
The View from the Train
Cities and Other Landscapes
Patrick Keiller(Author)
Verso Books (Publisher)
Published on 1. October 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-78168-776-5 (ISBN)
Description
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.
Reviews / Votes
An enigmatic, intermittently brilliant collection of essays about the built landscape of Britain and how it has changed in the last 30 years. -- Andy Beckett * Guardian * Keiller is Britain's most observant and provocative film-maker around the subject of cities and the landscape. In these wonderful essays, he explores the political and cultural forces behind how the UK looks. -- Edwin Heathcote * Financial Times * Perceptive, educated, un-obvious musings on place and inhabitation. -- Rowan Moore * Observer * An essayist of stylish rigour on urban planning, architectural decay and the vast culturally occluded material infrastructure that subtends daily life in Britain. -- Brian Dillon * Guardian * The View from the Train often delights with its sly, impish wit and observation [...] By turns earnest and entertaining, opens a window onto Britain's uncharted, off-piste lands and their haunted past. -- Ian Thomson * Independent * Droll, analytical, and quietly furious. -- Sukhdev Sandhu * Icon * Our most original geographical and political thinker. -- Owen Hatherley * Guardian * Patrick Keiller is Britain's foremost film essayist, part historian, part poet, part landscape photographer. -- Nina Power An enlightening and stimulating companion to his films. Keiller is a masterful observer. [.] His learned account of the earliest film panoramas filmed from trains is that of a man in love with the history and technique of cinema. He looks at urban buildings with a coldly original vision. * Irish Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 131 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
242 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78168-776-5 (9781781687765)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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11/2013
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Book
11/2013
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Person
Patrick Keiller's films include the celebrated London (1994), Robinson in Space (1997), The Dilapidated Dwelling (2000), and Robinson in Ruins (2010). He has devised large-scale installations including Londres, Bombay (Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, 2006) and The Robinson Institute (Tate Britain, London, 2012), the latter accompanied by a book The Possibility of Life's Survival on the Planet. He was a Research Fellow at the Royal College of Art, London (2002-11), and has taught in schools of art and architecture since 1974.