Original subtitles

We sat as guests of honor in the upper loge.

Looking down,

I could see all the bald heads below.

I've watched the film now.

I didn't like it.

Of course I wanted

a new copy of this wonderful film for the festival in Berlin.

It's an important film in Siodmak's career,

and an important film for Berlin.

WEEKEND ON THE WANNSEE

On February 4, 1930,

a film premiered at a UFA theater in Berlin

that set people talking.

Young film enthusiasts had shot a silent film

on the streets of Berlin and the shores of the Wannsee

for little money, using nonprofessional actors.

It was called People on Sunday.

Excerpts from the program notes:

"A shopgirl...

a film extra...

a taxi driver...

a wine salesman...

and a model.

What happens? Nothing.

One Saturday the wine salesman chats up Christl,

who's happy to be invited for an excursion on Sunday.

Erwin, the taxi driver, already has a girlfriend-Annie.

Wolfgang and Erwin are old friends.

A date is made for the foursome on the weekend...

Erwin and Annie, Wolfgang and the new girl, Christl.

But Annie, who couldn't be roused, oversleeps.

In fact, she sleeps the whole day through.

So Christl brings along her best friend, Brigitte.

They head for the Wannsee.

Wolfgang's angry with Christl, who won't let him kiss her.

He turns his attention to Brigitte, who's more receptive.

Christl is upset at this betrayal by her best friend. Tension...

then in the end a kind of reconciliation. "

In 1997, Martin Koerber was commissioned by the Nederlands Filmmuseum

to restore the film.

You might wonder

why this classic in German cinematic history

also forms part of Dutch film history.

It's because this is where the film managed to survive,

thanks to a club of film enthusiasts

who showed the film in Holland in the 1930s

and whose collection held the copy that was later found.

The goal was to create a version

as close as possible to the original German film.

There was the Dutch print here in the Filmmuseum,

a second print in Milan at the Cineteca Italiana,

a very fragmented print at the Cin�math�que Suisse,

a copy of a copy in Copenhagen,

and a print on nitrate stock at the Cin�math�que Royale in Brussels.

In one version, the whole first and second acts were missing.

In another, the perforations were damaged.

In the third, footage for some scenes was torn and incomplete.

In the fourth, the photographic quality wasn't as good,

and it also differed in terms of scenes and reels.

Taking stock of all that, we decided

we had to combine them all.

In December of 1997, I saw the new version for the first time

and broke out in a big grin, because it had turned out so beautifully.

Lead actress Brigitte Borchert was a shopgirl not just in the film

but in real life too.

Producer Moriz Seeler found Miss Borchert in a record store.

She was 19 at the time and living in Berlin.

I worked in the Electrola store on the Kurf�rstendamm

selling music records.

Two gentlemen I didn't know were sitting there

and staring at me.

And Seeler asked me,

"Have you ever been in a movie?"

And I said,

"No, you must be confusing me with someone else."

"Would you like to be in a movie?"

I said, " That's impossible.

I can't do that. I'm not an actress.

No. Definitely not."

My mother and I lived in a one-room furnished apartment,

and we didn't get along at all.

And my mother said,

"Don't just say no.

See what it's all about."

But I said, "I don't want to be in a movie."

But they came back

and asked if I'd at least be willing to do a screen test.

It was a big to-do...

with lots of people.

My boss at the shop

was quite angry.

She said, "We can't spare you right now.

Make sure you're called quickly,

and come back right away."

So I asked if they would see me first.

And that was a mistake,

because then I got really nervous.

Most members of the production team are young,

and no one foresees their future international success.

Seeler, until then a theatrical producer,

hires Rochus Gliese as director.

He's the oldest, at 38, and famous as the art director

behind the designs for Paul Wegener's film The Golem.

On that 1920 film, his assistant had been

Edgar Georg Ulmer, now 25.

Like Gliese, he has worked in Hollywood

and knows Eugen Sch�fftan, 36,

who'd invented new camera effects

but who'd met with little success as a cinematographer in the U.S.

