Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ) - German Films

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