ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the film Skyscraper Symphony directed by Frenchman Robert Florey. Skyscraper Symphony by Florey explores the effects of modernity on the urban dweller in concert with other city symphony films. The film overlooks the city's traditional status as a bustling commercial seaport, focusing solely on the city's lofty buildings often seen through radically oblique angles and destabilizing viewpoints. The major cinematic precursor to Skyscraper Symphony is the lost travelogue Bonjour New York, in which Florey recorded Maurice Chevalier's arrival in 1928. Skyscraper Symphony was shot in the early morning, after Florey was kept awake by the pounding of the riveter's gun. He was responding to New York post-war building boom which created a virtual "skyscraper mania," affecting both urban geography and popular imagery. Crosscutting from an excavation site to the panning of an adjacent skyscraper, the film signals that Manhattan's tall buildings will rise interminably, linking past, present, and future time.
