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Berlin Babylon

2000, Movie, NR, 88 mins

Berlin Babylon: Review

BERLIN BABYLON
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At first glance, it's not entirely clear why this artful documentary about the uncertain state of the Berlin cityscape should appeal to anyone without a burning passion for either architecture or urban planning. But as director Hubertus Siegert's elegant film slowly reveals itself, it becomes apparent that in the voices of the architects, developers, public officials and contractors here discussing the specifics of particular sites, we're hearing the voices of a conflicted nation as it considers how to handle its tumultuous past while defining itself for future generations. Shot at various times between 1996 and 1999, the film ostensibly profiles the development of empty spaces left by two watershed events: the near-total destruction of Berlin by Allied forces at the end of WWII, and the reunification of Germany in 1989, symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall. The first left a city in ruins and occasioned a reconstruction project that's been an ongoing affair for the past 50 years; the latter opened up miles of undeveloped real estate in the heart of one of Europe's major cities. Siegert offers no commentary as he shuttles around (a working knowledge of Berlin comes in handy), but allows the various construction sites he visits, many begun during the furious building boom of the 1990s and now in various stages of completion, and the people building them speak for themselves. From the grandiose, still-unfinished federal Chancellery begun under Helmut Kohl and the gleaming Sony Center to the crumbling Academy of Arts (once Nazi architect Albert Speer's center of operations), the same essential questions are asked: Do we restore, or do we rethink? And how much of the existing milieu should be incorporated into what's being built for future generations? One bit of wisdom comes from an architect who quips, "Restore the building. What it houses is something else." Siegert sets beautiful aerial footage of the Berlin skyline to Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner, while the clanging original score is by Einsturzende Neubauten, the seminal German industrial noisemakers whose name, appropriately enough, translates as "collapsing new buildings." leave a comment --Ken Fox
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