All language subtitles for Weekend am Wannsee.ENG

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