TY - JOUR
T1 - Berlin: Palimpsests of a Great City
AU - EVANS, OWEN
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022/5/30
Y1 - 2022/5/30
N2 - Can there be another European city that has undergone so many dramatic transformations over the past hundred years as Berlin? The city has seen so much of history, created, and been the subject of, so many stories, and thus comprises so many versions of itself. The present article explores how Berlin films contain multiple historical and textual palimpsests, focussing on Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin: Symphony of a Great City as the urtext of all subsequent Berlin films. Particular attention will then be paid to Berlin Symphony, Thomas Schadt’s riposte to Ruttmann’s film seventy-five years on, and the more recent Symphony of Now, directed by Johannes Schaff and which, in effect, responds to both. This article argues that these films, in complementary ways, uncover the cultural, historical and architectural palimpsests inscribed within the fabric of the city in their response to Ruttmann’s urtext.
AB - Can there be another European city that has undergone so many dramatic transformations over the past hundred years as Berlin? The city has seen so much of history, created, and been the subject of, so many stories, and thus comprises so many versions of itself. The present article explores how Berlin films contain multiple historical and textual palimpsests, focussing on Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin: Symphony of a Great City as the urtext of all subsequent Berlin films. Particular attention will then be paid to Berlin Symphony, Thomas Schadt’s riposte to Ruttmann’s film seventy-five years on, and the more recent Symphony of Now, directed by Johannes Schaff and which, in effect, responds to both. This article argues that these films, in complementary ways, uncover the cultural, historical and architectural palimpsests inscribed within the fabric of the city in their response to Ruttmann’s urtext.
KW - Berlin films
KW - Walther Ruttmann
KW - Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
KW - Berlin Symphony
KW - Symphony of Now
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U2 - 10.1080/01426397.2022.2081316
DO - 10.1080/01426397.2022.2081316
M3 - Article (journal)
SN - 0142-6397
VL - 47
SP - 840
EP - 850
JO - Landscape Research
JF - Landscape Research
IS - 7
ER -