View Single Post
Old 07-11-2008, 07:47 PM   #147
sabotai
General Manager
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: The Satellite of Love
Berlin: Die Symphonie der Großstadt (1927)
English: Berlin: Symphony of a Great City*

Directed by: Walter Ruttman
Length: 72 Minutes
Genre: Documentary / City Symphony



This documentary is about the city of Berlin and a day in the life of the citizens of Berlin. It is broken up into 5 acts. Act 1 shows the city awakening and of the factory workers heading to work. Act 2 shows children going to school, merchants opening their stores, etc. Act 3 is the general life of citizens through the day. Act 4 begins with the factory workers' lunch break and ends when they go home. Act 5 is all about the nightlife of Berlin.

It was a very interesting film, but only in that it was interesting to see what Berlin looked like in 1927, how people lived their day, what kind of entertainment they liked, etc. The film is basically an hour long montage set to music.

While it was great to see what Berlin was like in '27, the movie was much more of a music video than a documentary. Many long sequences of montages that didn't really show anything nearly put me to sleep.

It's a great film to watch to see what Berlin looked like over 80 years ago, but it's not a very entertaining film.

* - The title is "Great City" in the english release, but the title literally translates to "Big City". A Großstadt, by definition, is a city with more than 100,000 people.

Entertainment Rating: 4/10
Historical Rating: 6/10

Last edited by sabotai : 07-26-2008 at 05:50 PM.
sabotai is offline   Reply With Quote