Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt (1927)
By Walter Ruttmann
First conceived by Carl Mayer (thus the lack of title cards, aside from AKT. I thru V cards) , who envisioned an image assembly that would register in the viewer's conciousness like music, capturing the rhythms of the daily life of the metropolis. The concept then passed into the hands of Karl Freund (and his ace operator Robert Babaerske), who deployed a team of cameramen to capture, sometimes through camouflaged setups (hidden cameras on little handtrucks, stationary setups with a box over them, etc), the contrasting urban scenes on display over the course of a 24 hour period. This footage was then handed over to Walter Ruttmann, who applied a lovely editing sensibility, drawing out the poignancy, the beauty, the roughness, and the inevitibility of the city life and architecture of Berlin. What shines through no matter how many times I view the film--and despite the conflicting viewpoints of the film's makers (apparently Mayer signed off of the film after seeing where his scenario was heading... as Roger Manvell says, "Mayer, still in Berlin, and preoccupied now with new concepts of realism, began to work on a documentary study of life in Berlin. This was to become Walter Rutt…
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