. The shamefulness of that gets
diverted to those struggling to barely hold on.
The four parts cover a labor force being hired in a
one-shot deal to do some heavy, dangerous work, a love story with a twist in
Mexico, a homeless puppeteer with a daughter and a dream of literacy and
wealth, and a poor seamstress who has the world crashing around her. All work well and are thoughtful, but not as
bold as they could or should have been in that they are too readerly and not
writerly enough. Riker is talented and
has some heart and soul in this, but would likely have a whole second film to
make after all that has happened since its making. We look forward to covering his other works.
The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image is monochrome and somewhat
soft throughout, but is well shot by cinematographer Harlan Bosmajian, with a
slight grittiness that helps the narratives throughout. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has hardly any
surrounds, while the film was a now-rare Ultra Stereo analog release. That system was never great and had even
more distortion than Dolby’s old A-type analog, so that it even sounds this
good is amazing. Extras include a
28-minutes-long featurette on the making of the film, trailer for it and four
other New Yorker DVDs. The featurette
is a must and Riker is very well spoken.
Be sure to catch The City.
- Nicholas Sheffo