Sch�fftan's assistant is Fred Zinnemann, 22,

who'd trained as a cameraman in Paris.

Billie Samuel Wilder, 23,

a journalist, joins the screenwriting team.

Billie "Villder,"as it was pronounced in German,

always held a reflector.

He'd stand next to the cameraman and hold this big thing

covered with something like silver paper

that would catch the sun

and reflect it toward us.

That was his job.

Robert Siodmak, 29,

until then an editor and translator.

After early disagreements with Gliese,

he replaces Gliese as director.

Does he make a brief appearance here in the film?

This image came from the print

found at the Cin�math�que Suisse,

so it hadn't been seen before now.

The glasses made me think it might be Siodmak.

I showed a picture to Kurt Siodmak -

who should be able to remember

what his brother looked like in 1929.

But he said it wasn't Robert Siodmak.

Gliese is gone from the set after one week.

Kurt Siodmak is two years younger than his brother Robert.

He is 98 today, an author of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror stories.

The idea for the film was his.

The idea was:

The city goes out to the country and takes the people along.

Then the city goes back. They didn't have any weekend.

This time, his idea does not belong to the genre fantasy.

It's closer to documentary films of the 1920s.

Robert Siodmak becomes the engine behind the project.

My brother Robert worked like a train locomotive,

driving things forward.

The others didn't have the energy. I certainly didn't.

The train is underway.

They'd sat in the Romanisches Caf� long enough,

talking and making plans.

We all wanted to make movies.

The doors of UFA were still closed to this forceful young team.

What will the future bring?

Visions abound.

The new millennium calls.

I always remind people that if you have a culture,

that culture is like a tree:

It blooms before it dies.

It brings forth fruit one last time and then dies.

And Berlin was like that.

The actors were asked

to come out to the Wannsee on June 10, 1929.

We were asked to report

to a beer garden,

and there sat Billie Wilder.

His first name was written "Billie" back then.

And Siodmak

and his brother, Robert Siodmak,

were all there.

And they put us,

who were to be the actors,

at a nearby table,

where we couldn't hear their discussion.

They didn't have a script or anything.

And that's how it went for six weeks:

We'd sit at a nearby table

while they'd decide what to do that day.

Waltershausen and I were told to walk along,

and they'd call out from behind the camera,

"Kiss her again."

So he'd have to do that.

It was completely improvised.

The love scene too.

I had my hand on his head,

and they said, "Good. Leave it like that."

I never thought

Something like this could happen

That you could fall in love so quickly

Just this morning

I'd have laughed

And never given a thought to such things

I was a bit in love with him at first.

We both liked each other.

But I quickly noticed

that he had a serious girlfriend

who was always hovering around

and watching.

So of course I lost interest...

right away.

But in the beginning

I really found him quite sexy.

A few scenes met with the censors' disapproval.

They appear for the first time in the restored version.

Here you definitely see a censor's cut.

Several images were missing from the Dutch version.

For example, this naked mannequin

which is an erotic allusion

coming after the preceding love scene.

The negotiations in Holland about cuts to the film

are recorded on the censors' cards.

They clearly state that

"the naked advertising prop" must be removed.

Nevertheless, due to the film's erotic allusions,

it's restricted to viewers over 18.

The little pastry shop. Ah, yes.

I still remember it.

That was always playing on the borrowed record player.

"In a Little Pastry Shop."

That same record played constantly -

and we had to give that back too.

But we broke one record.

That really happened.

That wasn't planned,

but they kept it in the film.

Otto Stenzel, the conductor at the UFA theater,

suggested, in addition to popular tunes,

a "Czech sound."

He suggests The Bartered Bride for the scene

of the masses streaming from the subway station,

and Siodmak is enthusiastic.

The film is finished, although financing is tight.

I can tell you proudly - I'm boasting a bit here -

that our first contract stated

we were all to get 500 marks.

But after a while I was called into the office,

and you can see on the written contract

that they increased my pay to 1,000 marks.

But I wasn't supposed to tell the others.

"Don't tell anyone. Keep it to yourself."

