" Berlin: Symphony of a Great City " Walter Ruttman City Symphony Genre Film Part 1 12744 (1927)

Synopsis

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt) is a short 1927 silent film directed by Walter Ruttmann and gives viewers a look at an average day of Germany’s capital city during the interwar years. The first half of the film (Reel 1) opens with a shot of dark water, followed by footage of a train racing along a track and passing telephone poles, farm houses, moving over a bridge, and passing a small town (03:24). The train moves past a factory on the outskirts of Berlin. Viewers see various neighborhoods of Berlin from the perspective of the train (04:06), before the train arrives at the city’s central train station (04:55). The film shows a bird’s-eye-view of downtown Berlin (05:15), featuring the train station, what appears to be a government building, a cathedral, and a clock tower. Viewers see several quiet, deserted streets, a shot of a sewer tunnel (06:52), the front edifice of a large building, inside a factory, and a storefront window with mannequins. A man walks his German Shepherd on the street (08:30). A cat moves along the sidewalk in front of stores. A man walks across a street and hangs a poster (09:23). Two policemen walk on patrol. Train workers open large doors to the engine house (roundhouse), and locomotives move out, including one that services Potsdam (10:10). Men walk to work. A trolley car stops on a street (12:14). Footage shows the city coming to life, as people walk around, board trolley cars, and head to what appears to be…

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Details

Running time

24 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage