Reves Center for International Studies Events

Location

Williamsburg Library Theater

This classic German documentary is a valentine to the "new" Berlin of the late 1920s, enjoying a renaissance after the dregs of the Depression. Director Walter Ruttman's five-reel symphony begins at dawn and ends at midnight, showing Berliners at hard work by day and enjoying the city's boisterous nightlife. Essentially a feature-length montage--one shot of pedestrians is followed by a brief clip of a cow herd--the film was heavily influenced by the earlier works of Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov, and was itself very influential in fostering the "city symphony" or "opus" genre . There is also a large degree of poignancy in recording the everyday affairs of a city so far from and yet so near to the Nazi nightmare.
Poised between the devastating years immediately following World War I and the beginning of the Third Reich, Berlin appears here to be a thriving, bustling metropolis with few problems.. Director Walter Ruttmann is out to celebrate the varieties of urban experience and architecture by combining sound (music only) with image.

Contact

akschroer@wm.edu