So I got twice as much.

But in addition

we got 10 marks a day

for food and such.

There was a restaurant

near where we were shooting,

and the cheapest meal

was roast potatoes and sausage.

We had that every day -

roast potatoes and sausage -

so that we'd have a little money left over.

The production pinches pennies.

A half year after the premiere, Brigitte Borchert still hasn't been paid.

People on Sunday

passes the censors on January 29, 1930.

When the film was showing,

Robert and I would stand out on the Kurf�rstendamm

and watch two people go in and three come out,

and one go in and three come out.

And Robert said, " If one more person goes in, the theater will be empty."

They said, "Can't you hear that?"

And I said, "Hear what?"

"Can't you hear the noise they're making?"

It's a clich� these days,

but the audience really did go wild.

THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE! SMALL STUDIO POINTS THE WAY

Critics cheer.

They see the influence of Russian cinema -

the authentic faces of nonprofessional actors,

and deliberate echoes of Eisenstein in certain scenes.

The avant-garde isn't disappointed either.

No one knows what avant-garde is.

Others will later see the film as a precursor to neorealism

and the French New Wave.

The spontaneous and airy summer fantasy

is in fact at the forefront of the aesthetics of its day.

Walter Gropius had decreed a new epoch of "the line."

Lines crisscross the city,

turning urban space into an abstract grid.

A new kind of vision.

Two years earlier, Walter Ruttmann's

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

had documented everyday life as regimented and mechanical.

Then along comes the great miracle known as Eugen Sch�fftan.

Sch�fftan showed what could be done with a camera.

The film was about the camera, not the actors.

The film is interested

in fleeting details.

Photography of the day casts a net of lines

over its subjects as it captures "modern life."

Sch�fftan's camera also adopted

this geometrical tendency.

Relationships are direct and unornamented.

The New Objectivity separates eroticism from kitsch.

Modernity reigns. Throw a switch to change direction.

Idyllic scenes bobbing on an unstable surface.

Those pedal boats still exist today.

One year later.

What's become of the celebrated nonprofessionals?

Christl Ehlers left immediately for the U.S.

Her mother was Jewish, and she emigrated.

She made this one film

and then left immediately.

And Waltershausen...

Where have you been? I've looked all over!

Me? There must be some mistake.

Come on. Let's dance.

Excuse me?

Here in the background is Wolfgang von Waltershausen.

In 1931 Siodmak cast him in a bit part

in Looking for His Murderer.

Waltershausen went back to his family's estate

down south,

and he had a sister he loved very much.

He got back in touch later,

and we met a few times.

Erwin Splettst�sser is determined to break into acting.

This is my best room.

He has great hopes for a career in comedy.

I like it better.

I told him he should write a dedication -

on the back, actually.

He asked, "What should I write?"

And I told him, as a joke,

"In appreciation of my esteemed colleague" or something like that.

And that's what he wrote.

He appears briefly in two of Robert Siodmak's later films.

I always say...

Splettst�sser...

died shortly after that in an unfortunate accident.

Unlike the others,

the signs for Brigitte Borchert are quite positive.

Promoted briefly as a star, she makes a series of appearances

at theaters, arranged by an acquaintance.

First he'd collect 10 marks up front

for our appearance,

which he'd split with me later.

We made the circuit of these local "flea palaces"for quite some time.

He always settled accounts in the office beforehand.

It was always the same: I just had to take a bow,

and then we'd leave.

Then one theater owner

had the brilliant idea

that I should appear up above the screen.

He set a chair behind the screen

and told me

that when the audience applauded,

they'd help me climb up

and bow from up above the screen.

And as I'm about to do it,

the stool breaks.

I have one leg on the ground,

and I just disappear.

But she has no desire to be drawn into film and advertising.

But I did get drawn in.

There was an outfit in Steglitz

called "Serious Colorfilm."

I didn't enjoy that at all.

I wasn't passionate about acting in the least.

STAR WOOL SWAN WOOL - DOVE WOOL

One year later the hullabaloo is over.

