Babylon Berlin, the only silent movie theater with a permanent orchestra

“The Gold Rush” by Charlie Chaplin, playing at the Babylon Berlin cinema in Germany, the only silent cinema with a permanent orchestra.

© Siegfried Forster / RFI

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

14 mins

The Babylon cinema, located near Alexanderplatz in Berlin, is today considered the only silent cinema in the world to have its own permanent orchestra.

When it opened its doors in 1929, a year of crisis, Germany had 5,076 cinemas and no one knew what the future held.

Almost a century later, the current director of Babylon Berlin, Timothy Grossman, explains to us the recipe for his success and why, despite the coronavirus and the streaming platforms, silent films are again in greater demand in this period of crisis.

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Timothy Grossman

The Babylon opened on April 11, 1929, again as a silent movie theater.

This means there was an orchestra pit and a silent film organ with many effects.

These two elements are still present today.

At the time, films were projected on a smaller screen, 3x4 meters, with a larger frame, which still exists.

Today we project the new films on a bigger screen, which is about five meters forward.

We can therefore project silent films in their original atmosphere.

It's as if we were playing Johann Sebastian Bach with original instruments of the time.

How many silent film screenings did you have at Babylon Berlin in 2022

Every Saturday at midnight we have a silent movie accompanied by a movie organ.

We have a permanent organist.

At the beginning of last year, however, we scheduled a little less, due to the Covid pandemic.

Normally, we show 50 films a year, at midnight, for 0 euros, so with free admission, at midnight.

In addition, last year, we presented about 80 sessions with orchestra, including 50 times

(1927), by Fritz Lang.

We also organized a silent film festival with different musicians.

There were also 50 different silent films there alone, all from 1922. If you add it all up, you have 180 performances in 2022.

A silent movie theater with a fixed orchestra, how much of a feat is that

In Germany it's unique, I'm sure, because commercially it's not profitable.

An orchestra and the film that goes with it is normally much too expensive.

For this to be financially viable, admissions would have to be 50 euros or more [

,

].

It would then be almost like the opera or the theatre.

That's why no one can afford it.

It would therefore require a non-commercial cinema with 500 seats, which is very rare in Germany.

There is certainly nothing like it in France, the United States, Italy, Austria, etc. either.

In my opinion, we are the only ones in the world.

The musicians of the orchestra and the spectators during a silent film session in the big hall of the Babylon Berlin cinema.

© Babylon Berlin

Any cinema exhibitor who programs a silent film dreams of having an orchestra, but most of the time they have to make do with recorded music or accompaniment on the piano or on the cinema organ.

How did you manage to afford a permanent orchestra of 35 musicians for your performances

Often there are less than 35 musicians.

For

, for example, there are 19 musicians, plus the conductor.

Otherwise, it is highly variable.

Charlie Chaplin films sometimes require a larger cast, but there are also bands with fewer musicians.

In other cases, there may be 50 musicians, as in

(1936), by Charlie Chaplin...

How did I get there?

It's a long story.

For more than 20 years, even before I started working at the Babylon cinema, I have presented silent films with musical accompaniment.

I did it, for example, with very high-level musicians, live, on Berlin's Museum Island, in the open air.

What I find interesting is that the film is actually something finished, that is to say, it actually represents a can.

It is a reproduced art that one can - if one wishes - obtain everywhere.

Of course, it's more beautiful to see it in the cinema, on the big screen, but this live element makes the film very lively, very contemporary, very real.

And there is an interaction between the musicians and the audience.

The musicians play differently every day,

it depends on how the public reacts.

All of this didn't happen overnight, I groped my way.

Every year I got a little bolder.

In other words, is it the result of a personal, professional and musical network, combined with grants, marketing and a well-located movie theater in the city of Berlin

It's always about knowing how to do something that others don't.

It is the challenge of being unique.

To be satisfied with just showing beautiful old films which are good and which have not been commercialized is not cinema.

Cinema is ultimately marketing.

Every movie that we know of, that we've seen, has probably become famous or famous, because someone has invested a lot in making it known.

And I don't see why really good movies should get less marketing than bad movies.

Unfortunately, the films with the most admissions are not the best.

Marketing is therefore very important, but of course, without the subsidies we receive as a municipal cinema, we wouldn't be able to do it.

For the music of silent films, which is sometimes very demanding, you have succeeded in hiring since last year the maestro of silent films, Ben Palmer, as principal conductor.

Otherwise, you also work regularly with others like Stefanos Tsialis or Miguel Pérez Iñesta, without forgetting conductors and composers like Günter A. Buchwald, known as one of the best film music musicians in the world, or Matt Grammy-nominated Dunkley, who has worked on more than 200 films.

