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Release Date:
13 May 1928 (USA)
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Plot:
This movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
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User Comments:
Koyaanisqatsi without the pacing
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Additional Details
Also Known As:
Berlin, Symphony of a Big City
Berlin: A Symphony of a Big City
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (USA)
Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (USA)
Berlín, sinfonía de una ciudad (Spain) [es]Berliini - Suurkaupungin sinfonia (Finland) (TV title) [fi]Berlim - Sinfonia da Metrópole (Brazil) [pt]Berlin - symfonia wielkiego miasta (Poland) [pl]Berlin, symphonie d'une grande ville (France) [fr]Berlino - sinfonia di una grande città (Italy) [it]Verolinon i i symfonia mias megaloupoleos (Greece) [el]
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Runtime:
65 min | Finland:79 min
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1
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One can understand why this film might be important to the development of a certain film aesthetic. One can understand why it might have been interesting to view back in its day. But (much like Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera) I found it dull to watch today. Much early 20th-century fascination with large machinery, lots of shots alluding to "man as cog in the machine" Leninism, etc etc etc. And, as someone else here has noted, a number of the the "documentary" shots were clearly staged, which undercuts somewhat the life-on-the-street feeling the film is trying to convey.
It is somewhat interesting to see pre-WW2 Berlin, but the editing moves so quickly that one really can't get a good sense of the city. I understand that, arguably, that was part of the point -- e.g. that all cities are the same, but being able to really look at pre-war Berlin might have made it a more intriguing film today.
Overall, to me at least, it felt too much like a series of nickelodeon shorts pieced together for a false, or at least dated, effect.