Berlin: Symphony of Metropolis (1927) User Reviews

more interesting as history than film-making, but it has its moments

[Quinoa1984 · 8/10 · 3 November 2009]

Berlin: City Symphony is one of those early experiments in montage - early as in before sound was invented and right after Battleship Potemkin changed everything. It's not always montage, as some might believe from its recommendations (i.e. Koyannasquati), as the director Walter Ruttmann is making documentary as much as city-scape. It's about a full day and night among the dwellers and the objects of a city: the moving trains, the people shuffling by about their various concerns, and the people at jobs and things like a factory at work and phones being answered used for editing fodder.

Some of this is dazzling work, cut and speed up to reflect a mood of a city that is vibrant and hectic, imaginative and crazy, and sometimes tending for the dramatic. Ruttmann also has a rather weird design with the pacing at times; a woman in one 'scene' looks over a river, and in a state of sorrow falls over. People rush over to see what has happened, and we see a shot of the water and the woman gone under... and then it cuts right away to a beauty pageant! It throws a viewer off to see Ruttmann's unconventional choices, and how images flow together like the racers (cars, horses, people, boxcars), and there develops a simple but engrossing poetry of people as "actors" in front of a camera on their daily travels or having fun like at the funshow in the auditorium. It's not always as exciting or delirious as a Russian counterpart like Man with a Movie Camera or Kino Eye, but it pays loving tribute to its city at its time and place, showing the light with the dark, the commonplace with the unusual.

A Priceless Time Capsule of Germany's Weimar Period

[Flak_Magnet · 7/10 · 10 September 2009]

This is a very straightforward and pleasant silent picture that delivers exactly what it promises. Namely: footage of Berlin, its residents, and the whole spectrum of city activities during an ordinary day in 1927. If you have any interest in seeing real life in Weimar Germany, this film is an excellent rental. It opens with an Eisensteinian-style montage sequence, as a train approaches the city. Upon its arrival in Berlin's Union Station, the city is remarkably desolate. As the film progresses, the city begins to wake up, and you are shown residents at work (mostly in factories) and leisure. You will see shopkeepers, businessmen, restauranteurs, policemen, soldiers, politicians; children at play and even some vagrants. The acts become gradually more harsh as the film progresses, with mildly unpleasant imagery beginning to creep in (e.g. shots of dogs fighting, footage of beggars, litter, an arrest, etc.), only to gracefully recede as the film reaches its closing. The final act shows Berlin's night life, which is as lavish and swinging as anything in our own "Roaring 20's." This is an impeccable time capsule and it has something to offer both film and history buffs. Berlin was truly a world city at this time, and it was extremely interesting to see everything in the Weimar's Golden period, before Hitler and the destruction that followed. Technically speaking, it is a very well made and restored film; the footage is crisp and the music was never overwhelming. This is a really easy film to appreciate and it is definitely worthwhile, particularly for history buffs. Highly recommended. ---|--- Reviews by Flak Magnet

Incredible historical document of a lost city.

[st-shot · 8/10 · 2 July 2008]

Berlin, Symphony of a City is a remarkable historical document of the mighty city before its Wagnerian capitulation within less than twenty years of its filming. Along with Paris, Berlin was the epicenter of a Europe emerging from World War 1 into the Roaring Twenties and director Walter Ruttman for the most part captures the energy and pace of the 20th century metropolis.

Moving from morning to night Symphony emphasizes the cities industrial muscle but also divides evenly portraits of the have and have nots of Berlin, the grime as well as the glitter. It is a city on the move and move it does from the crowded sidewalks to the congested avenues and its varied populace . It is in the faces of these Berliners that the film holds its greatest fascination for me watching children playing and youth sporting events with the knowledge that most of them will be of draft age for the oncoming conflagration that will reduce this city to rubble.

The documentary does have problems with some scenes clearly staged (in one case a suicide filmed in close-up) and a roller coaster scene is overlong but overall when put into historical context this is a valuable visual document of a city that is extinct as Atlantis.