An astonished female journalist writes

of a self-assured young woman with no cinematic ambitions.

I did get offers, of course.

Heinrich George wanted me to do screen tests.

When I first met him,

he was very nice and pleasant,

but he drank a lot.

When he'd put enough away,

he turned unpleasant.

We were all invited to his place once,

and he told me he wanted

to show me his rooftop garden.

I felt rather uncomfortable.

At one point we had to go through his bedroom

to get to the so-called rooftop garden.

As we walked past this large bed,

he pointed to it and said, "And this is your kingdom."

I was appalled, of course.

Brigitte Borchert remains uncorrupted.

She withdraws into private family life.

For some men live in darkness

While others stand in the light

We see those in the light

While the others fade from sight

Brigitte Borchert?

No.

For the team behind the camera, fame is just beginning.

"Will the industry ignore these highly productive people?"

Asks the magazine Tempo on February 5, 1930.

It does not.

Robert Siodmak signs with UFA the day after the premiere.

That same year, he makes his next film, Farewell,

again with Eugen Sch�fftan behind the camera.

For his next film after that, Looking for his Murderer,

his brother Kurt and Billie Wilder collaborate on the screenplay.

The film's theme song seems like a sequel to People on Sunday.

- Thursday? - Sorry, no time

- Friday? - Sorry, still no time

Saturday? Time for a little kiss?

But on Sunday

I have time as long as Sunday lasts

- Monday? - Sorry, no time

- Tuesday? - Sorry, no time

And so on for all eternity

By 1930 Edgar G. Ulmer has returned to the U.S.,

where he becomes a director.

On Detour, for example.

Fred Zinnemann leaves even earlier.

His big international hit... High Noon.

Sch�fftan is behind the camera again on later films by Ulmer and Siodmak.

Here it's The Dark Mirror.

He wins the Oscar for cinematography in 1961 for The Hustler.

Sch�fftan, Robert and Kurt Siodmak, and Wilder- all Jews -

must go into exile after 1933 -

first to France, then Hollywood.

Many of them make their breakthrough there.

Billy Wilder is one of the first.

On the set of The Seven Year Itch.

With The Spiral Staircase,

Robert Siodmak is hailed as a master of film noir.

Filming and being on the set was his life.

He knew nothing of the world outside all that.

Despite his many screenplays and popular novels,

Kurt Siodmak is always a bit overshadowed by his famous brother.

Actually, I was held back by Robert all my life.

He becomes a specialist in sci-fi and horror movies.

The Wolf Man in 1941

is his greatest success as a screenwriter.

I wrote B-pictures.

And they never had the money

to hire a second writer, who'd just ruin it.

I'm the "idea man."

Monsters, zombies,

artificial creatures.

People on Sunday too was stitched back together

and brought back to life.

From the original length of the film,

as indicated on the German censors' report,

approximately 250 meters are missing,

or about eight minutes.

It's probably additional documentary material,

and I believe it's from the first two reels.

It is indeed. After the restoration,

a new snippet of film was discovered.

Restorations are really never finished,

as one learns from painful firsthand experience.

A new fragment has turned up. It's only 10 meters long.

It's not yet clear that it actually belongs to the film,

but it's in a can labeled People on Sunday,

and there must be a reason why.

It's documentary footage,

but it doesn't fit easily into what we have.

The sequence as it stands

doesn't fit into what we already have.

New discoveries, but with no place to fit them.

So they're set aside for now

until some other discovery might make it clear where they go.

If we take a person

and investigate their life, that's soap opera.

I think the film's easy-going, summery tone

is a facade.

The film is cynical and sad,

a bitter statement

about the relationship between the sexes. It's not a happy ending.

It's pretty cynical,

the way he leaves me there so casually.

How quickly we forget what once was

Nothing remains

It was all "once upon a time"

Love is capricious

It comes and goes

Appears like a dream

Then fades away

How quickly we forget what once was

Nothing remains

It was all "once upon a time"

Everything in life

Dies away like a song

Fades and flees

With good-bye