“Now this is a real good one Loyd, you want me to get in a business I can't even pronounce the name of? Poly-whatcha-doodle-all-day?”

– Frank

A carnival-like parade.

“Do you still go dancing at night? I've stopped going. There are no dance halls here. But that's not the only reason. I was used to dancing with you. I'm not comfortable with other girls.”

– Giovanni in a letter to Liliana

“Every woman has her most vulnerable point. For some, it's the nape of the neck, the waist, the hands. For Claire, in that position, in that light, it was her knee.”

– Jerome

A fascinating overlap with The Savage Eye (1959), a film #Godard must have been familiar with in 1962.

“Maybe I'll get into the movies.”

– Nana

Filmed on location in New York City, with still photography by Arthur “Weegee” Fellig and others. Weegee was a press photographer known for his stark black-and-white crime scene #photography in the city's seedy underbelly.

“There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.”

– narrator

23 actresses and one person in drag play the part of Québécois waitress Françoise Durocher in seven monologues.

“One grilled cheese, two slices of toast, two coffees. One pepper steak no chili and a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Two glasses of milk. One plate of spare ribs. A chicken in a basket with three cups of honey. One lean smoked meat sandwich with pickles and mustard. One two-cream coffee and two club sandwiches. Two clubs.”

– Françoise Durocher

Watch the short on the NFB website.

Twelve-year-old Edmund – the oldest kid to survive – works to support his whole family including his sick bedridden father while the remains of what was a thousand-year empire lies in rubbles around them.

– I don't go to school anymore.

– Why not? You don't like the new teachers?

– I have to work now.

Following Roma città aperta (1945) and Paisà (1946) of #Rossellini's unofficial war trilogy.

In mere hours, a disaster involving a bus and a truck is bound to happen. The story meanders from the bus passengers to the truck drivers, while the road stretches out before them.