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3 - Cityscapes: Panoramas and the Mobile Gaze

Les Roberts
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Summary

They've been part of my life, the ships, the river, the tides, as long as I can remember. It's what you might call inevitable I suppose, because I was born and brought up in this part of Liverpool, right on the waterfront, almost among the docks.

(Waterfront, Michael Anderson, 1950)

Mobilizing the Gaze

Lisa Berndle: When my father was alive we travelled a lot. We went nearly everywhere. We had a wonderful time.

Stefan Brand: I didn't know you travelled so much.

Lisa: Oh, yes.

Stefan: Perhaps we've been to some of the same places?

Lisa: No, I don't think so.

Stefan: Where did you go?

Lisa: Well, it was a long time ago. But, um…for instance there was Rio de Janeiro. Beautiful, exotic Rio with its botanical gardens, its avenue of palms, Sugarloaf Mountain, and…a harbour where you could look down and see the flying fish.

[LOOKS OUT OF THE WINDOW]

We're in Venice!

Stefan: Yes, we've arrived. Now, where would you like to go next?

France, England, Russia?

Lisa: Switzerland!

Stefan: Switzerland! Excuse me one moment while I talk with the engineer…

(Scene from Letter from an Unknown Woman, Max Ophüls, 1948)

In Max Ophüls's Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), virtual travel by train in one key scene establishes a panoramic mise-en-scène in which the mobile gaze of film and its moving-image precursors is doubly alluded. Seated in a simulated train compartment, the film's two main characters, Lisa Berndle (played by Joan Fontaine) and Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan), are seated opposite each other beside a window, the curtains of which are pulled back either side of the ‘frame’ like a cinema screen. Outside the window, scenic backdrops – panoramic reproductions of Venetian and Alpine landscapes – pass by creating the impression of vehicular movement. Upon their arrival in Venice, Stefan gets out to pay for their next trip. The cashier calls out to the operator, who changes the panoramic backdrops for Switzerland. The operator then climbs onto a customized bicycle that operates the movement of the panorama, blows a whistle and starts pedalling. The next journey is underway.

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Film, Mobility and Urban Space
A Cinematic Geography of Liverpool
 , pp. 64 - 96
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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