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From West to East |
Following on from the end of World War Two, on October
7, 1949, The United States of America, Britain, France, and Russia agreed to divide
Germany into four sectors. Three of the Sector’s were joined together to form
The Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany. The Soviet part became The
German Democratic Republic of East Germany (GDR). The city of Berlin, which was located in the
heart of the Soviet Sector, was divided in the same way except that in 1961 a physical
border was erected around the western section of the city something that became
known as the Berlin Wall. This division
between the two sectors remained in place until November 1989; on July 1st
1990 the complete reunification of Germany took place.
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The Checkpoint Charlie Standoff 1961. |
A year before the wall was breached in 1988, actress
Tilda Swinton toured around its boundary on a bicycle accompanied by a film
making team led by Berlin based writer and director Cynthia Beatt. At this time
the filmmakers had no idea that within a very short time after their
documentary was completed the Wall would no longer be the formidable impasse it
had been for the previous 27 years. This film, Cycling the Frame (1988),
originally made for German television, is now a rather fascinating modern
historical artifact.
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Some sections of the wall remain in Berlin as a tourist attraction. |
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One of the last remaining watch towers. |
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The East Side Gallery. |
21 years later in June 2009 both Tilda Swinton and Cynthia
Beatt revisit the 160-kilometre bike tour following the same route as the
previous documentary, but this time filming from both sides of the former Wall.
The
Invisible Frame (2009) starts once again from the Brandenburg Gate but
this time there no concrete fortification to stop our progress only a line in
the roadway to mark the original barrier. Beatt documentary now shows a more
vibrant Berlin of new buildings and developments. A city that has had inordinate
sums of capitalist finance pumped in making it a most interesting place to
visit and one which you can still witness the attempt to forge a state-run
utopia.
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A Trabi bursts through the wall! |
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Brandenburg Gate 1989.
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Brandenburg Gate 2012. |
Both of these films have been released on a single DVD
allowing you to watch the earlier one before comparing it to the longer and
later documentary. Both have minimal dialog and next to no explanation, which
if you have little or no idea of the cities geography could make it difficult
to follow the locations. As way of compensation the camera work on both films
is excellent and the eccentricity of the younger Tilda Swinton is a real
bonus.
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The last remaining Soviet car park in Berlin. |
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Modern Berlin. |
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