**EDIT 6-28-11** The overall quality of the Blu-ray is very good, not perfect, but very good considering the age of the film and the fact that sources of varying qualities were used. A few scenes are obviously from a source that had deteriorated to some extent, but Criterion did an excellent job on the restoration and included the scenes to make the film as complete as possible. Quality-wise, this is the clearest, most crisp version of this film that I have viewed.
Today, People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) is mainly remembered as being a collaboration of several talented filmmakers early in their careers (Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, Robert and Curt Siodmak, and Edgar G. Ulmer). Yes, this part of the production is fascinating, but the film itself is so much more than that. Produced during the latter days of the Weimar Republic with the German Expressionist movement screeching to a halt, this film combines several styles and influences in a unique and innovative way. The filmmakers use techniques of German Expressionism, add a twist of Scandinavian nature films, and top it off with a hint of some of their contemporary Russian directors, such as Eisenstein and Pudovkin (style not content). The creative blend of these styles, along with the amateur cast of locals (using their real names and professions), has been called by some a precursor to the Neorealist movement.
I will very briefly cover the plot, as to not ruin the film for someone who has never seen it before. The film is centered around five young Berliners: friends Erwin and Wolfgang, Erwin's depressed wife Annie, Wolfgang's new girlfriend Christl and her friend Brigitte. After Erwin has an argument with his wife, he and Wolfgang decide to go on a country outing the following day. The friends are then joined by Christl and Brigitte on a train to Nikolassee for a day of fun and relaxation. Following the long day of flirting and lying on the beach, the friends return to the city while trying to figure out their plans for the following weekend. This sounds very simple and empty but the movie will really speak for itself. I'm not saying this will be one of your new favorites, but the overall presentation of the film is unique and enjoyable.
The film addresses such issues as depression, machismo and even infidelity, but, in the end, the main purpose of the film is to portray the happy and carefree lives of 1929 German society. Herein lies the true irony, for within four years, Adolf Hitler was elected German Chancellor bringing the Nazi Party into power. As a result, the Jewish filmmakers who brought us this cinematic interpretation of being a content German were forced to leave the country.
**Special Features and Technical Aspects As Listed by Criterion**
-New high-definition digital restoration, created in collaboration with the Filmmuseum Amsterdam
-Two scores--a silent-era-style score by the Mont Alto Orchestra and a modern composition by Elena Kats-Chernin, performed by the Czech Film Orchestra--both presented as uncompressed stereo soundtracks on the Blu-ray edition
-Weekend am Wannsee, Gerald Koll's 2000 documentary about the film, featuring an interview with star Brigitte Borchert
-Ins Blaue Hinein, a thirty-six-minute short from 1931 by People on Sunday cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan
-New and improved English subtitle translation
-PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Noah Isenberg and reprints by scriptwriter Billy Wilder and director Robert Siodmak
Germany
1930
73 minutes
Black and White
1.33:1
Silent
This film, made on the borderline between silence & sound, shows the promise of Wilder, both Siodmaks, Zinnemann et al--
before they became some of Hollywood's best & brightest, "thanks" to the awful conditions in Europe that, in part, account
for the classic era of Hollywood movies. (It's interesting, finally, how different their contributions were.)
But apart from this being a fascinating and essential historical footnote to the later careers of these men,
the movie is also great fun in itself, perhaps because of the sense that there was nothing to lose, no compromises necessary--of, hey,
let's try doing it this way...or what about this? It's like a brilliant home movie, made quickly and independently--very smart about both the lives of people & cities--that eventually became a primer for many cinematic impulses to follow, including Italian neo-realism and the French New Wave.
And it's full of the sense of what it feels like to be young, the energy and possibilities--both within the casual narrative itself and implicit in the making of the film.
One technical observation. I love all the good that BFI does for us, but in this case I think the recently released Criterion Blu-ray is a much cleaner
transfer, with a choice of two soundtracks. (For a comparison, go to dvdbeaver.com.)
Buy People on Sunday (The Criterion Collection) (1930) Now
An intriguing, cynical silent film featuring a wonderful glimpse of life during Weimar Republic-era Germany and created through the collaboration of young German filmmakers who would go on to have successful film careers a few years later.
The film's title "People on Sunday" (Menschen am Sonntag) is a 1930 silent film that featured a collaboration of Curt Siodmak (who would later be known for his "Wolf Man" and "Invisible Man" films), Robert Siodmak (who would later be known for "The Killers", "The Spiral Staircase" and "Criss Cross"), Edgar G. Ulmer (known for his noir films "Detour", "The Black Cat", "The Strange Woman"), cinematographer Fred Zinnemann (known for directing "High Noon", "From Here to Eternity", "The Day of the Jackal"), Eugen Schufftan (known for his cinematography on "The Hustler", "Eyes Without a Face", "Port of Shadows" and "It Happened Tomorrow") and Billy Wilder ("Some Like It Hot", "Sunset Blvd.", "The Apartment", "Double Indemnity"). And the most interesting thing about this film when it comes to its filmmakers is that many of these filmmakers have differing viewpoints on who was responsible for the film and are vocal of who put more work in and who didn't.
