A bit of Berlin in Beijing

Over the coming week the Goethe Institute are showing three famous silent films from 1926/27on the roof of the excellent Broadway Cinema, each with live music. Coming up are Metropolis and Faust, but tonight's opener is Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt, directed by Walther Ruttmann. I'd never seen it before. It's the story of a city - Berlin as it happens, but it could be any metropolis - from dawn till dusk. Great Soviet-style camera angles and editing, and excellent new music played live by Beijing-based duo FM3 (Christian Virant and Zhang Jian), best known for their Buddha Machines. It was probably the best example of the genre I've seen - and I've seen a few - helped by the fabulously appropriate rooftop setting, hemmed in by the modern architecture of MOMA Towers.