Narration
From, "Paris a Desert, Lamentations of a Hausmannized
Jeremiah," 1868
Narration
"You will live to see the city grown desolate and
bleak." [E4,2]
Lyrics
tief is ihr Weh!
Author's Note
A New York Central—now long-gone—viaduct that
is part of the "High Line" a not-yet lost urban
ruin on the far West Side of Manhattan. The images that
follow are of the High Line's ruins in Spring and Winter.
Narration
"Your glory will be great in the eyes of future
archaeologists"
[E4,2]
Narration
"but your last days will be sad and bitter..."
[E4,2]
Narration
"Lizards, stray dogs, and rats will rule over this
magnificence."
[E4,2]
Tief ist ihr Weh! Deep is its suffering
Narration The injuries inflicted by time will accumulate
on the gold of the balconies,
Paris désert: Lamentations d’un Jérémie
haussmannisé, 1868
[E4,2]
Narration
"and on the painted murals.
. ."
[E4,2]
Narration
"And loneliness, the tedious goddess of deserts,
will come and settle upon"
[E4,2]
Author's Note
The abandoned Smallpox Hospital on Welfare—now Roosevelt—Island
in the East River.
Narration
"this new empire you will have made for her by
so formidable a labor."
Paris désert: Lamentations d’un Jérémie
haussmannisé, 1868 [E4,2]
Lyrics
--tiefer noch als Herzeleid! deeper yet than heartache
Multi-Media Essay Notes To help bridge the space between art and scholarship
each author has put together a series of notes to
his and her film.
These include the voiced-over words of Benjamin
(Narration) with appropriate
citation, other text where appropriate, and a discussion of the author's
intent (Author's Note).
Haussmann
Notes
Narration
Haussmann gave himself the title of ‘demolition
artist’.
He believed he had a vocation for his work, and emphasizes
this in his memoirs...."
[E. Haussmann, or the Barricades, sec. I, Exposé
of 1939]
Author's Note
The music is from Mahler’s Symphony no.1, "The
Titan". Who was more a titan, and who more a
Haussmann for New York in the twentieth century than
Robert Moses?
Narration
"It has been said of the Ile de de la Cité,
the cradle of the city, that in the wake of Haussmann
only one church, one public building, and one barracks
remained."
[E. Haussmann, or the Barricades, sec. I, Exposé
of 1939]
Narration
"The great American passion for city planning,
imported into Paris by a prefect of police during the
Second Empire and now being applied to the task of redrawing
the map of our capital in straight lines..."
[R2,1]
Author's Note
The 1814 version of the commissioner’s plan for
New York with our grid superimposed on what was then virgin
landscape.
Narration
"Haussmann’s ideal in city planning consisted
of long straight
streets opening onto broad perspectives."
[E. Haussmann, or the Barricades, sec. II, Exposé
of 1939]
Narration
"The temples of the bourgeoisie’s spiritual
and secular power were to find their apotheosis within
the framework of these long streets."
[E. Haussmann, or the Barricades, sec. II, Exposé
of 1939]
Narration
"Paris, as we find it in the period following the
Revolution
of 1848, was about to become uninhabitable."
[E1a,3] quoting from Maxime du Camp, Paris, vol 6 (Paris,
1875), p.253.
Narration
Its population had been greatly enlarged and unsettled
... and now this population was suffocating in the narrow,
tangled, putrid alleyways in which it was forcibly confined."
[E1a,3] quoting from Maxime du Camp, Paris, vol 6 (Paris,
1875), p.253.]
Narration
From a memorandum by Haussman: "The railway stations
are today the principal entryways into Paris."
[E2a,5]
Narration
"To put them in communication with the city center
by means of large arteries is a necessity of the first
order." [E2a,5]
Narration
"He demolished some quartiers—one might say,
entire towns. He gave us instead—through his well-considered
architectural breakthroughs—air health, life.
Sometimes it was a Street that he created, sometimes
an Avenue or Boulevard, sometimes it was a Square, a
Public Garden, a Promenade. He established Hospitals,
Schools, Campuses. He gave us a whole river. He dug
magnificent sewers."
[E3,2] 2:31
Author's Note
T he music switches from Symphony no.1 back to Zarathustra’s
song from Symphony no.3 and with it from the glory of
Moses’s achievement to its melancholy, and inevitable,
incompleteness.
Hausmannized
Jeremiah," 1868
[E4,2]
by
so formidable a labor."
Paris désert: Lamentations d’un Jérémie
haussmannisé, 1868 [E4,2]
artist’.
He believed he had a vocation for his work, and emphasizes
this in his memoirs...."
Revolution
of 1848, was about to become uninhabitable." 
stations
are today the principal entryways into Paris."