But if there is one thing that audiences are in agreement on, it's the fact that this film is a timeless classic and a glimpse to an era that is no more. But the film is also seen as a precursor to independent film. A film created with hardly any financing (financing came from Seymour Nebenzal, a cousin of the Siodmak's and a future collaborator of Billy Wilder), no-name actors and filmed on several Sundays during the summer of 1929. The film was also regarded by film critics as an accurate portrayal of Berlin at the time but with it's final intertitle, an ironic way of words that was meant to be right way to end the film but also could have another meaning for those of us who watch the film and realize what happened to Berlin and many Jews living in Germany several years later.
A film that was created with people who had day jobs which were portrayed in the film, portraying people living their lives in Berlin in the summer of 1929 and pretty much a joint collaboration of a group of friends from Berlin who wanted to make a film together and did it.
Ironically, "People on Sunday" was created back during the Weimar Republic of Germany, and Berlin as shown in this film would drastically change several years later during Hitler's reign in 1933, the filmmakers of Jewish descent, living in Germany, including one of the actresses Christl Ehlers would all flee Germany years after the film was made while some of their family members, especially for Billy Wilder, would die years later in the Auschwitz extermination camp.
So, "People on Sunday" is an important film for it being a cinema film that captured Berlin-life, Berlin youth but also, in every sense of the word, an indie film created with a small budget, no-name talent and yet was able to achieve critical acclaim. And there is no doubt that this silent film is worthy of being part of Criterion Collection's dedication in providing important classic and contemporary films in America.
VIDEO:
It's important to note that "People on Sunday" is a film that presented to those working on the restoration project as challenging and difficult. Presented in black and white (1:33:1), as the original negative had damage, the restoration project had to take parts from other badly damaged versions of the film from different countries and piece each frame together in order to come close to the original film and its duration.
For the most part, the contrast of the film is wonderful. Blacks are nice and deep and the grays and white levels are really good. Not to say that the picture is pristine because it's not. Bare in mind that this latest restoration is the piecing of many frames that came from different negative sources from different countries, you're going to notice a slight bit of flickering, nothing bad. But considering that the film is 80-years-old and knowing a lot of films on nitrate filmed back in the '20s weren't taken care of all that well and the fact that this is not a big budget film with top talent, it's amazing that this film could look so good today!
According to the Criterion Collection, the new digital transfer was created from a 35 mm mute print struck from the restoration negative provided by the EYE Film Institute Netherlands. It was scanned in 2K resolution on a Spirit 4K Datacine played at 24 frames per second and then digitally converted to the EYE Film Institute's recommended speed of 22 frames per second.
Color correction was done using DaVinci Resolve software and thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS system while Digital Vision's Phoenix system was used for small dirt, grain and noise reduction.
Also according to the Criterion Collection, the restoration negative used for this release was created in 1997 by Martin Koerber, working at the Netherlands Filmmuseum (now known as the EYE Film Institute Netherlands). A high quality original nitrate print of the Dutch version of "People on Sunday" served as the basis for the restoration. In order to come as close as possible to the original complete German version of the film, shots were also taken from numerous elements at the Fondazione Cineteca Italiana, the Cinematheque royal de Belgique and the Cinematheque suisse.
Koerber's version follows the pioneering work done in the 1980s by Enno Patalas at the Munich Filmmuseum, but he was able to locate and incorporate about 150 meters of additional footage. The restoration negative was printed at L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
"People on Sunday The Criterion Collection #569' is silent film but you get two scores. One is a silent-era style version (which was my preference) by the Mont Alto Orchestra which was recorded in March 2011 and another that is a modernized version by the Elena Kats-Chernin, performed by the Czech Film Orchestra recorded in 2000.
Personally, considering the fact that a few people that I have talked to, who have watched this film back then, watched it with no music accompaniment. Although I do own a few silents with no music (and some with bad music), I'm grateful for the Criterion Collection for providing two excellent music scores.
It would have been nice to have a third, which would be Trio Bravo+'s score for the 2002 screening of the film but for the most part, I'm quite pleased with both scores, especially the Mont Alto Orchestra version.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
"People on Sunday The Criterion Collection #569' on Blu-ray comes with the following special features:
Weekend am Wannsee (31:14) Gerald Koll's 2000 documentary about the making of "People on Sunday" and features interviews with Brigitte Borchert (who plays the record store girl) and writer Curt Siodmak and Martin Koeber, the film restorer.