A Beautiful and haunting film

[Bobs-9 · 25 February 2002]

`Berlin, Symphony of a Great City' is a film I've watched over and over with fascination. I think it's true that it is not so much about the people of Berlin, although we see many of them, but the city itself as a huge living, breathing organism. Back in the 1930s filmmaker John Grierson apparently wrote that this film `created nothing,' and that it violated the first principles of documentary by showing us nothing of importance but beautiful images. Looking at it more than 70 years after its creation, however, its documentary value seems evident to me, at least. I find it fascinating just to see what the people, clothing, uniforms, vehicles, streets, parks, restaurants, shops, theaters, nightclubs, and factories looked like in that distant time and place. It's amazing to contemplate how soon this complex, sophisticated society would be consumed in the most primitive debauchery. Do these people really look that much different from those we see on our streets every day? It makes me wonder what we're all potentially capable of.

Some slight differences do seem apparent, however. When a fight breaks out in a public place today, people usually try to ignore it, or even duck their heads and run for cover. But in a scene where two men argue violently in the street, the Berliners of the 1920s crowd in close around the combatants, and even try to separate them and arbitrate the dispute, before a policeman moves in. Whether this was typically European at that time, or just typical of its era, I really can't say, but it seems strange to me today.

Although I think the majority of this film was shot in a candid manner, and looks it, it's obvious that not quite all of it was un-staged, as a previous commentator has pointed out. For example, look at the argument scene just mentioned. Considering one of the camera angles (probably from a 2nd floor window), the argument must have been staged at the exact spot where this camera could catch it, and the crowd's reaction, from above. In addition, a second camera was in place at street level to move in close, which hardly suggests a serendipitous event.

A good musical score is vitally important to bring this film to life. It's too bad the original score has been lost. It would be fascinating to know what it was like. But I think the one written by Timothy Brock for the Kino edition is superb in that it captures its changing moods and rhythms. If, as one internet reviewer commented, it seems a bit melancholy, that may be apropos considering that this beautiful city, and a great many of its inhabitants, would be consumed in fire less than 20 years later.

SPLENDID EXAMPLE OF FILMIC FUNCTIONALISM

[J. Steed · 10/10 · 18 June 1999]

Classic and splendid film that is still fascinating to watch. Walter Ruttmann did not make a documentary about Berlin, although 75 after date it certainly can be considered a document about a Berlin that is no more, he composed a film that tries to catch the essence of the atmosphere of a big city. The film is a good example of the art style Neue Sachlichkeit (functionalism): it is a cross-section of Berlin's life in which every element is equally important, shown without comment and in its totality it is the expression of the joy of Berlin's life. It is not a film about the life of Berliners, it is Berlin seen as a living mechanism.

The subtitle referring to Großstadt (big city) is the key, it could have been any other city. The idea as such is not the makers' prerogative. Elsewhere the fascination with the hustle and bustle of the big city was also present as was the idea to catch this on this film and in music: e.g. Cavalcanti in France made a film about Paris and the US Ferde Grofé composed his musical suite Metropolis (1927) with New York in his mind. The irony of all these endeavours is that the film or music is abstract, but that the result is a romanticizing view.

Ruttmann made several abstract film and he refers to them in the beginning with abstract horizontal lines dissolving to rail way tracks. In my view the rest of the film is also abstract. Although we see real people and situations the brilliant editing constantly keeps the film abstract: the situation and the people in a shot are not important, important is the juxtaposition to other shots: is the composition varied enough?. Thus we see a filmic composition (in stead of a musical one) and the subtitle Symphony is just. As with every composition the theme has to be modulated to keep it interesting and it is here where the weakness of the film is. The building up from the start and elaboration up to the beginning of the afternoon is splendid, precise and exiting; but from that point it bogs down for a while: we see another shop, another street etc. without adding much to what already was. It may be that Ruttmann was aware of this, note how quickly he finishes the afternoon to continue with the night-life and then immediately all the excitement and filmic fun is back.

In an 1939 interview cameraman Karl Freund said that everything possible was filmed using only candid cameras. I have my doubts. Let's take for example the sequence of the drowning lady: how could he make an extreme close-up with a hidden camera in such a brilliant angle? (By the way: if she really tried to commit suicide, was Freund himself not only one of the gaping bystanders without doing anything to save her?) How could he foresee the right angle to film the prostitute picking up her client near the cornered shop window? Not that it matters for the quality of the film, but it proofs the old adagium: filming is deceiving.

the idea and the visualization

[whiteass1953 · 10/10 · 15 December 2004]

It's like Koyaanisqatsi of 20s! It's miraculous! Awesome! It's all about the idea of a great city moving forward up-tempo but still having quite common problems of Germany's twenties – poverty and exacerbation, nevertheless Berlin being one of the most fashionable cities of Europe of that particular time. But it's not the movie's main account. Its atmosphere was created by excellent cameraman work. The frame when a train moves right into you and then suddenly turns away is quite impressive. Never seen that advanced cameraman till Citizen Kane. I'd also definitely recommend watching Ruttmann's 'Lichtspiel Opus I ', an avant-garde animated movie created in 1921.

