Deutsche Kinemathek
The Deutsche Kinemathek — Museum für Film und Fernsehen was an obvious stop for me in Berlin. The museum traces more than a century of German film and television, but I was particularly interested in the early years of German cinema and the films that helped shape horror and science fiction.
Some of my favourite films come from this period. Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Fritz Lang’s M are landmarks of early German horror and Expressionist cinema. Then there’s Lang’s magnificent Metropolis from 1927 — one of the most influential science-fiction films ever made and a film whose visual influence can still be seen nearly a century later.
The museum also had an extensive collection devoted to Berlin-born Marlene Dietrich, including costumes and personal items from her career. Between the early cinema exhibits, historic film material and Dietrich collection, there was a hell of a lot here for a film obsessive to explore.
For me, though, getting this close to the history behind those early German films was the real attraction. These weren’t simply old movies sitting in a museum — they’re part of the DNA of the horror and science-fiction films I’ve loved for most of my life.
