The city is a place of romance and escape in this pioneering fiction/non-fiction hybrid that follows the off-hours of a quartet of attractive young Berliners. A wine salesman and a movie extra meet at a café and make a plan to picnic together in the country, but when each unexpectedly brings along a friend, flirtation and confusion ensues. Shot on location in the streets and parks of Weimar-era Berlin and the beaches of nearby Wansee with amateur actors, this utopian “city symphony” offers a rare glimpse of the metropolis on the eve of momentous change. It was financed independently by a group of German filmmakers who would all soon emigrate to Hollywood.

Directed by Curt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak et al., 1930
Runtime: 73 minutes

Part of the urban film series Cinematic Sites, selected by Paul Dallas and presented in conjunction with Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab.