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City and the Self--experiencing the city

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from The City and the Self (1972)
Created by Stanley Milgram and Harry From
Distributed by Pennsylvania State University
Posted byCarrie Rentschler

film examines the experience of life in the city from the perspective of NYC commuters, early 1970s

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Urban Psychologies of Massified Experience

by Carrie Rentschler

This opening sequence portrays urban life as at once isolated and crowded.

In this opening sequence to Stanley Milgram and Harry From's 1972 film "The City and the Self," viewers move from spectating the city and its early morning, empty transportation infrastructure to following the commuter crowd rushing into the city's subways and downtown sidewalks. Combining art film and documentary traditions, the film attempts to posit pscyhological truths about urban overload and selective attention based in Milgram's own research and the research of social pyschologists John Darley and Bibb Latane in the wake of the 1964 Kitty Genovese murder in NYC.

Copyright 2010, by the Contributing Authors. Cite/attribute Resource. carrierentschler. (2011, August 08). Urban Psychologies of Massified Experience. Retrieved May 16, 2012, from Critical Commons Web site: http://criticalcommons.org/Members/carrierentschler/commentaries/urban-psychologies-of-massified-experience. This work is licensed under a No Copyright; No Rights Reserved.