Metropolis at Kino Babylon

I had been meaning to watch Metropolis since I went to the Deutsche Kinemathek museum, so I got pretty excited to see it playing at the Babylon theater. Not that it's a rare occurrence, but it was one I wasn't aware of.

This was also an excellent opportunity to check out yet another cool movie theater in the city. The building that hosts Kino Babylon was erected in 1929. In 1948, under the German Democratic Republic, the theatre was renovated and screened films from the State Film Archive of the GDR, state film and television, and documentary films made by the state-owned DEFA studio, among other films.

Years after reunification, in 1999, the theater was restored again because of the danger of collapse. The restoration was awarded the "German Award for Monument Protection". The orchestra pit was restored so that a chamber orchestra could play live music during screenings of silent films. In 1999, the 70-year-old cinema organ was restored, becoming the only cinema organ in Germany that is still played in its original location.

Since then, the Babylon theater has been used primarily as an arthouse cinema venue, and it hosts festivals and events. For example, it was a Berlin International Film Festival venue from 2008 to 2010. It has its own orchestra, which allows them to show silent movies with live music, which is what we saw in the Metropolis screening.

I enjoyed the movie a lot, and certainly more than what I was expecting from an old silent movie!Read more