Berlin im Licht: Stories from the Golden Twenties
Accompanied by historical film footage and the music of Kurt Weill, actress Dagmar Manzel tells the story of Berlin in the 1920s: a city that was characterised in equal measure by cultural splendour and economic misery, political instability and joie de vivre, light music and cutting-edge art. Berlin im Licht is the title of a festival that in 1928 turned night into day in the capital. Weill and Bertolt Brecht wrote the catchy tune of the same name.
The fact that no one had to sleep here at night was due in no small part to the availability of artificial lighting: “This is no little hick town. This is one helluva city! If you want to see everything you can, you have to use a few watts!” says the title song by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill which quickly became a hit with the night owls.
Berlin im Licht is also the name of Oliver Hilmes’s film directed by Andreas Morell which was produced as part of the Philharmoniker’s online festival The Golden Twenties. It shows the city as a setting for both high culture and subculture, it depicts the yearning for pleasure and economic hardship of the time, and sheds light on the metropolis as a centre of political conflict and aesthetic diversity. The narrator of the film is the actress Dagmar Manzel. As a native of Berlin, she embodies the spirit of the city as authentically as anyone can.
A film by Andreas Morell (2021)
Dagmar Manzel
Category
Artists
© 2021 Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker
