Daybreak Express, Pennebaker's first film, is quite different from his later work as a documentarian, although it does have one major thing in common: the meshing of music and cinema. Although stylistically it is similar to Vertov's famous Man With a Movie Camera, in concept they are very different. Vertov treated cinema as an art form separate from theater, music and literature, whereas Pennebaker aims to create cinema which lends itself to music, namely Duke Ellington's song which the film is named after.

The syncopated rhythm of jazz lends itself well to the city symphony, and the imagery of the shots matches the music's mood perfectly. It's almost like a more upbeat and faster-moving News From Home, with the imagery of New York being matched with audio meant to provoke emotion. However, where Akerman uses a gray/brown palette to paint News From Home, Pennebaker uses bright orange, both visually and emotionally.

this is so COOL.

Daybreak Express absolutely bursts onto the screen! Kaleidoscopic, inventive, jazzy, and even surreal; this is truly an unheralded gem of Kino-Pravda in America.

Cinema possessed by the spirit of jazz.

I've been a bit hyperbolic on here lately but I truly mean it when I say I could watch this every day for the rest of my life (that is, if there weren't a million other things to watch).

May have to redact my proposition that Ryusei-Kacho is the best metro movie. I need to compile a list of films such as these that treat city transit with the glory and wonder it deserves.

trains & jazz what a serotonin combo

Short Review:

Simple, experimental and effective. Completely engulfed in style thanks to the gorgeous sunrise accompanied by Duke Ellington.

Would Recommend!

DA Pennebaker's first film is absolutely radical for the 1950s in form, but the most striking thing about it now with over 60 years of hindsight is probably the (not cheap, I assume) decision to shoot it in color, which gives the 1953 shots a time travel glow. Even though it would defeat its whole purpose, it's impossible not to wish the movie could slow down a little and give that color footage more room to breathe.

All I want is to meet someone on public transport who has this going on inside their head.

The city that never sleeps contemplating its imminent sunset under a nonstop agitated lifestyle, with Ellington's jazzy musical madness and an editing that plays with the screen until breaking it in half culminating in a kaleidoscopic closure, I really wonder what Marie Menken would think of this hyperactive piece in terms of contemplation, editing and management of visual velocities.

85/100

I feel as though I could possibly watch this on a daily basis...in fact, maybe I will

YOOOOOOOOOO

I'm a sucker for mid twentieth century New York, and train films and Duke Ellington. Some of the kaleidoscope stuff is (now) a bit tired but otherwise this is pretty much perfect at everything it tries to do.

The most Tony Scott looking movie ever made before Tony Scott was a thing. 

Movie #358 during the coronavirus pandemic 

Movie #69 (nice) during 2021

Criterion Prentis

Beautiful morning.

Criterion Channel

Wow. A very short yet extremely effective piece of filmmaking, with beautiful shots of NYC, combined with some really nice music. Jazz music can quickly feel too difficult or heavy for my taste, but combining it with film footage can add an entirely new dimension to the music which can make it so much better in my opinion.

I think more cinemas should show these kind of short films before their showings of feature length films, since I'm convinced that a large majority of the audience would find it excited to discover this style of filmmaking.

"I feel in debt to Ellington and instinctively to all musicians. They taught me my art. The very nature of film is musical, because it uses time as a basis for its energy. It needs to go from here to there, whereas pictures and paintings are just there. With movies, you’re putting something together that’s not going to be totally comprehensible until the end. It’s the concept of the novel and the sonnet — you need to get to the end, to see if you like it and decide what it’s about. With stills, there’s always the same instant, frozen and beguiling, but lifeless. A single note. With film, the moment doesn’t hold — it rushes by, and you must deal with it like you do music and real life.”
D. A. Pennebaker

A five minute long bath in golden morning light.

Amazing camerawork, experimental editing, fancy jazz tunes, and lots of references to Henri Chomette's "Cinq minutes de cinéma pur" (1926).

This tiny piece of cinema suprised me and make me smile.

I'm tempted to make a short film like this soon.

Duuuuuuke

imagine making something this good

cool train bub

i love this short so much

Sick. Makes me feel like a kid again