Imaginative Homage To The German Capital City And Its Inhabitants

[FerdinandVonGalitzien · 7/10 · 2 December 2011]

Many times the most exciting trip is right around the corner; you don't need to go to some distant place as this Herr Graf often does ( of course common people can't afford it anyway ) or travel to exotic countries to discover and enjoy new landscapes and the different customs and accents of their people. A perfect example can be found in the film "Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Großstadt" (1927) wherein its director, Herr Walter Ruttmann, our avant-garde and eccentric cicerone, takes the audience on a special and experimental trip around the city of Berlin.

It's certainly very complicated for a conservative German count, accustomed to simple classic film narrative, to describe this film but basically it is a modern, audacious, poetic, suggestive and unique portrait of a city that no longer exists. It is an historical picture of Weimar Berlin enriched by brilliant editing (that sometimes gives the viewer a sense of vertigo) and dazzling images. The film depicts the daily lives of the citizens of Berlin: young and old, rich and poor, people going about routine jobs in factory or office and the thrilling night life. Trains, machines and architecture are all part of a symphony of frenzied activity orchestrated by Herr Ruttmann in a superb and imaginative homage to the German capital city and its inhabitants.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must wander through the empty Berlin Weimar streets.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com

Not a wasted frame.

[Gonzo-12 · 10/10 · 7 November 1998]

Ruttman's film is a spellbinding tour-de-force in photography, managing to dazzle the viewer with each shot. Not a frame is wasted in this, the most photographically influential film ever.

BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY (Walther Ruttmann, 1927) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 8 January 2014]

This documentary has much to answer for, since it started a trend for city-based films: in its case, being a non-narrative look at the thriving German metropolis (though there were a number made in that vein), the original impact has essentially faded with imitation – and its place in the cinematic pantheon overtaken by such classic dramas of 'ordinary people' as F.W. Murnau's SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS (1927) and King Vidor's THE CROWD (1928). The end result – bafflingly split into five unnamed acts, thus boasting no specific characteristic to differentiate them! – nevertheless makes for a veritable time-capsule of an era that is long-gone and, therefore, looked upon now with a certain degree of romantic nostalgia.

The style – among the credits are such luminaries of German Expressionism as Carl Mayer and Karl Freund! – is intermittently flamboyant (notably the opening rapid-fire montage simulating a speeding train's entry into Berlin and the concluding rotating shot of the city at night dissolving into a full-blown fireworks display) but generally pretty straightforward, content merely to document the bustling ongoing activity – encompassing virtually all strata of society – from early morning till after dark (literally "a day in the life"). Still, for all its supposed naturalism (including the unsightly image of a pair of pigeons nonchalantly pecking away at a turd on the pavement!), certain scenes were obviously staged for maximum impact – such as a tussle between two men that causes such a commotion as to necessitate Police intervention (which is then conveniently captured from all possible angles!).

One of the best 'slice of life' documentaries that doesn't age but keeps getting better and better.

[peapulation · 8/10 · 18 September 2009]

An amazing work of the 'slice of life' films of the 20s, really the main and most admirable example along with Dziga vertov's Man With the Movie Camera, to this day, the film remains an effective portrayal of the great city that Berlin was even back when the film was made. In fact, as time goes by, it picks up even greater importance because of the historical value that it holds.

What is truly admirable is the editing and the cinematography. Perhaps even more than the things that are contained in the framework, is the framework itself which has the first impact on the viewer. The wonderful photography, and the skilled editing that is able to go from man to machine, from trains to horses, from workmen to roller-coaster rids, are always elegant and original, even in regards to Vertov's later work mentioned above. It is, in fact, stylistically a Ruttmann work. Although the work of Vertov and Ruttmann are similar, there is a difference in the sense that while The man With the Movie Camera is aware of being a film, and plays with the process of film-making, Berlin actually lets the contents of the framework play out, and never quite interferes with it.

