The rhythm of the modern city: Traffic and mobility in Spanish film, 1896-1939

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the image of modern Madrid through film, centering on two of the elements most associated with metropolitan modernity during the first third of the twentieth century: traffic and mobility. Both phenomena increased due to the development and proliferation of urban modes of transportation, the designation of urban space for parking, and the increase in pedestrian traffic, all of which resulted from the demographic growth taking place during this time. These changes, in addition to the street plans of the city center, resulted in the appearance of what was called in the early 1920s ‘the traffic circulation problem’.