A museum devoted to Cinema

Dateline: Berlin
(I've always wanted to write that!)

Berlin's newest architectural gem, the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz, is home to one of the most wonderful museums I've ever visited. The Deutsche Kinematek is devoted to cinema - - German cinema specifically, from the earliest silents to 'Run Lola Run.' And if any country's cinema deserves a museum of its own, Germany takes a back-seat to no country! (France and Hollywood included).

The Sony Center (as featured in last year's "The International" with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts)






I spent a glorious two-and-a-half hours here on a recent
Saturday afternoon, and enjoyed every minute of it. The classics of German expressionism are given their own displays (Caligari, M, Mabuse, and Metropolis -- which had a special exhibit devoted to the latest, most-complete restoration, which had its premiere while I was in town).

The stars of the era are celebrated, too: silent film great Asta Nielsen (I stayed in her fashionable apartment in Berlin, converted to a homey Pension), Conrad Veidt, Emil Jannings (winner of the FIRST Oscar for best Actor). Although I was disappointed in the cursory treatment given to my personal fave, American sensation Louise Brooks. Marlene Dietrich has pride of place with an entire room devoted to her photos, costumes, love letters from famous men (and women). and luggage! (She brought alot of clothes on her visits to Hollywood).

I will let my pictures tell the rest of the story:

the lovely Louise Brooks



Fassbinder's director's chair and his two Golden Bears for "The Marriage of Maria Braun."

The first Oscar for Best Actor
(to silent star Emil Jannings for "The Last Command" and "The Way of All Flesh"). He later became a leading member of the Nazi film industry and was recently vilified (justifiably) in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."