Ins Blau Hineien (35:30) A short 1931 film by "People on Sunday" cinematographer Eugene Schufftan.
EXTRAS:
"People on Sunday The Criterion Collection #569' comes with a 30-page booklet featuring the following essay "Young People Like Us" by Noah Isenberg and "Making People on Sunday" with differing accounts by Billy Wilder and Robert Siodmak.
JUDGMENT CALL:
"People on Sunday" is an absorbing form of cinema that attracts different types of audiences. While I can't call it a masterpiece, it is a time capsule that shows us of a Berlin that would no longer be the same a few years later. A film that was built upon friendships and achieving cinema but due to the change of the country's politics and the creation of Hitler's Third Reich, these friends would go on their separate ways as they tried to escape Nazi Germany because of their Jewish descent.
This film is a hybrid silent film and documentary but it has elements that one can easily watch and be entertained.
For those who are wanting a silent film with a storyline, you have a story about two male friends going out with two new female friends for some R&R on a Sunday at a lake and jealousy develops but of course, there is more to this story as one man has a girlfriend that he doesn't treat all that well at home (and oversleeps), while his other male friend, the wine maker who goes after the actress and kisses her but ends up being slapped and then goes for her friend, the record shop girl.
Then you have the Avant-Garde style of filmmaking derived from an Eisenstein style of filmmaking and shots of objects, surroundings that show an artistic style of cinematographer Eugen Schufftan. Also, it's important to note that this is an independent film before "indie" films came to play. These young filmmakers came up with the idea while at a cafe.
And because these filmmakers didn't have much money, they hired everyday people to be part of the film (some who went on to acting and others who didn't) and in the end, the film became a major success for these young filmmakers and eventually each of them went on to bigger film projects.
And for those who are interested in Germany, the film also captures the Weimar Republic three years before it was replaced by Fascism and Hitler's Third Reich. A look at how society was back then, during a period of liberal democracy and its filmmakers (who happen to be Jewish living in Germany) not fully aware of what they captured on film would show a side of Germany which would be gone in three years.
But there are other things about the film that stay in my mind. One scene features Christl Ehlers (who plays the character of a girl who plays an extra in film) sewing on her swimsuit before getting into the water, scenes of older technology with the windup portable record player, scenes showing hints of sexuality, scenes of people not having much money and even splitting cigarettes and sharing wine from the same glass. Of course, the film is quite cynical and is a wonderful look at German youth before the change and because it was made during the Weimar-era, there is no hint of danger or anything of wartime. Just people living their everyday life.
And for me, unlike the Mitchell and Kenyon films where everyone loved to be in front of the camera and would do what they can to be filmed, there is no hint of that in "People on Sunday". It's as if the camera was hidden and people were normal, nor are they looking directly at the camera. Granted, you have random people making faces towards the camera but it's all closeup as opposed to everyone crowding and pushing just to get their shot in the camera.
For silent film fans, whenever you can get a glimpse of society at that time, all captured on film, it's a wonderful experience. But to get documentary-style footage of a Germany post-World War I, early documentaries are something you rarely see from Europe (the best early, silent documentary work showcasing early European society is probably from Mitchell and Kenyon in the UK covering the early 1900's and Marcel Carne's short "Nogent ou l'Eldorado du Dimanche") as a lot of footage is lost or destroyed due to the instability of nitrate film.
But the efficacy of "People on Sunday" is because of its non-traditional style of filmmaking, combining a story with a documentary style footage. Critics loved it back in 1930 and I have no doubt that many of us today will have a sigh of relief that so much has went towards the restoration of the film. I personally have only read about the film prior to watching it and to finally watch it on Blu-ray and to see the wonderful contrast, to hear the beautiful musical scores included in this Blu-ray release is wonderful!
It's important to note that the original German version was no longer intact due to deterioration and from using copies of other versions from different countries (that were equally as bad), fortunately missing footage was taken from those various negative sources and all the elements put together in one film. Of course, since the restoration of the film, more footage has been found (documentary footage) but not added because it is not known of where it should be placed in the film.
But for any silent film fan and historian, the release of "People on Sunday" by the Criterion Collection is magnificent! And equally as impressive are the inclusion of the two special features which include "Weekend am Wannsee", Gerald Koll's 2000 documentary of the film with interviews with Brigitte Borchert (who plays the record store girl in the film) and writer Curt Siodmak. Also, included is "Ins Blaue hineien, a 36-minute short from 1931 by cinematographer Eugen Schufftan which features elements similar to "People on Sunday".
