Lost Book Found (1996)
Director: Jem Cohen
Starring: Monroe D. Cohen, Todd Colby
This week in Screens, Images, Ideas we did something a bit different. We looked at the somewhat vague idea of psychogeography, the way in which people experience different places, in our case cinematically. Rather than having one film as our text we watched a couple of shorter films and snippets from others. The first film we watched was a short documentary by Jem Cohen called Lost Book Found.
The narrative centres on a nameless man who worked for some years as a hot dog vendor in New York. Every now and then he sees a homeless man who makes money by fishing things out of the sewers and selling them. One day he buys a book off him. This book is filled with dozens of random lists. These lists would no doubt have had some mundane significance to the original owner of the book, but to the man they form a code with which he can unlock an understanding of the city of New York.
While the film has a narrative, there is no actual action taking place on screen. Lost Book Found's narrative exists only in the form of a narration. What you see on screen is a series of images and shots of New York city. I'm not talking about the standard tourist shots of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Rather, the narrative is supported by shots of the streets of New York city. Shop windows, phone booths, garbage bins, taxi cabs, street signs, footpaths and posters. The images show the New York city that of the street hot dog vendor. The images paint a picture of New York. They create an atmosphere, a vibe. I suppose you would call the film a documentary, but Lost Book Found isn't trying to teach you about New York. It is not a film of facts or anecdotes. Instead, in a way, it wants to make you feel New York.
New York has quite a strong tradition of cinematic representations. It is a city which has become a film icon. In so many films the city of New York becomes more than just a location. It has a character which infiltrates and influences the film. Obviously there are filmmakers like Woody Allen (Manhattan), Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver), Spike Lee (25th Hour) and Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon) who are very New York centric, but you also see the city playing a prominent role in films like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Wall Street and even Ghostbusters.
If the name Jem Cohen means anything to you at all, which I'm assuming it doesn't because it didn't to me, it is probably because he has directed a number of film clips for R.E.M. including the clips for 'Nightswimming', 'E-Bow the Letter' and 'Talk About the Passion'.
Lost Book Found is only very short, with a run time of about 35mins. This is just as well, as I don't think there is really enough there to sustain a viewers interest for any longer. But as a short film I think it kind of worked. I'm not usually a fan of this kind of unconventional film, but I found that I was willing to go with it and found it quite effective. Realistically, this is not a film that you are just going to come across. It's pretty niche. But if you are into this sort of thing, it's not bad.
This week in Screens, Images, Ideas we did something a bit different. We looked at the somewhat vague idea of psychogeography, the way in which people experience different places, in our case cinematically. Rather than having one film as our text we watched a couple of shorter films and snippets from others. The first film we watched was a short documentary by Jem Cohen called Lost Book Found.
The narrative centres on a nameless man who worked for some years as a hot dog vendor in New York. Every now and then he sees a homeless man who makes money by fishing things out of the sewers and selling them. One day he buys a book off him. This book is filled with dozens of random lists. These lists would no doubt have had some mundane significance to the original owner of the book, but to the man they form a code with which he can unlock an understanding of the city of New York.
While the film has a narrative, there is no actual action taking place on screen. Lost Book Found's narrative exists only in the form of a narration. What you see on screen is a series of images and shots of New York city. I'm not talking about the standard tourist shots of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Rather, the narrative is supported by shots of the streets of New York city. Shop windows, phone booths, garbage bins, taxi cabs, street signs, footpaths and posters. The images show the New York city that of the street hot dog vendor. The images paint a picture of New York. They create an atmosphere, a vibe. I suppose you would call the film a documentary, but Lost Book Found isn't trying to teach you about New York. It is not a film of facts or anecdotes. Instead, in a way, it wants to make you feel New York.
New York has quite a strong tradition of cinematic representations. It is a city which has become a film icon. In so many films the city of New York becomes more than just a location. It has a character which infiltrates and influences the film. Obviously there are filmmakers like Woody Allen (Manhattan), Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver), Spike Lee (25th Hour) and Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon) who are very New York centric, but you also see the city playing a prominent role in films like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Wall Street and even Ghostbusters.
If the name Jem Cohen means anything to you at all, which I'm assuming it doesn't because it didn't to me, it is probably because he has directed a number of film clips for R.E.M. including the clips for 'Nightswimming', 'E-Bow the Letter' and 'Talk About the Passion'.
Lost Book Found is only very short, with a run time of about 35mins. This is just as well, as I don't think there is really enough there to sustain a viewers interest for any longer. But as a short film I think it kind of worked. I'm not usually a fan of this kind of unconventional film, but I found that I was willing to go with it and found it quite effective. Realistically, this is not a film that you are just going to come across. It's pretty niche. But if you are into this sort of thing, it's not bad.
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