A week-long film festival, entitled “Berlin and Blue Angels” in reference to the titles of two of the films screened, kicked off in Reykjavík City Library yesterday. The festival features films made in Germany between the two world wars, the golden age of the German film industry.
The films referenced in the festival’s title are the documentary Berlin, die Sinfonie einer Großstadt (Berlin, Symphony of a Great City; 1927) by Walther Ruttmann and Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel; 1930) by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich (see poster).
Three other fictions will be screened, Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday; 1929) by Robert Siodmak, which describes daily life on an ordinary summer’s day in Berlin, Die Austernprinzessin (1919), a romantic comedy by Ernst Lubitsch and M (1931), a dramatic crime thriller by Fritz Lang starring Peter Lorre.
Additionally, a recent documentary on German filmmaking, Auge in Auge (Eye to Eye; 2008) by Michael Althen and Hans Helmut will be screened during the festival.
The festival, which is held in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, concludes on October 30. Admission is free and all are welcome. Click here to read the program.
In other film news, two documentaries on volcanoes which were made for the National Geographic Channel, Iceland Volcano Eruption and Into the Volcano by Jóhann Sigfússon and Bo Landin, are currently being screened at Bíó Paradís in Reykjavík. The films were both recently nominated for the Emmy Awards.
The first features the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 and the second a unique trip into Thríhnúkagígur, the only volcano in the world where it is possible to enter the crater. Click here for further information on the program.
ESA
