I came to this one by way of Detour (1945) because I was interested in seeing what Edgar Ulmer and Billy Wilder were up to.
What we get here is a lot of nice footage of Berlin in 1930. That's pretty cool in and of itself. I'm not sure it makes for much of a movie. But I do enjoy watching people just doing what people do on the weekend. We also get to see people cleaning the streets, washing their cars, and so on.
On Sundays, people dress up, go out on dates, eat chocolates, make phone calls. Captivating stuff.
The Criterion edition includes two different musical scores. I chose the one with the Orchestra, which was fine.
At the beach, one of the guys is looking at postcards, many of which feature fat women. Then the scene transitions and we see that many of the women at the beach are old and fat, maybe mothers. But the "stars" of film are younger couples in good shape. They've brought their record player and they're just enjoying the day.
It would be hard to say that this movie has a "plot" or what Billy Winder's "goal" was in writing this story. You really do have the sense that you're just watching people on a Sunday.
I do like some of the camera work, but I never feel like I know much about what's going on. Everyone seems really polite, but when one of the guys tries to kiss a girl during a swim, she lets him have it with a nice slap. The girls do look pretty young -- Brigitte Borchert, the blonde, is actually 19 -- for the guys they're dating.
The men are wearing the 1930s version of speedos, that's for sure.
But is this a "movie," just watching people swimming and eating and listening to music and laughing? I'm just trying to imagine a filmmaker doing the equivalent in 2026, set, say, in Chicago. That wouldn't work, right?
So, just because I like seeing the "historical footage," that's not enough for me to rate it highly as a film. I guess I might even rate it higher if it was a full documentary and not a "semi-documentary." But I'd still like to have a little more shape and reason to what's going on here.
That said, the ending is a bit telling. Brigitte would like to go out again next Sunday, and while it sounds like Wolf is down with that, once she's inside, Wolf's friend reminds him that they already had plans next Sunday to go to a soccer game. Wolf ended up getting what he wanted out of Brigitte, and maybe she was taking what happened a lot more seriously than Wolf, who was treating it more like a Sunday afternoon fling?
***
Actually, this is one of those films that I like better after seeing the supplementary materials on the DVD. The short documentary of the film shows the 1997 restoration process -- this film was almost lost -- and we also get to see the ancient Brigitte Borchert talk about her memories of the film. It sounds like she could have been an actress, but she elected not to.
And yes, in retrospect, it's very strange to think that this is the country that will elect Hitler in just a few years. Fortunately, it sounds like many of the Jewish talent behind the camera were able to successfully flee Germany.
Rating: 3/5 stars
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