the view from the train: cities and other landscapes (patrick keiller)

Keiller is the maker of several cult films, which I have never seen, even if they have dwelled in my consciousness for decades. So it is perhaps perverse to engage with a book of his before seeing them. Having said that, the author is self-consciously operating, both as writer and filmmaker. within a defined intellectual framework. He cites the writing of Aragon, Lefebvre, Benjamin, amongst many others. His space is space: the space of the city, the space of the city within film, the space of film. His writing interrogates the representation of space, and how this has lead to its reconfiguration since the genesis of film and photography in the nineteenth century. The book is composed of various essays, written over the course of twenty years. This allows him to trace how the city he inhabits, London, has shifted over the course of this time, as well as permitting him to reference Dickens among others as descriptors of the city that came before. The book is something of a pot-pourri, but the essays on the early years of cinema, and how that medium was received and changed perceptions, are gloriously readable.