Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Großstadt / Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927) – 2/5

Not doing justice to the wonderful city

The following few lines are my short review from Christmastime 2015:
„Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt“ or „Berlin: Symphony of a Great City“ is not only evidence of the fact that „Großstadt“ was once written with 2 s, but it is also a black-and-white silent film documentary about Germany’s capital. This one is from almost 90 years ago, so it includes recordings exclusively from before the two wars. I have lived in Berlin for almost my entire life, which made me especially curious about this film that runs for slightly over an hour. Unfortunately, I did not really make a connection with Ruttmann’s work here. It’s certainly nice to see people from back then and how they just live and interact with each other, but honestly without my knowledge that this is Berlin, I probably would not even have thought of that. There aren’t really any famous places or so to see or anything you could recognize if you know Berlin. This is also why this documentary does not have half the charm I wished it could have. Not recommended.

A day ago, now in winter 2023, I had the chance to give this film another watch as it was shown at one of my favorite movie theaters in a midnight screening with a big orchestra providing the soundtrack. Pretty cool. I shall elaborate on a few thoughts I had after giving this another watch:

Overall, I think I stay with my rating of 2/5 (or 4/10) and I am still not really won over by Ruttmann’s work here. It was surely an experience to listen to the orchestra last night and it elevated the material too, but this is nothing that belongs to the film by definition because of course this is a silent movie. However, I guess this background also had to do with why I thought that one specific scene was the most memorable for me from this film that runs for slightly over an hour and there I am talking about the inclusion when the Berlin citizens from the earlier 20th century are out and enjoying a movie themselves and they are watching it at a movie theater and there is an orchestra playing to provide the soundtrack for the silent film they are watching. I wonder what these people would say if they knew that almost a century later, people are watching them watching a movie. I am sure they would be in awe and disbelief for sure as well. Or actually, I can cut the „almost“ as this one will definitely still be seen long after 2027, especially in my city Berlin here. However, the criticism I had that this did not really feel like a Berlin-themed film I have to uphold. On rare occasions, you see aspects from the city that make it possible to identify the location, probably also with the help of some research. We have to keep in mind that this was made before the days of the Nazi reign in Germany and that was an era in which many streets got new names and they renamed the streets then again after the end of World War II, but with these frequent changes over the following 20 years after this film, many street names were simply not in existence anymore the way they are depicted here. Surely, sometimes they also went back to the old name, but it was not the rule.

On one occasion we even see one or several wildcats, now that came out of nowhere, but animals are included here, maybe in terms of a circus or more likely a zoo of course with the connection to Zoologischer Garten. As for the wildcat reference, this was away from a zoo area I think, but then again also still a small animal and there was a connection to children if I remember correctly. These parts that included children were also what I liked the most here. There came an innocence with these. I remember another scene in which we see one child trying to move a toy buggy up the stairs and the only solution is really to go step by step and even then it is still a struggle. Of course, it is pretty sad to think about how everybody you see in this film is most likely long gone. Even the children would be over 100 now. But then again, this is a document of their time and from this perspective it is good that it exists, even if I would not say this was a really a high-quality watch. Nonetheless, the idea of seeing horses and carriages on the streets is something totally awesome anyway. I am somebody who has never been big on cars, so probably not a surprising statement when I say that I would not mind to have those days back. Or have those in general, have them at all I should say as when I was born, it was of course all about cars already anyway. These horses are always one of the aspects that fascinate me the most when I watch really old films. There’s hundreds out there on all kinds of video websites if you wanna see more. See these awesome old locomotives too. 99% of these films are of course considerably shorter than this film we have here.

I find it fascinating that this movie’s only mention of awards recognition (according to imdb) is not one that happened at some point in the 21st century, but happened in fact in 1927, so the year when the film was released, and it won an award at a film festival on the Faroe Islands apparently. I had to check back twice because there is also a Faro in Portugal, but I think it is the one from the Faroe Island. I did not even know they had film festivals there, but good for them and especially if said festival has such great tradition that it is still in existence now almost a century later. This way you can say that chances are good it will keep existing for a long time and maybe even in 2127. Who knows? We won’t. Anyway, let’s look a bit ore at the film’s contents: The only cast member I see credited here is Paul von Hindenburg, but that makes sense because his inclusion was an exception and in general this film is about the simple people. The ones like you and me and not politicians or other famous people. I mentioned Ruttmann before and it can probably be said that this is his most famous work, but only if we look at the movies he directed. He was of course also a cinematographer on Fritz Lang’s „Metropolis“ and that silent film classic is from the exact same year like this documentary we have here. But about that film we shall speak on another occasion. I am sure it will be in movie theaters anyway all over the place, especially here in Berllin, when it has its 100th anniversary four years from now. The man who had the initial idea for this film here was Carl Mayer and he has also worked on handful incredibly well-known silent films from the 1920s. What feels most baffling perhaps is that he was not only part of those in Germany, but for example also contributed to the famous „Sunrise. A Song of Two Humans“. The third writer is then Karl Freund and his body of work is pretty self-explanatory, also abroad, and his number of credits is closer to 200 than 100 and for example he also helped with the cinematography on „Metropolis“. Writing was really an exception though for him, but here he worked indeed on the screenplay. With these fabulous names in charge, I would say that the outcome is even more on the disappointing side. The magic I do not really see here and the film on its own is not good enough to truly make an impact without great (live) music coming with it.

Another thing you will see in this movie here and there is a clock and this indicates the time of the day. Basically, the movie takes us through one day in Berlin. In the morning, the streets are still relatively empty, but soon work starts and people show up everywhere. Lunch break is appreciated too. In the evening, there is time for social gatherings then. Music, dancing, movies etc. At nighttime, there is even a big firework happening. Now that felt surprising. I am not sure if it was the last day of the year and this is the explanation or if fireworks were way more frequent back then than they are today. I would maybe know if I had watched some of the German series elaborating on this era. The wild 20s (and early 30s) in Berlin. Decadence and excess are just around the corner. The most famous series even carries Berlin in its title, but usually those shows are simply not good at all, even if certain groups try their very best to convince you otherwise, to convince you this chaos with poor screenplays and poor acting is art, but these are the ones who are really eager to do the thinking for you. They are everywhere here in Germany now in the 2020s. Don’t fall for them. Do the thinking by yourself. All this is another story though. Luckily, they were not everywhere when this film got made almost a century ago. So yeah, this is pretty much it then. Not a lot more to add. On the structure side, the film is divided into several acts and these are also linked to the times of day I talked about earlier. Oh yeah, you see a great deal of sports in here too like horse racing, boxing, tennis, rowing and more. Usually, it was events where great audiences were watching. Except rowing maybe, but here and there you also simply see the ordinary citizens having a nice time with physical activities. The swimming scene with all those kids is the best example of that. Yep, Berlin has a great deal of water and is far from a grey desert as many think it is. Tons of green here and that was no different back in 1927. So yeah, I still have to give the outcome a negative recommendation and thumbs-down and I don’t even think for my fellow Berliners it would be a rewarding watch, but if you still go for it, make sure you have some awesome music going with it, preferably an orchestra at a movie theater like I did. I guess it also would be interesting to see and understand people in here who were maybe you ancestors three generations ago (maybe more), but that is probably impossible to determine. That is really it then. Skip the watch I guess. I am glad it was this short. Oh and by the way, I see „Berliner Kindl“ was also popular already back then, maybe even more popular than nowadays.