Berlin, Berlin

By: David Hudson

With Criterion’s recent release of Wings of Desire and the 24h Berlin extravaganza here at The Auteurs, I thought that, for the first time in a long, long while, I’d take a look at a list I created at GreenCine nearly seven years ago. Did that, and I’m delighted to be able to add a slew of new titles. The very loosely applied overriding principle here is chronology – not the order in which the films were made but a timeline of the Berlins they depict.

• 01
  A Trick of Light
  Wim Wenders
• 02
  The Last Laugh
  F.W. Murnau
• 03
  Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler
  Fritz Lang
• 04
  Berlin Alexanderplatz
  Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• 05
  The Serpent's Egg
  Ingmar Bergman
• 06
  Grand Hotel
  Edmund Goulding
• 07
  The Blue Angel
  Josef von Sternberg
• 08
  The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
  Fritz Lang
• 09
  Cabaret
  Bob Fosse
• 10
  Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty
  Leni Riefenstahl
• 11
  The Fall of Berlin
  Mikheil Chiaureli
• 12
  Downfall
  Oliver Hirschbiegel
• 13
  Germany Year Zero
  Roberto Rossellini
• 14
  The Good German
  Steven Soderbergh
• 15
  A Foreign Affair
  Billy Wilder
• 16
  The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
  Fritz Lang
• 17
  One, Two, Three
  Billy Wilder
• 18
  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
  Martin Ritt
• 19
  Torn Curtain
  Alfred Hitchcock
• 20
  Wings of Desire
  Wim Wenders
• 21
  Comrade Couture
  Marco Wilms
• 22
  The Lives of Others
  Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
• 23
  Good Bye Lenin!
  Wolfgang Becker
• 24
  Run Lola Run
  Tom Tykwer
• 25
  Go for Zucker
  Dani Levy
• 26
  The Invisible Frame
  Cynthia Beatt
• 27
  Germany 09
  Hans Weingartner