Boris Kaufman and André Galitzine’s city symphonietta focuses on the quartier around “Les Halles,” Paris’s legendary central market, over the course of one busy day. The film depicts the food market area and the famous glass and iron buildings designed by Victor Baltard before, during, and after the market, starting in the early morning hours before dawn with the arrival of horse-drawn carts, the unloading of a freight train, and the preparation of the merchandise. A roving camera-eye registers vivid market life, intercut with impressions of the market-hall’s architecture as well as shots of crowded streets. The dismantling of the market and cleaning of the streets brings the day to a close.
Made by Boris Kaufman (1906–80), the younger brother of Dziga Vertov and Mikhail Kaufman, who later worked with Jean Vigo on À propos de Nice (1930), the film shares similarities with Wilfried Basse’s 1929 city symphony Markt in Berlin. Les Halles is generally considered to have been made in 1927, but film historian Myriam Juan claims that it was made in 1929, the same year as Markt in Berlin. In 1934, Paul Schuitema also dedicated a film to the same site, entitled Les Halles de Paris.
Eva Hielscher
further reading
Albéra, François, “Les Halles vues par les avant-gardes cinématographiques,” in Jean-Louis Robert and Myriam Tsikounas (eds.), Les Halles: Images d’un quartier (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2004), 159–68.
Juan, Myriam, “Le Cinéma documentaire dans la rue parisienne,” Société & representation 1, 17 (2004): 291–314.
Robert, Jean-Louis and Tsikounas, Myriam, Les Halles: images d’un quartier (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2004).
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