Flemish cities seem to have missed out on this cinematic fad, but Antwerp: A City Caught on Film goes some way to filling the gap. Produced by Cinematek, this new DVD brings together images of the city from 1897 to 1970, drawn from newsreels, publicity films, and even home movies.

The material is organised into four themes rather than musical movements, although there is delightful “day in the life” beginning to the collection. This is an animated advert from the 1920s showing two men celebrating the night before they leave Antwerp for the Congo. One catches the boat the next morning because he trusted his Tam Tam alarm clock, while the other is left standing on the dock. This is part of the section devoted to the Port of Antwerp, which also includes the DVD’s earliest film, a view of the city from an arriving boat shot by one of the Lumière brothers’ globe-trotting cameramen. If this view of the right bank of the Scheldt looks remarkably familiar, it’s a shock later on to see images from 1953 in which the left bank is still undeveloped.

After the port is a section on politics, agitation and propaganda, which covers films from the Christian right, the socialist left, the Nazi occupation and the liberation. Then there are films on personal life, the arts, sport and entertainment, including a selection from nearly 30 years of home movies shot by one family.

The DVD, subtitled in English, Dutch and French, comes with a beautifully produced trilingual book. This includes a perceptive essay from historian Henk de Smaele, who not only puts the images into context but also meditates on how much they can tell us. His comments on the gaps and deceptions in the material are particularly interesting, from the absence of Antwerp's Jewish community (even in a film on the diamond trade!) to the popularity of the ”Roman salute” before it was adopted by the fascists.

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