Weimar Berlin: The City as Film 1/2 Flashcards
who you see in Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt
Different crowds of people
Different segments of society
Workers, rich people, servants, beggars, newspaper salesmen
Specific spheres
Those people who can’t participate in this consumer society
All the shop windows full of goods
Jewelry and junk
Desirable and superfluous
Who is buying?
See people left behind who cannot consume (food or goods)
Is it an ambivalent portrayal in Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt ?
More critical than ambivalent
Analytical
Portraying how you would emotionally read the city not a realistic representation
Montage, layering, unpredictability
Anxiety, stress, confusion
What kind of image of the city does this film convey?
Confused, chaotic, isolating, frenetic, callous
Die Stadt der Millionen
First documentary film made about Berlin Trying to show the beauty and history of the city Grand buildings Cartoons about the history Uneven film Ideas then taken up by Ruttmann The structure of acts An army of work Non narrative introduction to Berlin Clock symbol: mechanization of time
Why Ruttman’s film is different (maybe better)
Presentation of modernity
The city as the ultimate sign and symbol of modernity
Technique of montage
What do we mean by modernity?
Located around the age of industrialization and its consequences
Technological developments = machines, factories,
Involves a movement from the movement of people from rural areas to cities
urbanization
Pace of life becomes much much faster
Implies “progress”
New mobility
Constantly see trains and tracks and wheels
What does progress mean?
Improvement of the quality of life
Technological, efficiency
What implications for society are attached to technological progress?
Capitalistic - Faster, cheaper, more
The images of the track and the wheel
Linear development to a future where everything is automatic
Things become faster, easier, better
What implications for society are attached to technological progress?
Loss of individuality The crowd, the marching workers Those who aren’t moving Highlights the people that can’t keep up Are economically disadvantaged Match woman, newspaper man, suicidal woman, begging child If you don't have any work you are an outsider Residue of individuality
What do we see?/ What does the film show us ?
Speed, industry, a journey, smoke, machines
Geometric, animated shapes
See the train from various angles
What happens when you go past a landscape really quickly = it blurs, kind of like an expressionist painting
Shapes that could be abstract things
All about movement and speed
The closer you come to the city the more technological “progress” you see - industrial action
Ambivalent images
- Exciting or intimidating?
- Anxious
Not just interested in showing us what’s there but pointing out how we perceive things
Geometric, animated shapes
Playing with perception
It is not a conventional documentary, it’s a comment on our visual perception
Artistic element
Not just representation, but telling us something about how we perceive
Formalist element
Very concerned with how it is presenting these images
And also the notion of speed and increasing speed
See the train from various angles
Things you can only do with a camera
It’s constructed
Medium and technology of the medium very visible in the first images - as well as the editing - incredible speed, not just the train but the speed of the editing as well
What happens when you go past a landscape really quickly = it blurs, kind of like an expressionist painting
Realistic in terms of perception = not so much interested in the object
Interested in the way we perceive and movement and what happens to shapes when the camera or train is moving
Act 1
People going to work spliced with images of cattle going to slaughter
- Film making a political comment about the nature of work
Machines that seem to be running automatically - you don’t see the people
- Loss of humanity?
- Metropolis
Masses of workers
White collar workers
Newspapers and speed - information overload Nothing is really being processed Lots of montage Eating montage Again, disparity between rich and poor Newspaper montage Not about information = sensationalized news Ultimately it's all about money Roller coaster
White collar workers
Screeching monkeys and fighting dogs
A regression of sorts
Stressful and aggressive and overwhelming
