Rating: 
Summary: A Poignant Journey
Review: Berlin, Symphony of a Great City is a dazzling film full of wonderful images. It starts with a train journey into Berlin, a journey with a real sense of speed and the thundering of the tracks. This speed continues throughout the film through the use of fast paced editing. If there is a story to the film, it is simply a day in the life of the city. The film starts with the morning and ends with night and in between shows how Berliners went about their daily lives. The focus is not on the great buildings, the famous Berlin landmarks, but on the streets where people lived and worked. Thus the film is no travelogue of tourist destinations, but rather an experience of the Berlin which Berliners saw every day. This film has gained something since it was made. It has gained poignancy because the Berlin it shows is now lost. Anyone who has seen photos of Berlin in 1945 will realise that almost all the buildings in Berlin, Symphony of a Great City have less than twenty years left to live. The same can be said for many of the people. While watching the film, and especially scenes of happy schoolchildren, I kept wondering what happened to them. There is a joy in this Berlin of the twenties. It looks like a fine place to live, but these people and this city are about to enter a nightmare. There is something quite moving about this. The print used for the Image DVD is very good. The black and white images are clear and detailed and there is hardly any apparent damage. Music is especially important with a film described as a symphony and the music composed by Timothy Brock adds a great deal to the film. It fits in well with the action and the various moods of the film. The DVD also includes a short film by the same director as Berlin, Symphony of a Great City. Opus 1 is a bizarre little film consisting of abstract shapes interacting with each other. It is hand-coloured and actually rather beautiful and hypnotic.
Rating:
Summary: If you have motion sickness take a Dramamine before viewing
Review: Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927), Berlin before it was flattened. If you remember this you are in trouble. It is a beautifully designed film. Try to spot the main streets and buildings. It is like taking a day trip into history. The music score is by Timothy Brock. The same person that wrote the score for Liebe der Jeanne Ney, Die (1927) After watching the movie you need to look at the book Lost Berlin by Susanne Everett
Rating:
Summary: If you have motion sickness take a Dramamine before viewing
Review: Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927), Berlin before it was flattened and rebuilt. If you remember this you are in trouble. It is a beautifully designed black & white film that starts out with a steam engine train ride. Try to spot the main streets and buildings. It is like taking a day trip into history. The music score is by Timothy Brock. The same person that wrote the score for Liebe der Jeanne Ney, Die (1927)
After watching the movie you need to look at the book "Lost Berlin" by Susanne Everett
Rating:
Summary: If you have motion sickness take a Dramamine before viewing
Review: Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927), Berlin before it was flattened. If you remember this you are in trouble. It is a beautifully designed film. Try to spot the main streets and buildings. It is like taking a day trip into history. The music score is by Timothy Brock. The same person that wrote the score for Liebe der Jeanne Ney, Die (1927) After watching the movie you need to look at the book Lost Berlin by Susanne Everett
Rating: 
Summary: Good print; great cinematography; decent score; experimental
Review: Berlin: Symphony of a Great City ranks with Dziga Vertov's "Man with a Movie Camera" as one of the great non-narrative documentaries: an attempt to capture the pulse and life of a place and time through visual nuance. This film is full of visual cliches--but it's immediately obvious that this is the film that CREATED the visions that later became cliche. It is incredible to see the Berlin of 1922 bustling before you like peeking through a time machine. The camera keeps moving, pulling us along. I loved it. "Opus" is interesting, but at ten minutes too long.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful View Of One Of The Greatest Cities Of The World
Review: How we forget how beautiful Berlin was before WWII. Although still a beautiful city, the pre-war Berlin was a truly wonderful place...Glorious buildings, vast culture, non-stop action - Yes Berlin was more than any other european capital. We are all very fortunate that this film was made, so that we may never forget the Berlin that was.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing film... deserves way more stars than five!!
Review: Pioneering German director Walther Ruttman weaves a beautiful , rapturous look at Berlin during the height of the Weimar Republic. Everyday life is captured and extolled, from the heights of wealth to the nobility of labor, along with the splendor of modernity, from vast, efficient factories (which still look impressive) to the leggy glamour girls of the capital city's globally notorious nightlife. Most of all, though, there's the immense artistic vision of the director, piling on one perfectly composed, poetically thoughtful shot after another, rhythmically editing them together in a groundbreaking montage style. "Berlin" was indeed a seminal film; numerous other "city symphonies" proliferated in its wake, and the music-montage style is clearly echoed in Godfrey Reggio's "Koyaanisqatsi," and its sucessors, "Powaqqatsi" and "Baraka." This is where it all started -- a masterful and fascinating film, and a nice glimpse at life in one of Europe's greatest cities. Pity, then, that Ruttman went on to become a Nazi propagandist, and died making films for the Reich during WWII, although really, I suppose it was inevitable.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing film... deserves way more stars than five!!
Review: Pioneering German director Walther Ruttman weaves a beautiful , rapturous look at Berlin during the height of the Weimar Republic. Everyday life is captured and extolled, from the heights of wealth to the nobility of labor, along with the splendor of modernity, from vast, efficient factories (which still look impressive) to the leggy glamour girls of the capital city's globally notorious nightlife. Most of all, though, there's the immense artistic vision of the director, piling on one perfectly composed, poetically thoughtful shot after another, rhythmically editing them together in a groundbreaking montage style. "Berlin" was indeed a seminal film; numerous other "city symphonies" proliferated in its wake, and the music-montage style is clearly echoed in Godfrey Reggio's "Koyaanisqatsi," and its sucessors, "Powaqqatsi" and "Baraka." This is where it all started -- a masterful and fascinating film, and a nice glimpse at life in one of Europe's greatest cities. Pity, then, that Ruttman went on to become a Nazi propagandist, and died making films for the Reich during WWII, although really, I suppose it was inevitable.
Rating:
Summary: A magnificent portrait!
Review: This a landmark film carefully filmed in the middle of the Weimar Republic Walter Ruttman built this gem movie .
This is a great documentary . Berlin seen in perspective under the lyric gaze of Ruttman , unfolding from dawn until midnight . The film captures the basic insights of this multi facet city .
Who can deny this film inspired to Win Wenders to make sixty years after his memorable The sky above Berlin , best known as Wings of Desire?
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating documentary.
Review: This fascinating documentary shows us virtually everything that happened in the city of Berlin during the course of one day in 1927 -- without the benefit of a soundtrack, of course, but this is no handicap at all. Almost every filmmaker who sees this film is inspired to make an imitation of it, and you will understand why when you see it. Nothing better in this vein has ever been done. A must-see.
|