If you like Koyaanisqatsi you'll love this

[NoBBQforyou · 7/10 · 7 October 2021]

I don't have a formal background in film, and generally find silent films dated and boring, but this really grabbed me. It has that flow and dynamism of an actual symphony, and even though I lack the vocabulary to describe what I saw in this, it's definitely much more than a nostalgia trip. The editing and camera direction /cinematography are what grabbed me. If it had been a film about NYC or Chicago, SF, LA, I might be nostalgic as well, but not here. This is just a fine documentary that is much more than mere journalism.

Berlin and Filmmaking as They Were

[tjlisson · 10/10 · 19 July 2015]

Contrary to what some others have observed, I don't find this experimental film tedious at all. Certainly, it is priceless as documentation of the fabled Weimar era of this great city — a city that barely existed at all a couple of decades later. Sure, everyone points that out, but as someone who really loves Berlin, I would never minimize or take for granted in any way the importance of that. I see buildings that are long gone. And I look at the faces of these people and I always wonder what happened to them. How many of them were still alive in 1946? We'll never know.

But it's even better when you try to view it with the mindset of the era in which it takes place. Film itself was still a fascinating novelty at the time and the filmmakers were still as excited as kids on Christmas morning trying to see what they could do with it. The machinery and mod cons were evidence of a revolutionary new way of life, and the Berlin lifestyle was at the vanguard. Imagine what people in some of the most backward parts of the world would have thought of this back then had they seen it.

This film should thoroughly refute all serious possibilities of time travel as the . . .

[cricket30 · 7/10 · 20 March 2021]

. . . Prime Directive of any such notion has always been to go back and nip Adolf in the bud. Filmmaker Walt not only fails to do this, proving that HE's not cheating the clock himself, but he goes on in Real Life to become a Swastika collaborator. During BERLIN, Mr. R. (not to be confused with that other mousy Walt starting to make waves in America, who actually patterned his facial hair after The Fuhrer) merely rips off what Russians have already brought to the Big Screen. But what else could you expect from such a puerile profiteer and morally reprehensible failed human?

Koyaanisqatsi without the pacing

[TooShortforThatGesture · 3/10 · 8 April 2007]

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.

A Fascinating Classic

[Snow Leopard · 11 February 2005]

This fascinating classic never loses its ability to capture the attention and stimulate the imagination of its viewers. The technique is creative and resourceful, the photography is beautiful, and the images are memorable. Everything fits together to make the idea work wonderfully well.

The opening sequence with the train is an exciting and well-conceived way to start the movie. As the pace picks up, the rush of images creates an abstract but very realistic sensation, and this train 'ride' is so enjoyable that you almost don't want it to stop.

But it's when the train reaches the station that the main part of the movie begins, presenting a very interesting stylized portrait of a typical day in Berlin, through a carefully-chosen variety of scenes and sights. It's interesting to see how the train imagery keeps coming back from time to time, and this, along with the obvious passage of time as the day progresses, gives it a coherence that makes it much more than just a collage of interesting images and scenes.

There are many interesting individual sequences, but what makes it such a gem is the way that everything fits together. The overall effect is remarkable, and it really has to be seen to be appreciated.

great doc and time capsule

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 15 March 2021]

This is a silent era documentary showing a day in the life of Berlin starting from the morning to the late night. It shows people and places in their day to day existence. It's artistic like showing the machinery at work. It's fascinating to see people in their everyday lives. It's amazing to see the places especially since most of them were destroyed in WWII. It's great to see living lives in this time era. This is a world in between the two Great Wars. The economic crash has yet to happen. It's a Germany which still functions with its old wealth and new technology. It's a working city. It's a great time capsule and a terrific movie by itself.

Life of Millions: Bittersweet

[hossammouse · 9/10 · 31 January 2021]

Every single frame is a painting. You can take a screenshot every second and all of them would be great. Master editing though it was in 1927.

An interesting Blast from the Past

[akoaytao1234 · 6/10 · 27 March 2024]

Literally just a film about Berlin from what I assume is a day. Made just before things go down with the Nazi Party, it shows the peak of the Weimar period, where everyone has the money and is reaping the post WW1 Boom.