Do your conductors always come from classical music

We started with one conductor, then we had others because the first one was not available.

For example, one of them came from contemporary music.

But there are also conductors specializing in silent film, such as London's Ben Palmer, who regularly conducts live music for films.

It's not always silent movies, it can also be

.

It's very high level.

They must necessarily be very good, because the slightest discrepancy with the image of the film is noticed very quickly.

Not everyone can do that, that's for sure.

We now have four conductors who take turns, and from February, a female conductor will join us.

It grows slowly, just like the orchestra.

View of the Babylon Berlin cinema, in Germany, inaugurated in 1929, the only place that offers silent cinema with a permanent orchestra.

ullstein bild via Getty Images - ullstein bild Dtl.

When we talk about "

Yes, it exists.

We've even had it in the nonprofit film business.

There are also sometimes short films that we accompany live during the midnight silent film.

But, as

shows , the days of silent films are over.

Just as we can compose today like Bach, but who wants to hear that?

Each work of art is linked to its time and its environment.

Each era produces its own artistic works.

Silent film is ultimately a closed collecting realm, but it's still surprising to see what exceptional films have been made.

Movies that I thought were way better than

, a film which, in the end, mainly benefited from marketing.

Ultimately, I'd say if you compare it to silent movies of the time, it was just very average.

Since the Covid pandemic and the lockdowns, many cinema operators have complained that many moviegoers now prefer to stay at home.

Do you have the impression that the live cinema aspect of your performances with orchestra encourages more the spectators to return to the rooms?

Is the event caused by the presence of the orchestra an antidote to the fear of Covid and the convenience of streaming

Everyone who produces and publishes art must ask themselves: everything already exists, why me now?

If twenty cinemas show the same film, the question is to know why the spectators should come to my cinema.

Of course, this question is easily answered if one has the biggest, the most beautiful and the most central of cinemas.

The Babylon, with its history, has always had to find its own program, like the silent film accompanied live today.

I think we have succeeded in becoming a must-visit address in Berlin.

It was a dream when I started here at Babylon in 2005. To make it a brand, almost a synonym, which one naturally thinks of silent cinema when one thinks of Babylon Berlin.

Sometimes it happens to receive unexpected help,

.

What a miracle !

Besides the Babylon Cinema in Berlin, Germany also has the

Bonn International Silent Film Festival

Regensburg Silent Film Week

German Silent Film

We had already predicted this, many years ago... And the festivals you mentioned have already existed for decades.

A century after the 1920s, I believe we are once again living in a time that, in a chilling way, brings us closer to the insecurity of that era of the 1920s. ten or fifteen years ago.

I am also convinced that there will be even more screenings of silent films.

The

Babylon cinema in Berlin

The Lumière Institute of Lyon

Festival d'Anères will

the end of 2022, the Cinémathèque de Toulouse

Pordenone Silent Film Festival

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Forssa Festival

Globe International Silent Film Festival

Festival International de Cine Silente México - FIC Selente MX

I admit, I haven't been to Lyon yet, but I was in Pordenone and San Francisco.

There is, however, a big difference: these are festivals limited in time, one week or ten days, and which are above all specialized in new film restorations aimed above all at a professional audience.

People come here from all over the world to catch up on the latest developments, for example what the archives have digitized, etc.

The best silent film musicians from many countries also go there.

But I also see, and I'm very proud of it, that even big festivals like San Francisco or Pordenone can perhaps afford to organize a performance with an orchestra.

And when I was in San Francisco, it was even an amateur orchestra,

Another difference that is close to my heart: the Babylon is for “normal” people.

We want to turn silent films into an event where people come who are not used to listening to classical music live.

What is wonderful is that it does not take place in the opera or the theater, but in a cinema where you can also eat popcorn.

And when there are families who come with their grandchildren to watch a Charlie Chaplin film, it makes us very proud.

Another example: when we organized a festival in September 2022 on the theme of 100 years of 1922, with 50 films from 1922, we did not even receive an additional subsidy.

Despite this, we had three very successful performances with orchestra, including

, with very different musicians.

At the same time, we show films not only in the large 500-seat hall, but also in a small 68-seat hall, where there is a piano.

It also happens that a film is accompanied by the guitar or the transverse flute.

There are really very different things.

► Next screenings of silent films with orchestra in the Babylon-Berlin cinema hall:

January 27:

, by Charlie Chaplin, with Babylon Orchester Berlin

January 28:

, by Fritz Lang, with Babylon Orchester Berlin

January 29:

(born January 29, 1892):

, with Babylon Orchester Berlin

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