Product Description

At once an invaluable photographic record of life in Weimar Berlin and a timeless demostration of the cinema's ability to enthrall on a purely visceral level, "Berlin, Symphony of a Great City" (1927, 62 min.) offers a kaleidoscopic view of a single day in the life of the bustling metropolis. Also included on this DVD is "Opus 1" (1922, 10 min.), a rare example of the German avant-garde cinema. Director Walther Ruttmann's hand-colored film is an exploration of the geometry of movement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23159 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 1999-05-04
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Silent, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 72 minutes

Amazon.com
The title says it all: this is a visual symphony in five movements celebrating the Berlin of 1927: the people, the place, the everyday details of life on the streets. Director Walter Ruttman, an experimental filmmaker, approached cinema in similar ways to his Russian contemporary Dziga Vertoz, mixing documentary, abstract, and expressionist modes for a nonnarrative style that captured the life of his countrymen. But where Vertov mixed his observations with examples of the communist dream in action, Ruttman re-creates documentary as, in his own words, "a melody of pictures." Within the loose structure of a day in the life of the city (with a prologue that travels from the country into the city on a barreling train), the film takes us from dawn to dusk, observing the silent city as it awakens with a bustle of activity, then the action builds and calms until the city settles back into sleep. But the city is as much the architecture, the streets, and the machinery of industry as it is people, and Ruttman weaves all these elements together to create a portrait in montage, the poetic document of a great European city captured in action. Held together by rhythm, movement, and theme, Ruttman creates a documentary that is both involving and beautiful to behold. The original score by Timothy Brock is lyrical and dramatically involving, complementing the mood and movement marvelously. Also included is the avant-garde short Opus 1, an abstract study in animated shapes and movement. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

A Poignant Journey
Berlin, Symphony of a Great City is a dazzling film full of wonderful images. It starts with a train journey into Berlin, a journey with a real sense of speed and the thundering of the tracks. This speed continues throughout the film through the use of fast paced editing. If there is a story to the film, it is simply a day in the life of the city. The film starts with the morning and ends with night and in between shows how Berliners went about their daily lives. The focus is not on the great buildings, the famous Berlin landmarks, but on the streets where people lived and worked. Thus the film is no travelogue of tourist destinations, but rather an experience of the Berlin which Berliners saw every day.

This film has gained something since it was made. It has gained poignancy because the Berlin it shows is now lost. Anyone who has seen photos of Berlin in 1945 will realise that almost all the buildings in Berlin, Symphony of a Great City have less than twenty years left to live. The same can be said for many of the people. While watching the film, and especially scenes of happy schoolchildren, I kept wondering what happened to them. There is a joy in this Berlin of the twenties. It looks like a fine place to live, but these people and this city are about to enter a nightmare. There is something quite moving about this.

The print used for the Image DVD is very good. The black and white images are clear and detailed and there is hardly any apparent damage. Music is especially important with a film described as a symphony and the music composed by Timothy Brock adds a great deal to the film. It fits in well with the action and the various moods of the film. The DVD also includes a short film by the same director as Berlin, Symphony of a Great City. Opus 1 is a bizarre little film consisting of abstract shapes interacting with each other. It is hand-coloured and actually rather beautiful and hypnotic.

A special journey back in time!
Watching this outstanding film is like travelling back in time to Berlin of 1927, experiencing it as a visitor or as a native Berliner would, with views, insights and glimpses of street scenes, restaurants, shops, trains, stations and many more. In a carefully arranged sequence, the film begins with a train ride into the city as a passenger would see it, then we see empty streets as the city awakens to a new day. Each short scene captures a piece of everyday life in the metropolis; from pidgeons on the street and a meandering cat to a couple of quarrelling men on a busy street. The style of this early documentary often reminded me of some famous Soviet Avant-Garde films such as "The End of St Petersburg" and "Earth" in that the pictures, camera angles and varying speeds of presenting a sequence of images create a drama, a feeling, thereby making this much more than just a collage of city scenes. A perfectly suited orchestral score composed by Timothy Brock completes the experience. Director Walther Ruttmann has truly managed to capture the essence of Berlin in 1927 in this one hour film which is divided into five acts; from early morning in the first, to night life in the fifth act, making you feel as if you really have visited pre-war Berlin for a day. This becomes even more poignant when you consider that the city was largely destroyed by bombs during World War II, and that this marvellous film allows a unique travel experience to a long-lost time and place. Picture quality is excellent as well, and for any lover of history and travel, as well as of film making in general, this DVD is a must.

Good print; great cinematography; decent score; experimental
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City ranks with Dziga Vertov's "Man with a Movie Camera" as one of the great non-narrative documentaries: an attempt to capture the pulse and life of a place and time through visual nuance. This film is full of visual cliches--but it's immediately obvious that this is the film that CREATED the visions that later became cliche. It is incredible to see the Berlin of 1922 bustling before you like peeking through a time machine. The camera keeps moving, pulling us along. I loved it. "Opus" is interesting, but at ten minutes too long.