It has a lot of machinery and 'workforce' that from what I still see is somewhat unchanged. The trains were everywhere. Cars are abound the streets. Food Trash is abundant still. Fashion is everywhere. Some staged dramatics here and there. I think the most interesting choices here is how it shows the decadence in contrast with the poor - given its history.

I personally do not know how I will judge this film. I clearly enjoyed some scenes given my engineering background. Otherwise, its an interesting figment of of the era though I do not know were its style meets with the cinema past it.

Wonderful to see Berlin pre World War II. Music was very good, making the silent pace well.

[mehobulls · 8/10 · 17 September 2020]

Ruttman offers a necessary counterpoint to Vertov, where instead of the city becoming dissolved in the kino-eye, Ruttman offers a more kaleidoscopic view of the city, instead of city as a tool of ideological expression (which, too is unprecedented by all means). His vision is closer to Atget, with multiple references to him too. Between the violence of movement and ennui of stasis , a masterpiece unfolds.

A day in Berlin

[Philipp_Flersheim · 7/10 · 24 March 2022]

You arrive by train in the early morning and spend a day in Berlin, including the evening with its entertainment. Rather than following one person's wanderings around the city, 'Berlin - Die Sinfonie der Großstadt' offers series of vignettes that show everyday life in the city: Workers arriving at the factory and later having lunch, wealthy citizens riding their horses in the Tiergarten, children playing, people on the underground or tramway and so on. Initially (in the morning) the pace of the film is slow. Then it quickens as the day gets going, and slows down again towards the evening. I watched it because I spent a large part of my life in Berlin and was wondering how much I would recognise. Sadly, apart from a few landmarks that survived the war or were reconstructed (the cathedral, the royal palace, the 'Red Townhall') almost everything is changed. Two things struck me: First, the extent to which Berlin in the 1920s was characterised by heavy industry. This has all gone, of course, but even back then it must have been an essentially political phenomenon. Berlin and the area around it do not have any natural resources (coal, iron ore etc.), and transport links are not great either. However, being in a place where you could directly access the government and lobby politicians evidently mattered, even more so in a time before modern communications technology. The other remarkable thing is how much background knowledge that directer Walter Ruttmann took for granted is nowadays gone. I constantly wanted to stop the film and ask what was going on there, but the quick cuts and changes from one scene to the next (especially in the middle part) made it impossible to find out. Do I recommend the film? Definitely if you are interested in Berlin, in Weimar Germany or in the social and economic history of the interwar period. If you are not, you may find it pretty dull.

Weimar Berlin Captured for Posterity

[Screen_O_Genic · 8/10 · 21 September 2018]

Priceless footage of the German capital shortly before the Nazi takeover. A watchable time capsule on a city on the verge of the abyss.

Amazing documentary

[dierregi · 8/10 · 23 June 2023]

Divided in five main chapters, the film tells the story of one day in the life of Berlin, a modern city full of life, technology and people moving fast. It starts with a train entering the city from the countryside in the early morning and follows the blue collars going to work, then the white collars and then the city waking up, shops opening and everybody busy until lunchtime.

After a suitable rest the afternoon follows as frenetic as the morning and then, when the low and middle class go home, the nightlife begins, in theatres, sport halls and cabarets. I was sort of expecting the movie to sort of loop back to the beginning with the last of the night crowd going home and meeting the blue collars, but it ends at night.

Some of the photography is amazing for the time and on the whole clever and very well made. It saddened me to think that within 15 years the whole city bustling with life and construction works was going to be bombed down almost to the ground, but that's another story.

Of interest to historians but overrated.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 3 November 2011]

"Berlin: Symphony of a Great City" is an art film that is pretty dull. However, it certainly does have a lot of historical importance. After all, the film shows a typical day in this city circa 1927--and by the end of WWII, most of it had been destroyed. In other words, it allows the viewer and historians to look back to a city and way of life that are gone.

As for the movie, though, I just can't see why it has a current high rating of 7.9. This is very high--especially when it's a film with no real plot and which many viewers will become bored with after a while. After all, it consists of hundreds of clips all strung together to tell a tale of the city during a day--and that is all. It's competently made and of passing interest only.

I like art films and documentaries--but this is a case of too much.

Neon flowers blossoming on the gates of the future

[chaos-rampant · 4 October 2011]

Place: Berlin. Span: one day in the life of the city circa 1927 captured by the camera. We enter by train.

