| Whenever a building
on central Manhattan Island was scheduled for demolition, George
Wilkes would film its interior and exterior. He was an architecture
student who failed to complete his studies because of the illness
of his parents. He found work in a bank, where he worked until
his retirement in 1978. During these years he made this film
record of a vanished city. Viewed together these films present
another, almost familiar place - a ghost city, empty, romantic
and beautiful. A lost city of railway terminals, hospitals, ferry
ports, ballrooms, cinemas, grand houses, restaurants, bars, shops
and hotels. Each short sequence is a slow, steady pan, 360 degrees
around the interior followed by slow panning shots of the exterior.
Wilkes usually filmed early in the morning, long before the city
hits peak traffic time. All the locations were filmed devoid
of human presence, empty and still. This lends each film a dignified
yet melancholy beauty. |
