The Street

1972 40mMovie

Documentary

The film De straat (The Street) opens with scenes of a protest in a street. Right after, we see aerial views of a busy highway. The narrator's words say it all: 'The street has become nothing more than a highway – a movement machine, as Le Corbusier called it. The heart of the city, the street, has turned into nothing but a space for traffic.' The car has ruined both the street and community life, and the footage hits this message home. Shots of Belgian cities overrun by cars and trucks are mixed with peaceful clips of Italian towns, where kids spend their whole day playing outside. In short, the film is a powerful critique of motorized traffic in our cities