One way to watch this, the most obvious I guess, is as a historic document, a snapshot of life as it was once. The old world just barely impregnated with faint traces of an archaic modernity; street cars, neon signs, busy streets, things we have now but were then just beginning to greet people. So with this mindset, as a museum piece that depicts an old version of our world.

This is fine, but I urge you to engage it differently if you can.

What if instead of merely observing exhibits from behind a glass panel, we get out from the museum into actual life? Instead of settling in for this as a historic - meaning dead, embalmed, academic - glimpse, we invigorate it with life that we know, with sunlight, texture, sound, breath that was then as real as it is now? How would it be in absolute stillness to feel present in the middle of a modern life?

This is how the film was intended after all, it's plainly revealed this way. Not a fossil for generations of curious tourists from the future, but a celebration of life 'now', modern, busy life out the window.

So no longer an old world that faintly reminds us of our own, but a new world, exciting, alluring, mysterious, alive with myriad possibilities. New things everywhere, novel pathways to travel, environments to experience. What I mean is, try to see the city as though you just got off the train and were visiting for the first time. It ends with the camera spinning around a flashing neon sign cut to match with fireworks erupting in the night sky.

I urge you to inhabit this, settle for nothing less. Let its neon flowers blossom in you.

Berlin; a city that has come to life

[alcomendrasnikolai-04664 · 10/10 · 31 January 2017]

A day in the life of 1920's Berlin, Walter Ruttmann's images on screen is structured in a way showing us the great city. Ruttman toured us in the Berlin's awakening, mid-day rest, busy afternoon life, and evening leisure.

A normal day in the heart of the city Berlin, but a day full of life and energy. On the whole, this sequence focuses primarily on people. Though it's true that it is not so much about the people of Berlin, although we see many of them, but it is not a film about the life of Berlin people, it is Berlin seen as a living organism.

Scenes are edited and cut together based on relationships of image, motion, point of view, and content- the five reel film is divided into five acts. The first act starts the day, beginning with calm waters and a representation of a sunrise. The opening sequence with the train but it's when the train reaches the station that the main part of the movie really begins, presenting an interesting typical day in Berlin.

Second act shows more how the usual morning starts, with the opening of gates, shutters, windows, doors, people busy cleaning, fruit carts, children going to school. A montage of monkeys biting one another, telephone operators, machinery, and dogs fighting is mixed into the general busy work of the office.

The third act showed the busy side of the street's of the great city wherein a variety of people of different classes going about their business. There are industrial workers, construction workers, salespeople, shoppers, etc. A fight between two men breaks out briefly, but is quickly stopped by bystanders and a policeman. There are many crowds, a father and bride arriving at a wedding and a strong contrast of some flirtation on the street.

Fourth is the lunch break where 12:00 is shown on a clock. Berliners start to eat and drink, and animals feed. There is a scene in the film wherein social issue was shown in symbolism form wherein during the lunch hour sequences, when we see the rich eating in fancy restaurants and the poor eating in harder conditions. Ruttmann then follows it up with the shots of a lion eating his big meal of raw flesh and a few kittens looking for food in the garbage. This is the only real significant hint but rather than seem like the portrayal of a serious social issue of Marxist ideology, that one of Marx's arguments is the difference of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. And as the camera moves among the wealthy and the less fortunate, while children play and factories roar. Words from a newspaper fly off the screen: Murder! Marriage! Money! Money! Money! A wild eyed woman throws herself from a bridge and disappears into the dark water while office workers pound the keys of their typewriters then on the lover's boat on a peaceful city lake. It shows how Ruttman has the power to shift the scenes gracefully and violently manner through each frame shown.

Finally, the fifth act is the people's entertainment at night. Montage of entertainments includes hockey, indoor races, boxing and dance contests. The city starts to spin wildly, transitions into a majestic fireworks display, and thus concludes the day of the great city Berlin.

This fascinating classic never loses its ability to capture the attention and imagination of its audience. The technique is creative and resourceful, and the images are significant. Everything fits together to make the idea work wonderfully well, truly a great classic and contribution to the world of cinema.

Although the film seem portray the lives of the people in the city, humanity is not its focal topic rather the Berlin City itself, how it has come to life in film and how it will be remembered and visited in the time capsule Ruttmann has created for the whole world to see and appreciate.