Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (German: Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt) is a 1927 German film directed by Walter Ruttmann, co-written by Carl Mayer and Karl Freund.
The film is an example of the city symphony genre. A musical score to accompany the film was written by Edmund Meisel. As a "city symphony" film, it portrays the life of a city, mainly through visual impressions in a semi-documentary style, without the narrative content of more mainstream films, though the sequencing of events can imply a kind of loose theme or impression of the city's daily life.' (...)
This film represented a sort of break from Ruttmann's earlier "Absolute" films which were abstracts. Some of Vertov's earlier films have been cited as influential on Ruttmann's approach to this film, and it seems the filmmakers mutually inspired one another, as there exist many parallels between this film and the later Man with a Movie Camera.
The film displays the filmmaker's knowledge of Soviet montage theory. Some Socialist political sympathies, or identification with the underclass can be inferred from a few of the edits in the film, though critics have suggested that either Ruttmann avoided a strong position, or else he pursued his aesthetic interests to the extent that they diminished the potential for political content. Ruttmann's own description of the film suggests that his motives were predominantly aesthetic: "Since I began in the cinema, I had the idea of making something out of life, of creating a symphonic film out of the millions of energies that comprise the life of a big city."
'Berlin: Symphony of a Great City is largely an avant-garde film, and does not have a story or a plot. However, the events of the film are arranged to simulate the passage of a single day (simulated from an assemblage of film shot over the period of one year). Shots and scenes are cut together based on relationships of image, motion, point of view, and thematic content. At times, a sort of non-narrative commentary can be implied, as in edits that juxtapose workers entering a factory with cattle being beaten and driven into a corral.
The five reel film is divided into five acts, and each act is announced through a title card at the beginning and end. One leitmotiv that is present in all of the acts, which largely connects them, is the theme of the train and streetcar. Much of the motion in the film, and many of the scene transitions, are built around the motion of trains and streetcars.'
According to Ruttman, a "hypersensitive film stock" was developed for use in this film, to solve lighting difficulties during night scenes.
In 2007, a restored version of the film was shown with the fully reconstructed original score by Edmund Meisel. The premiere of this version took place at Berlin's Friedrichstadtpalast on September 24, 2007, with live orchestral accompaniment by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
The Berlin-based electronic duo Tronthaim have performed their new audio dubbing to the film at numerous European cultural festivals, including "Notti d'Estate" in Florence and at the "Salon du livre" in Paris. A score by Timothy Brock was made for the film in 1993. The Galician (Spain) composer, Alberto Novoa Rodriguez ,recorded an electro-symphonic soundtrack for this film in 2009. He performed at The Babylon Cinema in Berlin with 15 musicians from a young musical group (Agrupación Musical da Limia. Xinzo de Limia). The album was recorded by great and important members of The Symphony Orchestra of Galicia (Text from Wikipedia)
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Berlin - Symphony of a Metropolis (1927)by MrKatzenellenbogen3,137 views
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