Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved.

Berlin
Symphony of a Great City
(1927)

Film Preservation Associates
1999 DVD edition

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 62 minutes, not rated, with Lichtspiel Opus I [Opus I] (1921), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.

Film Preservation Associates, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID4673DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-46732-1.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; German language intertitles (main titles only), no subtitles; chapter stops; snapper DVD case; $24.99.
Release date: 11 May 1999.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This early DVD edition of Walther Ruttmann’s hand-tinted experimental feature has been mastered from a very-good 35mm preservation print.

The film is accompanied by an orchestral music score.

The supplemental section adds Ruttmann’s experimental short Lichtspiel Opus I.

This edition is now out-of-print.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .

Edition Filmmuseum
2008 DVD edition

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 65 minutes, not rated, with Melodie der Welt (1929), black & white, 48 minutes, not rated, Lichtspiel Opus I [Opus I] (1921), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated, Opus 2 (1922), black & white, 3 minutes, not rated, Der Sieger (1922), black & white, 3 minutes, not rated, Das Wunder (1922), black & white, 3 minutes, not rated, Opus 3 (1924), black & white, 3 minutes, not rated, Opus 4 (1925), black & white, 4 minutes, not rated, Das wiedergefundene Paradies (1925), black & white, 6 minutes, not rated, Der Aufsteig (1926), black & white, 4 minutes, not rated, Spiel der Wellen (1926), black & white, 3 minutes, not rated, Dort wo der Rhein . . . (1927), black & white, 3 minutes, not rated, Weekend (1930), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated, and In der Nacht (1931), black & white, 7 minutes, not rated.

Edition Filmmuseum, 39, unknown UPC/EAN number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD disc (two DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 50 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; German language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; chapter stops; 20-page insert booklet; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; €29,95.
Release date: November 2008 (second edition, March 2009; third edition, October 2009; fourth edition, February 2010; fifth edition, August 2010; sixth edition, November 2010; twelfth edition, March 2016; thirteenth edition, November 2018; fourteenth edition, December 2020).
Country of origin: Germany

This PAL DVD edition has been produced by Filmmuseum München, Arte, Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv and the Goethe-Institut, München, from archival film elements.

The film is presented with its original orchestral music score composed by Edmund Meisel.

The disc supplemental material includes DVD-ROM supplemental material (in German), including original documents by and about Walther Ruttman, program booklets and original scores, with photo galleries; a side-by-side comparison of surviving prints of Melodie der Welt; an audio feature on Walther Ruttman (86 minutes).

This high-quality edition is recommended to all. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 0 PAL DVD edition is available directly from . . .