Visionary documentary that contrasts the conditions of life in small towns and in the industrialized cities, starting with a brief portrait of pre-industrial United States, then moving into the modern chaotic, industrial and commercial city to reflect on the effects of this environment on family life and the raising of children, and finally proposing a return to a simpler life, in an idyllic “new city” in Maryland, constructed as a New Deal project, to promote proper upbringing of children, as well as a stable family life.

The.City.1939.DVDRip-HANDJOB.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	43mn 40s
Size: 	910 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	718x480 ~> 718x538
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	Variable
Bit rate: 	2 599 Kbps
BPP: 	
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 256 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/8F5F086E4C74589/The.City.1939.DVDRip-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke – The City (1939) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
“Steiner is interested in film’s capacity to invigorate everyday sight, to alert viewers to the simple, magical visual pleasures available in nearly any circumstance. The film is divided into sequences that focus on specific kinds of imagery in and around ocean surf.” – Scott MacDonald

Marc Blitzstein’s original chamber music score was prepared by the composer under commission by Alma Wertheimer for the 1931 Coplan/Sessions’ ‘Film and Music’ program at the Broardhurst Theatre, NYC.

Ralph Steiner - 1931 - Surf and Seaweed.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	12 min 36 s
Size: 	249 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	672x480 ~> 672x504
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 530 kb/s
BPP: 	0.327
Audio
#1:  	2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/0B8F35FA99DCE18/Ralph_Steiner_-_1931_-_Surf_and_Seaweed.mkv

Language(s):None
Subtitles:None

The post Ralph Steiner – Surf and Seaweed (1931) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
“This satire on religious pretension was collaboration between the Group Theater and the newly formed Nykino. Its creation of a self-reflexive illusion within an illusion distinguishes it not only from the commercial cinema but from various arenas of experimental and revolutionary film that had developed by 1934.” – Scott MacDonald

Quote:
At a skid row mission, a cleric opines as men wait to eat. After his sermon, he brings out a pie and cuts it into small slices. The two men at the end of the line get none. They leave the mission and head for a garbage dump where junk becomes props for their play. A dress form becomes Mae West; a rusted car gives them a wild ride. Then, one dresses as a priest and promises pie in the sky. By the end, they sport metal halos.

Ralph Steiner - 1933 - Pie in the Sky.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	20 min 46 s
Size: 	390 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	672x480 ~> 672x504
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 400 kb/s
BPP: 	0.310
Audio
#1:  	2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s (Music by Donald Sosin)

https://nitro.download/view/88D1CA17E442344/Ralph_Steiner_-_1933_-_Pie_in_the_Sky.mkv

Language(s):None
Subtitles:None

The post Ralph Steiner – Pie in the Sky (1935) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
“The film presents a deceptively ‘open’ series of images of gears and pistons that transfer movement from vertical to rotary directions. Musical in its repetitive visual form, it now seems akin to Charles Sheeler’s paintings and photographs of railroad locomotive gears and wheels, a tribute to the machine age.” – Robert A. Haller

Quote:
Close up we see pistons move up and down or side to side. Pendulums sway, the small parts of machinery move. Gears drive larger wheels. Gears within gears spin. Shafts turn some mechanism that is out of sight. Screws revolve and move other gears; a bit rotates. More subtle mechanisms move other mechanical parts for unknown purposes. Weights rise and fall. The movements, underscored by sound, are rhythmic. Circles, squares, rods, and teeth are in constant and sometimes asymmetrical motion. These human-made mechanical bits seem benign and reassuring.

Ralph Steiner - 1931 - Mechanical Principles [576p].mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	10 min 20 s
Size: 	215 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	776x576 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 650 kb/s
BPP: 	0.247
Audio
#1:  	2.0ch AC-3 @ 256 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/AB7FAC102BC22DC/Ralph_Steiner_-_1931_-_Mechanical_Principles__576p_.mkv

Language(s):None
Subtitles:None

The post Ralph Steiner – Mechanical Principles (1931) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
“HANDS is an ingenious piece of propaganda that communicates not only through the thrust of its content, but through the very unconventionality of its “experimental” structure. The film suggests that the government that produced it is imaginative and inventive, open to new possibilities, and supportive of forms of free expression.” – Scott MacDonald

Quote:
“Educated at Dartmouth, Ralph Steiner became a successful commercial and much honored fine art photographer. He made perhaps the first American abstract film, H2O (1929), following it with other experiments, some political in nature, some in Hollywood. Steiner also photographed with Paul Strand THE PLOW THAT BROKE THE PLAINS (1936) and co-directed and photographed THE CITY (1939) with Willard Van Dyke and Henwar Rodakiewicz.” – Robert A. Haller

Quote:
“Willard Van Dyke, a photographer by age 12, formed in 1932 with Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Imogen Cunningham the pivotal West Coast photography group f/64. Moving East, he became a noted documentary film-maker working closely with Pare Lorentz and Ralph Steiner among others. HANDS may be his first completed film.” – Robert A. Haller

Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke - 1934 - Hands.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	3 min 53 s
Size: 	69.9 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	686x480 ~> 686x514
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 289 kb/s
BPP: 	0.290
Audio
#1:  	2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s (Music by Eric Beheim)

https://nitro.download/view/54E5CE039B63502/Ralph_Steiner_&_Willard_Van_Dyke_-_1934_-_Hands.mkv

Language(s):None
Subtitles:None

The post Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke – Hands (1934) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
In 1929, Steiner made his first film, H2O, a poetic evocation of water that captured the abstract patterns generated by waves. Although it was not the only film of its kind at the time – Joris Ivens made REGEN that same year, and Henwar Rodekiewicz worked on his similar film PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN (1931) through this whole period – it made a significant impression in its day and since has become recognized as a classic: H2O was added to the National Film Registry in December 2005. Among Steiner’s other early films, SURF AND SEAWEED (1931) expands on the concept of H2O as Steiner turns his camera to the shoreline; MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES (1930) was an abstraction based on gears and machinery.

Quote:
An early and well known experimental film composed around the theme of water in all its forms. As a type of cinematic tone poem, it emphasizes rhythm and alteration through the visual qualities of the images and the structure of the editing. When the filmmaker moves the camera closer to the reflective surface, the images become more abstract and visually dramatic. This concentration on patterns of movement, shading and texture makes H2O so wonderful.

Ralph Steiner - 1929 - H2O [WEB 576p].mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	13 min 28 s
Size: 	299 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	768x576 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	18.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 098 kb/s
BPP: 	0.389
Audio

https://nitro.download/view/E0697977EABA304/Ralph_Steiner_-_1929_-_H2O__WEB_576p_.mkv

Language(s):Silent
Subtitles:None

The post Ralph Steiner – H2O (1929) first appeared on Cinema of the World.