Walter Ruttmann
Birth : 1887-12-28, Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany
Death : 1941-07-15
History
Walter Ruttmann was a German film director and along with Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling and Oskar Fischinger was an early German practitioner of experimental film. Ruttmann was born in Frankfurt am Main; His film career began in the early 1920s. His first abstract short films, Lichtspiel: Opus I (1921) and Opus II (1923), were experiments with new forms of film expression. Ruttmann and his colleagues of the avant garde movement enriched the language of film as a medium with new formal techniques.
Ruttmann was a prominent exponent of both avant-garde art and music. His early abstractions played at the 1929 Baden-Baden Festival to international acclaim despite their being almost eight years old. Ruttmann licensed a Wax Slicing machine from Oskar Fischinger to create special effects for Lotte Reiniger. Together with Erwin Piscator, he worked on the film Melody of the World (1929), though he is best remembered for Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, 1927).
During the Nazi period he worked as an assistant to director Leni Riefenstahl on Triumph of the Will (1935). He died in Berlin of wounds sustained when he was working on the front line as a war photographer.
Director
Documentary about the process of building tanks in Germany during the early days of World War II.
Director
Wehrmacht propaganda documentary about the might of the German armament factories and their inexhaustible reserves of war material made ready for use.
Writer
Short version of the Mannesmann film that premiered the previous year.
Director
Short version of the Mannesmann film that premiered the previous year.
Screenplay
Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl's controversial masterwork is an artful work of propaganda showcasing German chancellor and Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally. Edited from over 60 hours' worth of raw footage shot over the course of the rally's four days, the film is visually remarkable in the way it captures the event's enormous scale.
Director
Nazi propaganda film about the embryo of metal falling from the sky, extracted by the German industry for various purposes.
Director
Blood and Soil (German: Blut und Boden) refers to the ideology focussing on a concept of ethnicity based on descent (Blood) and homeland (Soil). It celebrates the relationship of a people to the land that they occupy and cultivate and places high esteem on the virtues of the bucolic (as opposed to urban) living. From this propaganda film, we learn, how hard it is to be a peasant when liberals rule the state. A family of peasants is forced to sell their property and run away to a big city, where they are forced to live in the poverty. Thankfully when the Nazis take power, they may finally come back and live a happy life. Besides the main plot, there is also educational elements here: Germans are informed how few of them will remain in 2050 year if they don't start a mass reproduction.
Editor
In the huge steel factories in Terni (Umbria, Italy), two friends: Mario and Pietro, fight for the love of the same girl, Gina. Pietro dies because of a work accident at the factory. The other workers think Mario is responsible for the death of his friend. Mario, who is innocent, is forced to quit, but his love for Gina and his dedication to his job help him out of his crisis.
Writer
In the huge steel factories in Terni (Umbria, Italy), two friends: Mario and Pietro, fight for the love of the same girl, Gina. Pietro dies because of a work accident at the factory. The other workers think Mario is responsible for the death of his friend. Mario, who is innocent, is forced to quit, but his love for Gina and his dedication to his job help him out of his crisis.
Director
In the huge steel factories in Terni (Umbria, Italy), two friends: Mario and Pietro, fight for the love of the same girl, Gina. Pietro dies because of a work accident at the factory. The other workers think Mario is responsible for the death of his friend. Mario, who is innocent, is forced to quit, but his love for Gina and his dedication to his job help him out of his crisis.
Director
This live-action short subject commissioned for the 75th birthday of German romantic composer Robert Schumann juxtaposes flowing water imagery with the piano playing of artist Nina Hanson.
Editor
Writer
Director
Art Direction
The plot concerns a comet hurling toward Earth on a collision course and the different reactions to people on the impending disaster.
Director
Wochende (Weekend) is a film initially commissioned by the Berlin Radio Hour. Prior to Weekend, Ruttmann had made numerous celebrated avant-garde films, namely Opus I-IV, and the spectacular Berlin: Symphony of a City (1927). The advent of sound films dawned, and, interested in how spectators perceive sound, he premiered a film without pictures. On June 13th, 1930, the audience took their seats, the lights went down, and the sound of the film was heard. But the screen was completely blank.
Director
An impression of the state of the world in 1929, contrasting similarities and differences in religion, customs, art and entertainment from all over the world. The film is constructed like a symphony.
Saint George
A farcical war between the forces of Commercial Cinema and Independent Cinema.
Editor
A profile of the 1928 Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Director
A short film by Walther Ruttmann.
Editor
A train speeds through the country on its way to Berlin, then gradually slows down as it pulls into the station. It is very early in the morning, about 5:00 AM, and the great city is mostly quiet. But before long there are some signs of activity, and a few early risers are to be seen on the streets. Soon the new day is well underway. It's just a typical day in Berlin, but a day full of life and energy.
Author
A train speeds through the country on its way to Berlin, then gradually slows down as it pulls into the station. It is very early in the morning, about 5:00 AM, and the great city is mostly quiet. But before long there are some signs of activity, and a few early risers are to be seen on the streets. Soon the new day is well underway. It's just a typical day in Berlin, but a day full of life and energy.
Director
A train speeds through the country on its way to Berlin, then gradually slows down as it pulls into the station. It is very early in the morning, about 5:00 AM, and the great city is mostly quiet. But before long there are some signs of activity, and a few early risers are to be seen on the streets. Soon the new day is well underway. It's just a typical day in Berlin, but a day full of life and energy.
Director of Photography
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Director
Animation
Commercial for the GESOLEI health and art exhibition in Düsseldorf.
Director
Commercial for the GESOLEI health and art exhibition in Düsseldorf.
Director
Promotional film for "AEG".
Director
Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden. They discover that flowers can bring both joy and solace.
Director
An abstract animation by Walter Ruttmann.
Animation
An abstract animation from Walter Ruttmann.
Editor
An abstract animation from Walter Ruttmann.
Producer
An abstract animation from Walter Ruttmann.
Director
An abstract animation from Walter Ruttmann.
Director
An advertisement for Kantorowicz-Liköre, wherein our protagonists suffer no ill effects whatsoever from consuming alcohol.
Director
An abstract animation from Walter Ruttmann.
Director
An animated commercial for tire company Excelsior Reifen.
Director
Against a dark background, several bright, curved or rounded shapes pulse towards the center of the screen, one at a time. They are followed by many other shapes, some irregular, some pointed, others rounded. The abstract shapes move into or across the screen in harmony with the musical score.
