from New York trade papers announcing the film showing to the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall & shadows indicating time of year & actual weather and conditions on historical record, even when the cars were registered (he knows who owned them and when the plates were issued)-- put the exact date at Saturday, April 14, 1906 -- only four days before the infamous earthquake. (The film rolls/flutters in a couple of spots but it clears up.)
There are several clips of the quake's destruction, including one that takes the same route as the one above, here.
Cool!
ReplyDeleteAmazing!
ReplyDeleteYou probably already know about:
http://www.shorpy.com/
Anarchy in the streets! U-turns, jaywalking, wrong way drivers, you name it! Fun!
ReplyDeleteNotice the guy talking on a cell phone crossing the street @ 4:15!
ReplyDeleteReminds me of those videos of traffic in India but in slow motion.
ReplyDeleteA 1906 cell phone, that would be something to see.
ReplyDeleteHey I was just there today! Some of those building survived. I think you can see the hibernia bank building on the left at around 3:30 and the clock tower building that you end up at that seems to be in the middle of the street is the ferry building. It still is a ferry building (ferry's to Marin County) but it also has a farmers market and some "foodie" shops now. The cool Victorian buildings on the right no longer exist but otherwise Market street feels the same - except in the film it's missing homeless people.
ReplyDeleteOne of the absolute masterpieces of the American avant-garde cinema, Ernie Gehr's 1974 film Eureka is an optically printed refilming of this film, which expands it to about half an hour and turns it into something really magic and amazing. I've seen it a few times, most recently at the Harvard Film Archive a couple years ago.
ReplyDeleteScott MacDonald has written about it pretty extensively; but it really defies description. I think it's probably available for download somewhere or other, but it really needs to be seen on film, in a dark room. I can't stress how great the film is; seeing Gehr's source material is strange.
I saw this a few months ago, but man - that film James is talking about sounds incredible! I want to see that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Gehr is really great. Serene Velocity and Side/Walk/Shuttle are the ones that get screened the most, but all of his film work is pretty stellar. One of the best!
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