Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ) - German Films
Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ) - German Films
Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ) - German Films
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Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt<br />
BERLIN, SYMPHONY OF A CITY<br />
Scene from “Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt“ (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek)<br />
The external framework is the life of the metropolis from morning until midnight. At first, one senses the<br />
atmosphere of the city; a long-distance train travels through the suburbs, making us increasingly aware of the<br />
proximity of the colossus, shots of the journey, motion filmed with amazing technical skill, symbolize our<br />
rushing towards the metropolis. The station, the dawn, Berlin! Gradually it awakens. The earliest workers<br />
sparsely populate the streets. It grows in a crescendo, highlights fall on the centers of morning life, on<br />
stations, factories, road junctions. Characteristic types are captured everywhere. And like an accompanying<br />
tune, we have sections from the private lives of big-city people, houses waking up, apartments coming to life.<br />
Midday arrives, evening arrives, again and again the objective fits to situations full of life, stealing the heart<br />
of them. The photographer penetrates all areas, all districts, all social classes. Night falls, sections from the<br />
dark existence of Berlin, flashes of light over the darkest periphery. Until the night gently covers over this<br />
incomparably seething life with its calm veil of stars.<br />
Genre Documentary Year of Production 1927<br />
Director Walther Ruttmann Screenplay Karl<br />
Freund, Walther Ruttmann Directors of<br />
Photography Reimar Kuntze, Robert Baberske,<br />
Laszlö Schäffer Music by Edmund Meisel<br />
Production Design Erich Kettelhut Producer<br />
Karl Freund Production Company Fox-Europa-<br />
Produktion, Berlin, commissioned by Deutsche<br />
Vereins-Film, Berlin Length 65 min, 1466 m<br />
Format 35 mm, s/w, no dialog <strong>German</strong><br />
Distributor Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF,<br />
Wiesbaden<br />
World Sales:<br />
Eva Riehl<br />
Volkartstr. 69 · D-80636 Munich<br />
phone +49-89-1 29 72 74 · fax +49-89-1 23 80 66<br />
Walther Ruttmann was born in 1887 in Frankfurt and<br />
died in 1941 in Berlin. He studied Architecture and Painting<br />
and worked as a graphic designer. His film career began in<br />
the early 1920s. His first abstract short films, Opus I (1921)<br />
and Opus II (1923) were experiments with new forms of<br />
film expression. Ruttmann and his colleagues of the avant<br />
garde movement enriched the language of film as a medium<br />
with new form techniques. Together with E. Piscator, he<br />
worked on the experimental film Melodie der Welt<br />
(1929). His other films include: Opus III (1925), Opus IV<br />
(1925), Weekend (1930), Acciaio (Stahl, 1933),<br />
Altgermanische Bauernkultur (1934), Schiff in<br />
Not (1936), Mannesmann (1937), Henkel, ein<br />
deutsches Werk in seiner Arbeit (1938), Waffenkammern<br />
Deutschlands (1940), Deutsche Panzer<br />
(1940), Krebs (1941), and many more.<br />
41<br />
THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 3