Berlin: Sinfonie einer Großstadt

Directed by Thomas Schadt

The documentary film describes a day in the big city of Berlin and is based on Walter Ruttmann's 1927 black-and-white silent film Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt, which also depicts a day in the big city of Berlin with musical accompaniment. As with Ruttmann, Schadt's film is also based on the tension curve of a symphony, although it is much flatter here. The spirit of optimism and hectic pace of the 1920s, which dominate the rhythm of its predecessor, have largely given way to a certain melancholy. The film reinterprets Ruttman's approach and shows the ruptures and wounds that Berlin suffered both socially and in the cityscape as a result of the war and the years that followed.