Film Archive
Berlin, Symphony of a City (Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Grossstadt)
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.
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), Berlin. Symphony of a City (Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Grossstadt, 1927), 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.Year of Production 1927
Director Walther Ruttmann
Screenplay Karl Freund, Walther Ruttmann
Directors of Photography Robert Baberske, Reimar Kuntze, Laszloe Schaeffer
Music by Edmund Meisel
Production Design Erich Kettelhut
Producer Karl Freund
Production Company Fox-Europa-Produktion, in association with Deutsche Vereins-Film, Berlin
Length 65 min, 1,466 m
Format 35 mm, b&w
Sound Technology No Dialog
German Distributor Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF/Wiesbaden
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