Film Archive

People On Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag)

A completely normal summer day in Berlin in 1929: life pulsates, the city vibrates full of energy, there is action all around. As though it were coincidence, the viewer gains insight into the lives of different residents of the metropole, and follows them through their everyday activities, their work, their free time.

A young man waiting at a streetcorner for his dark-haired girlfriend. A taxi driver, Erwin, and his wife and their triste domestic existence. On Sunday, Berlin is as empty as a ghost town. It seems as though everyone flees to the countryside, the train stations are packed. Erwin meets up with the young man and his female companions, who are on their way to a nearby lake. The two men know each other and decide to make the excursion all together. The young man's intense flirting with his girlfriend's friend arouses jealously in his girlfriend, especially when he arranges a date with her for the following Sunday. Erwin reminds him that they already have plans to play football next Sunday. When Erwin returns home, he finds his wife just as he left her, asleep.

Robert Siodmak was born in 1900 in Dresden and died in 1973 in Locarno. He studied in Marburg and worked as an actor, film translator and editor. In 1940, he went to the United States and made a name for himself with his psychologically accentuated crime story films. He was a representative of the humanistic-realism of German films prior to 1933 and one of the most important American directors of the "Black Series". His films include: Abschied (1930), Voruntersuchung (1931) - which was blacklisted in 1933 -, Brennendes Geheimnis (1933), The Suspect (Unter Verdacht, 1944), The Spiral Staircase (Die Wendeltreppe, 1945), The Devil Came at Night (Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam, 1957) - which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1958, and many more.
 

Genre Drama
Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 1929
Director Robert Siodmak
Screenplay Billy Wilder
Director of Photography Eugen Schuefftan
Editor Robert Siodmak
Music by Otto Stenzel
Producer Moritz Seeler
Production Company Filmstudio 129, Berlin
Principal Cast Brigitte Bochert, Christl Ehlers, Kurt Gerron, Valeska Gert, Heinrich Gretler, Anni Schreyer, Erwin Splettstoesser, Ernst Verebes, Wolfgang von Waltershausen
Length 74 min, 2,014 m
Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37
Original Version German
Subtitled Versions English, French
Festival Screenings Sydney 2005
German Distributor Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum fuer Film und Fernsehen/Berlin

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