Having to watch this several times gives a different impression every time. i thought it was a film about a man finding his way through the city then the story would progress after a tracking shot of him and then we move into his stream of consciousness.

The narrator having the voice of God and looking at things from a macro sort of perspective making everyone else sound so bourgeois and himself so superior but he claims to be equal but with a demeaning tone.

The music is distressing and up beat. It is made to attract attention or at least highlight some details within the frame/shot. For example the first appearance of the old lady in black carrying a small bag walking through the street, having a heavy piano in minor and drums that deafen hardly seem fitting for such a frail subject. but that is the intention. if the same audio piece were used on a scene with robbers it would be more of a conventional style and something that I can comprehend. The first few minutes of the city scene felt like a jungle, a jungle in a sense that it is chaos and one can only depict a story if they pay attention to each individual.

There is almost a story that we can stereotype and box the subjects in, there are a wide range of people filmed. All through the middle class, peasants, officers, newspaper girl and even a monkey with diaper on a leash.

A few notable scenes that i found interesting are as follows:

The tracking shot where there is a kid in shorts bouncing a ball passing through all the adults on his way to who knows where. i wonder why he is alone, does he even have friends we don’t know but it just is a shot filled with wonders I think.

Not long after we cut into a bench are with people sitting and you can see old ladies having a conversation, based on their body language and gestures I assume they are gossiping as they should be. The camera was probably set across the street the bench also frames them nicely and it enhances the subject focus.

We face a transition After the hectic first sequence, we begin to see people in frame and not moving but everything else is. there are so many films and music videos that try to emulate the same idea but with different attributes. in days of late, videographers use time lapse to get the same effect but with a more extreme result having other people blurred but the main focus in one place only moving slightly.

There are a few recurring characters captured again and again in different areas and it sort of tells a story in itself. presuming that this movie is made to make you feel as if you were a civilian of paris at that time and just observing people. the repetitive characters must be ones closest to where we stand as viewers. one of them is an old man holding a stack of papers and he’s sort of wanting to give them but he just ends up touching the corner. another one is of the baby in the stroller. but then again there are several baby and mother shots. there is even a shot of a man and an old lady, perhaps placed there to show “time passing”.

the editing must have been difficult, because there are so many different ways these shots could make as the end result. For example if only the shots of women’s legs were highlighted then followed by laughter and men smirking, it would be a Tottaly different movie but all from the same shots.

although i think the outstanding factor in this twelve minute clip is the use of themes and how they utilise it so well. i suppose in short the theme of this is the Metropolitan lifestyle.

The camerawork is far from basic but it is definitely not the most complicated. This was made in 1964 around the french new wave film makers like Godard, so beautiful and simple shots are no surprise for french films. The use of closeups are not overdone and we still get a sense of city life even when zoomed in to the face.