BERLIN – SYMPHONY OF A METROPOLIS

The film takes us through a typical day in Weimar Republic Berlin. From the arrival of the train at the Anhalter Bahnof, the camera takes us outside, through the streets around the Postdamerplatz, and shows us the first Berliners starting their day: those opening their shops or transporting their goods to the market, those putting up posters on advertising columns, the public transport starting their commute through the streets. A delicate overture to a first act that then shows us columns of workers and soldiers, and the inside of the factories with their imposing and frightening machinery, and underlines the sounds of all these actors and all these sets with a symphony. Ruttmann assembles his images of Berlin to the music of Edmund Meisel and composes them in a very innovative way for that era: very fast editing, short and animated sequences, a harmony between the images and the music that makes it seem as if the city were really playing the symphony, thus providing a precise insight into the life of the time.

The film is considered to be a classic of the experimental cinema of the interwar years, especially for its moving shots and the rhythm of the images.