Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

FISCHER

De l'aube jusqu'à la nuit, le permanent fourmillement d'une grande ville, en l'occurrence la capitale allemande, filmé d'une façon magistrale et poétique, dans une œuvre époustouflante qui reste un monument incontournable du 7e art ..... www.cinefiches.com

msmichel

Fascinating film chronicling a day and night in the life of a city; namely Berlin 1920's. Every facet is equally important here and the film doesn't get dated by politics or social norms. Instead we have a well edited, though some likely staging, document from morning to late night; the early morning production, the workplace, the hustle of the city, the night life, et al. A document of a time that stands apt.

schmalhans

Like nowhere else, we're able to pinpoint the transition from German Expressionism to the era of New Objectivity. Ruttmann works with experimental techniques of montage and camera positions as well as a sociological eye on masses and work processes. However, there's never any lack of passion towards end-1920s Berlin, a city on its cultural and industrial high point.

Damian

A perfect symbiosis between sound and image, this fascinating portrait of a city and its' people during a day in the late 1920s provides the viewer with many worth-remembering impressions. The editing is very fast and surprisingly modern and the focus on the working class is one additional plus point. Being an inspiration for the later "Qatsi Trilogy", this film is a must for anyone interested with urban culture.

Kurtulusm

Menschen kommen und gehen, die Stadt bleibt. Plötzlich wird der Einzelne ziemlich bedeutungslos... schöne Zeitreise.

Stefan Drees

This is a timeless study of different movements and shapes - but also an intriguing portrait of Berlin in the late 1920s. Although I prefer the 2014 restored version with the original music by Edmund Meisel, Timothy Brock's score in this 1993 version is very good, providing the pictures with a suitable atmospheric background (although the orchestra sometimes plays bad).

Borges

It had me at the opening shot. A revelation from start to finish.

Jérémy Poirier

A day in Berlin in 1926. No matter how heartfelt and optimistic some parts of the film are, with the knowledge of history, I can't stop seeing this film as a moment of calm before the storm. A last moment of happy living (it ain't paradise though). I love that this film doesn't require spoken or written language to communicate. Yes, I know it is a 1927 mute documentary but you can visually see the heart of the city.