ABSTRACT
After his Milan city symphony Stramilano, Corrado D'Errico made a few other films showing affinities with Futurism. D'Errico presents the station as a city within the city. With its hurrying crowds, shops, restaurants, newspaper stands, hectic traffic outside the building, advertisements, and neon signs, Ritmi di stazione is a veritable city symphony. In the 1920s, the arrival in the city by train had also become a staple image in city symphonies. Trains and stations are the main focus of D'Errico's 1933 Impressioni di vita n.1: ritmi di stazione (Impressions of Life Nr. 1: Railway Station Rhythms). Light is, indeed, an important motif in the film, which contains beautiful chiaroscuro shots showing light beams entering station halls as well as imagery of atmospheric effects involving smoke, steam, and reflections on glass and steel surfaces.
