Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
About Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
The film follows one day in Berlin without a hero or a plot. Trains and streetcars carry the cuts from dawn arrivals into factory work, shop streets, sport, and night cabarets. One edit sets workers going into a plant against cattle driven into a pen. Walter Ruttmann shot and cut it as a city symphony.
Cast & crew
More about Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
Carl Mayer, Karl Freund, and Ruttmann wrote it for Fox-Europa as a quota film. German censors passed 1,466 meters in June 1927, the Berlin premiere was 23 September 1927, and the United States opening was 13 May 1928. English Wikipedia gives 65 minutes.
Themes
Background
Fox-Europa, a branch tied to the American company, made the film as a Kontingent picture so that an American feature could be imported in exchange.
Making
Ruttmann described the aim as making something out of life, a symphonic film from the millions of energies that make up a big city.
Look
Karl Freund, Robert Baberske, Reimar Kuntze, and László Schäffer shot it, with cameras riding trains and cars and with cuts built on wheels and tracks.
Technique
Transitions follow trains and trams, so the city itself supplies the montage rather than a staged story.
Music
Edmund Meisel wrote the orchestral score for the 1927 release.
Preservation
The Bundesarchiv restored the film in 2007 with ZDF and ARTE, to about 1,446 meters, from a Reichsfilmarchiv duplicate negative and a Library of Congress copy.
Notes
- The German title is Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt.
- Karl Freund produced as well as writing and shooting.
- A 2007 restoration by the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, with ZDF and ARTE, runs about 1,446 meters, near 64 minutes, using a Reichsfilmarchiv duplicate negative plus Library of Congress material acquired in 1980.
- Ruttmann said he wanted a symphonic film made from the energies of a big city.
Scenes
- Empty dawn streets fill as the first trains come in.
- Workers entering a factory are cut against cattle beaten into a corral.
- Neon and cabaret close the day.
Also available
- Internet Archive (BerlinSymphonyofaGreatCity)
