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The View from the Train: Cities and Other Landscapes
£5.80
In his classic sequence of films, Patrick Keiller retraces the hidden story of the places where we live, the cities and landscapes of our everyday lives. This collection explores the surrealist perception of the city; the relationship of architecture to film; how cities change over time, as well as an urgent portrait of post-crash Britain. The View from the Train establishes Keiller as one of the most perceptive writers and thinkers about the city, landscape and politics.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Verso Books, Illustrated edition (14 July 2014) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 320 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1781687765 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1781687765 |
| Dimensions | 13.97 x 1.42 x 20.96 cm |
by Amazon Customer
A brilliant book, easy to read and informative. Keillers style can make the most mundane of subjects fascinating, a unique voice.
by A. Osborne
Film-maker, artist, theorist, psychogeographer (an intellectual strategy he was practising long before the broadsheets cottoned on to it) and all-round polymath (hmm, isn’t that a tautology?), Patrick Keiller is much-loved in our house. His films (such as Robinson in Ruins) repay repeated viewings, reminding one variously of Peter Greenaway, Chris Marker, Laurence Sterne, Walter Benjamin and Jorge Luis Borges.
I admire the combination of erudition and eccentricity and a very English Surrealism (with one eye firmly fixed on the Continent). His work is also, this must be stressed, very funny, with often unexpected juxtapositions, insights and cultural references piling up to brilliant and mad effect.
The good news is that those facets of his work are all present and correct this wonderful collection of his writings from the last few decades. Taking in cinema, architecture, Surrealism, time, space and just about everything else, it adds up to a fascinating glimpse into Keiller’s mind – arch, witty and very cultured.
London and Robinson in Space [DVD
]
Robinson in Ruins [DVD & Blu-ray
]
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Oxford World’s Classics)
The Early Films of Peter Greenaway 1 [1969] [DVD
]
by tallmanbaby
Patrick Keiller is perhaps best known as the director of Robinson in Ruins and Robinson in Space, and occupies a similar territory of urban contemplation as authors Owen Hatherley, and Iain Sinclair.
This is a selection of essays, and is something of a mixed bag. I thought that some were really excellent, such as those on ports or Cedric Price, which easily justified the purchase price for me. However there was a degree of repetition, and at times it felt like you were reading a slightly obsessive phd dissertation on Walter Benjamin.
Overall an enjoyable and illuminating read, though a dry at points.
by N. A. Osborne
This book is made up of material published elsewhere prior to it being collected. As such it lacks a little in continuity and coherence, often repeating itself. Nevertheless it is thoroughly enjoyable, informative and interesting book on London, port statistics, architecture, dilapidation, film, imaging and rail. It is a book about both the everyday and grand schemes that push their way into our lives. It is a book that crosses genre.
As a Londoner, geographer, walker, topographer I would recommend this and other works by the author, whether on film or in print (the photo book of his film London is excellent as a memory of place, space and time).
by CALTON JOHN D
This was potentially interesting and bought on the basis of a Radio 4 Start the Week’s shopping puff. The discussion was stimulating. as for the book, it should really be properly edited (who does that nowadays? the author of course..) and sold as a substantial set of notes to accompany the films that get repeatedly mentioned. (And I mean repeatedly.) Still, some perceptive remarks about how view our surroundings. Prompted me to buy a Harvard UP book by a Finn called Erkki Huhtamo, offering a thorough treatment of the Panorama – rather more expensive but a properly produced book.
Now I have to get Robinson in Space..
by L. Spencer
I have read a lot of the material Patrick Keiller refers to. He offers the best, most succinct and insightful summaries of the literature and the issues. This book is indespensible for those of us interested in exploring space and place through the lenses offered by Baudelaire, Benjamin, Breton and Aragon, and so on…