Delhi (1938) [N/A]
Directed by:
Hans Nieter
Release Date:
February 8, 1938
Original Title:
Delhi
Genres:
Documentary
Production Companies:
World Window
Production Countries:
United Kingdom
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 10
Filmed in 1938, less than a decade before Indian independence, Delhi has a curious tale to tell. ‘Delhi’, the viewer is informed, ‘is the cockpit of the Indian Empire’, it provides the ‘gateway to the riches of the south’. The opening sections of the film focus upon those who have tried and failed to establish a lasting power in the capital. ‘At Delhi’, the commentator states, ‘successive cities have been built by conquering invaders – each has fallen into disuse and decay’. The camerawork focuses on the ‘impressive ruins’ of these earlier invaders. Although the film also depicts the enduring architecture of Muslim rulers, such as Akbar and Shahjahan, it is stressed that their power has been superseded. Legend has it that it will be the ninth city of Delhi that ‘will endure and will rule forever’. Shahjahan had built the eighth.
Someone had the idea of sending Jack Cardiff to India to film India in Technicolor. In works like "A Road in India" and here, he shot some of the most gorgeous travelogues ever.This one is shot in three sections: in the first, we see a barren plain and monuments of ancient India. The first thing you notice are the curves, the ogee arches, in which Cardiff framed his subjects, then moved through them to show the scenery in sere colors. After a third of the film -- three minutes -- we finally see people against these rounded arches: men washing before prayer and beautiful women in their saris.The final third begins with a British army bugler. The curves vanish as the architecture becomes severely western, a geometry of straight lines and women emerging from cars in European dresses.The movie ends with architecture that combines curves and straight lines, cupola towers over flat roofs. The narrator tells us that this is the ninth Delhi, which will stand and rule forever.Eight years after this movie was made, India's independence was declared. Like Germany's Thousand Year Reich, forever isn't as long as it used to be.
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