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

THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 5*
Menschen am Sonntag
PEOPLE ON SUNDAY
42
A completely normal summer day in Berlin in 1929: life pulsates, the city vibrates full of energy,
there is action all around. As though it were coincidence, the viewer gains insight into the lives
of different residents of the metropole, and follows them through their everyday activities, their
work, their free time.
A young man waiting at a streetcorner for his dark-haired girlfriend. A taxi driver, Erwin, and his
wife and their triste domestic existence. On Sunday, Berlin is as empty as a ghost town. It seems
as though everyone flees to the countryside, the train stations are packed. Erwin meets up with
the young man and his female companions, who are on their way to a nearby lake. The two
men know each other and decide to make the excursion all together. The young man’s intense
flirting with his girlfriend’s friend arouses jealously in his girlfriend, especially when he arranges a
date with her for the following Sunday. Erwin reminds him that they already have plans to play
football next Sunday. When Erwin returns home, he finds his wife just as he left her, asleep.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 1929/30 Director Robert
Siodmak Screenplay Billy Wilder Director of
Photography Eugen Schüfftan Editor Robert
Siodmak Music by Otto Stenzel Producer Moritz
Seeler Production Company Filmstudio 129, Berlin
Principal Cast Erwin Splettstößer, Brigitte Borchert,
Wolfgang von Waltershausen, Christl Ehlers, Anni
Schreyer, Kurt Gerron, Valeska Gert, Ernst Verebes,
Heinrich Gretler Length 74 min, 2014 m
Format 35 mm, s/w, 1:1.37 Original Version
German Subtitled Versions English, French
German Distributor Stiftung Deutsche
Kinemathek, Berlin
World Sales:
Atlantic-Film S.A. · Martin Hellstern
Münchhaldenstr. 10 · CH-8034 Zurich
phone +41-1-4 22 38 32 · fax +41-1-4 22 37 93
www.praesens.com · email: info@praesens.com
Scene from ”Menschen am Sonntag“ (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek)
Robert Siodmak was born in 1900 in Memphis
and died in 1973 in Locarno. He studied in Marburg
and worked as an actor for the Ufa. In 1940, he
went to the United States and made a name for
himself with his psychologically accentuated crime
story films. He was a representative of the humanistic-realism
of German films prior to 1933 and one
of the most important American directors of the
“Black Series”. His films include: Abschied (1930),
Voruntersuchung (1931) which was blacklisted
in 1933, Brennendes Geheimnis (1933), The
Suspect (Unter Verdacht, 1944), The Spiral
Staircase (Die Wendeltreppe, 1945),
Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam (1957) for
which he won a prize for Best Director at Karlovy
Vary, and many, many more.
(* no.4 Nosferatu was already presented within the framework of
the former series ”German Classic Movies“ in KINO 4/1999)