CBC Television
R1 DVD
Legendary
Sin Cities is a fascinating documentary series by Canadian Television company
CBC. It covers Berlin, Paris and Shanghai and has received exceptional press
when it has been shown on TV, Cable and now on DVD. After the bloodbath of
World War I drastic changes took place around the world, however, in certain
unique locations, these changes including an immense sense of freedom and
liberation. In three particular cities conditions gave rise to a truly libertine
spirit where sexuality of all forms was openly expressed and the media was
given free reign. In each of these cities freedom was a “two edged sword”
matched with crime, poverty and deprivation and this darker side cannot be forgotten.
However, the free spirit of each city also gave birth to unique expressions in
art and culture.
In
Berlin, this occurred during the twenties and gave rise to one of the most
openly gay cultures known before Stonewall. However, it would be wrong to
reduce what occurred to sexuality alone. Berlin attracted all manner of
literary figures, musicians and artists from around the world and produced many
individuals of world renown including Marlene Dietrich. It is amazing to think
that Berlin also had its own Institute of Sexology, headed by Marcus Hirschfeld
which fought for gender and sexual rights (including Gay rights) in the 1920’s,
one can only imagine what could have been achieved if his movement had not been
cut short by the Nazis.
Paris
in the 1920’s is explored in the next episode and examines all manner of
entertainment including the wide and diverse sexual environment. During the 1920’s
Paris had no less than 220 registered brothels that catered for all tastes. One
of the unique aspects of Paris was the fact that it was so enamoured of Jazz
that it welcomed with open arms African Americans at a time when their homeland
was still gripped with racism. Jazz was all the rave and Josephine Baker become
the celebrity of the period. The death of the Parisian experience was caused by
the influx of way too many American tourists and then finally the money dried
up in the Wall Street Crash and so many artists, living on incomes from home,
could no longer afford to stay and the “Crazy Years” of Paris came to an end.
Shanghai
during the 1930’s was a strange and bizarre experience. It was packed with nightclubs
never closed and hotels which supplied opium with your room service. It was a
city where no passport was required so any number of escaping gangsters arrived
each day mixed with refugees of all sorts. When some 20,000 white Russians
fleeing the Soviet revolution flooded into Shanghai and could not find work, their
wives and daughters took up prostitution and brothels multiplied overnight. The
heated mix of crime, sex and drugs created a unique climate, where many of the
crime lords were also the local police. A classic example being the case of Huang
Jingrong, whose nickname was 'Pocked Marked Huang' - he was one of the most powerful
gangsters in Shanghai and was also a major French Concession police detective.
This
series is marked by a mixture of superb interviews, rare original footage and
photographs and re-enactments. Each section also focuses in on specific
individuals from the period and hence offers a “personal” view of the
revolution that was taking place. The filmmakers undertook extensive research
to prepare these documentaries including contacting a wide range of authors and
experts and hence while covering a perhaps controversial subject it is well
grounded in fact.
My
only misgiving is that with such an interesting and complex subject each
episode is only around 50 minutes; it would have nice to have a bit more. That
being said, there are extended interviews on the second disc in the package.