ABSTRACT
Walter Ruttmann’s 1927 film, Berlin, Symphony of a Great City, set to a musical score, is an impressionistic portrayal of the passage of one day in the life in a large metropolis. Organized into five acts, the movie portrays the dynamic rhythms of the city: the dawn and start of the working day, the crescendo of the multiple rhythms of rush hours, the busy mobilities of passengers, pedestrians and vehicles, lunch-time, the rhythms of factory work and financial transactions, and the vigorous rhythms of nocturnal urban pleasures. What is striking about the film is that there are no recorded sounds, yet the musical score renders explicit the diverse, dynamic, sonic polyrhythms that occur throughout the day.
