The Difficulty in Watching Older Films

It can become very difficult for someone like me to watch any film from the early-mid 20^th century without having comparisons to more contemporary films intruding on my viewing. The majority of times, these similarities are small ones, but nonetheless provide enough for that incessant mental nagging that can drive any viewer insane for the duration of the viewing experience. Perhaps this effect is more profound when watching silent films, or rather films at least without any dialogue. When watching Walter Ruttmann’s Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, my viewing experience was immediately intruded upon by a struggle to find modern examples of films that focus, even in the most subtle and miniscule of ways, to the art and character of a city itself rather than solely on its inhabitants. Naturally, the first film to come to mind was Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, which quite obviously bares many similarities to Ruttmann’s film. Other dystopian films (and their novel predecessors in some cases) such as 1984 are also thrust upon my mind. What separates Ruttmann’s film from these, naturally, is the documentary (or at least semi-documentary) style, perhaps accentuating the dystopian theme, at least in my mind. A common feature of a good portion of dystopian narrative is the futuristic setting and the sense of possible inevitability that comes with it. Ruttmann’s film, set in the present day (upon release), still retains the same sense but on a more haunting level. The industrial aspect of Ruttmann’s film is the basis for this relationship with the focus being on a nation moving towards the future, with the implication that the industrialisation of the time is increasing at a dangerously exponential rate, to which the future results can be seen in the aforementioned two films.

This emphasis on the good and bad possibilities for the future is a symptom of the filmmaking era that Ruttmann found himself entrenched in. In a very different era such as our 21^st century contemporary one, there are quite a few dramatic shifts, with the advancement in technology allowing for so many more possibilities. Where Ruttmann focuses on the powerful city of Berlin, moving forward like the steam locomotive in the opening scenes, more contemporary films appear to go backwards, focusing much more on the preservation and return to past history when defining the character of a city. Martin McDonagh’s 2008 film In Bruges was the first example of a modern film that came to my mind upon watching Ruttmann’s film. Naturally, it was the fleeting images of the Belgian city of Bruges, and not the plot, which led me to this comparison, as the historical city is a representation of sustained beauty and the importance of preservation rather than development. Gone is the futuristic dystopian film based around over-advanced and over-developed monstrosities (unless your name is James Cameron), as history and older architecture seems to be the cooler trend now for modern filmmakers.