Also, it was great to have two scores included with this release. The Mont Alto Orchestra was my preference as it captured a more silent-era style but you also get a modernized score with Elena Kats-Chernin and the Czech Film Orchestra's score as well.
Overall, "People on Sunday" was a wonderful film to watch and enjoy, not just for its story but its cinematography but also showcasing society. You juxtapose this film with Eugen Schufftan's 1931 short film "Ins Blaue hinein" (which is included as a special feature) and what you get primarily is a lot of trees and neighborhoods, while the former shows society in everyday life in the city of Berlin. While I understand those who are not really into silent films, let alone watching footage of the distant past, But for those who are open to silent cinema and are curious of seeing Germany ala the Weimar Republic era will find this film enjoyable, intriguing and highly entertaining. Also, feeling that this is a release that is a worthy addition to the Criterion Collection.
I personally recommend "People on Sunday" as a must-buy for any cineaste!
Read Best Reviews of People on Sunday (The Criterion Collection) (1930) Here
"People on Sunday" is an amazing achievement in every respect, but i was especially impressed by so much nuance and complexity in a silent movie. I used to expect silent films to be simplistic and melodramatic, Hollywood style, which was recently confirmed by The Artist (2011), a silent movie imitation by French director Michel Hazanavicius, which suffers from all the ills of the real McCoy.
For a film produced in 1930, "People on Sunday" is refreshingly serious, realistic and frank. Even comparing with the movies produced much later, European and Japanese realistic and neorealistic films of the late 40's and even 50's, Siodmak's film doesn't come across as less sophisticated. All the movies, produced by Siodmak, Ulmer and other creators of "People on Sunday" in Hollywood are more predictable and mechanical, conforming to the requirement of maximizing the box office numbers.
Even in comparison with Murnau's The Last Laugh one can easily see brute force of Siodmak's expressive power. Non-professional actors in most of the roles, lots of street scenes beautifully shot by Fred Zinnemann, real people, real relationships, real life instead of Hollywood fakes and sheer entertainment movies of the same period. Surely not everyone would like that, as, again one can see from the frenzied reception of Hazanavicius' The Artist...
Miraculously, this film doesn't look dated at all. To my opinion "People on Sunday" is one of the top achievements of cinematography.
As always thanks to Criterion Collection.
Want People on Sunday (The Criterion Collection) (1930) Discount?
Criterion continues to serve up amazing cinematic treats. People on Sunday is an amazing silent film that even years later causes arguments between filmmakers and critics alike.
The film was shot in 1930 in and around Berlin. The main actors are all regular people who had never been filmed before. There was very little budget, and according to actor recollections, the film was thought out while at a cafe with notes scribbled on napkins. Though there are many famous names attached to this film, it seems that many of these more famous people might have had very little to do with this actual film and later exaggerated their input and influence due to the positive reviews the film garnered. Much of this is explained in the included booklet.
Despite this, the film was beautifully shot. The transfer, even to DVD is amazing. The film looks pristine with most of the noise, dirt, and static removed. Also of note is that Criterion used a Dutch version of the film for the base (the German original having been lost, presumably destroyed). But there was much of the film missing, so Criterion gathered bits from other recordings in Italy, France, and beyond to restore much of the film. Their efforts were mostly successful, though there is a bit that seems to have been permanently lost. A brief introduction provided by Criterion discusses this.
There are two music tracks, one created for a Czech film festival, the other created for the Criterion release. I watched with the Criterion composition. But you can select either. Also of note, there are very few script stills. Many of the stills were edited or lost, and Criterion made every effort to recover the original lines.
The film takes place mainly on Sunday, though we see the events on Saturday leading up to Sunday. A chance meeting between two people leads to plans to enjoy Sunday together. Each brings a friend and it ends up as a double date of sorts. We watch the character interactions and their courting of each other over the course of the day.
The scenes are amazingly shot. The settings chosen are fantastic. At times it's sad to think about what the city will look like 14 to 15 years after the filming...
Many have said that this movie was a precursor to French New Wave or Italian Neorealism, and I tend to agree. Though the French and Italian films have different themes, the core film style is remarkably similar. I don't know if this film directly influenced him, but I see a lot of this film in Truffaut's movies. It may just be coincidence.
A lovely film for students or fans of classic cinema. A masterpiece of silent film wonderfully restored and brought to life by Criterion. Bravo!
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"Your Sister's Sister" (90 min.) starts off with an eye-popping 5 min. prologue: we see a group of people mourning someone's passing, and just when one of them is giving a eulogy on how great a guy that person was, Jack (played by Mark Duplass) interupts and gives his own (less idyllic) version of that man, who turns out to be his brother. Iris (played by Emily Blunt), who is Jack's best friend and was the girlfriend of his brother, eventually talks to Jack to control his emotions.
