The great “city symphonies” of the silent era celebrated the pulsating life of the streets. Berlin was the joint effort of Carl Mayer, the expressionist scenarist; Karl Freund, the great cameraman; and Walther Ruttmann, at the time an abstract filmmaker. For all its basis in reality-capturing a late spring day in the German capital, from dawn to midnight-it was conceived as an abstract artwork, rigorously organized according to musical principles. The filmmakers wandered the city for over a year, filming from high buildings, in tunnels and sewers. They popularized the Russian Dziga Vertov's kino-eye technique in a film that was shown around the world and still stands as a great achievement of urban cinematic art.