Berlin: Symphony
of a Great City
Director:
Walter Ruttmann
Year: 1927
Rating: 6.0
This is basically a peek, a time capsule of daily life in Berlin 1927. It
begins with a city slowly waking up, people going off to work, children to
school, the work day and the nighttime. It was a silent film with no narration
though a musical score. I enjoy watching film of what the world looked like
back before I was around - the fashions, the cars, the trams - all that stuff
is enjoyable to me. The bits showing the night life was especially enjoyable
though the directors left a lot out. According to another documentary I saw
- Sin Cities: Berlin, Paris, Shanghai - Berlin during the Weimer Republic
was one crazy wild and sexual place - I was dumbfounded by what went on.
Hitler of course put a stop to that.
Obviously, seeing this some 90 years later it is difficult to watch it without
knowing what is soon to come. Hitler had been released from jail after the
Beer Putsch and was once again agitating, the economy was going to hell and
the central govt. was helpless. You watch these good citizens go through
the day and know that within a few years they will be shouting Seig Heil
and the Jewish people you see are doomed. This country simply turned evil
and you wonder how and can it happen again.