People on Sunday - Criterion Collection (DVD)
Years before they became major players in Hollywood, a group of young German filmmakers—including eventual noir masters Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer and future Oscar winners Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann—worked together on the once-in-a-lifetime collaboration People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag).
This effervescent, sunlit silent, about a handful of city dwellers (a charming cast of nonprofessionals) enjoying a weekend outing, offers a rare glimpse of Weimar-era Berlin. A unique hybrid of documentary and fictional storytelling, People on Sunday was both an experiment and a mainstream hit that would influence generations of film artists around the world.
Region 1 DVD, requires all-region player.
Special features
- New high-definition digital restoration, created in collaboration with the EYE Film Institute Netherlands
- Two scores: a silent-era-style score by the Mont Alto Orchestra and a modern one by Elena Kats-Chernin, performed by the Czech Film Orchestra, both presented as uncompressed stereo soundtracks
- Weekend am Wannsee, Gerald Koll’s 2000 documentary about the film, featuring interviews with star Brigitte Borchert and writer Curt Siodmak
- Ins Blaue hinein, a short from 1931 by People on Sunday cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by film scholar Noah Isenberg and reprints by scriptwriter Billy Wilder and director Robert Siodmak