Monday 9 November 2009

Mauerfalltag 2009! The Wall (and Not Wall) by Bicycle


It was on November 9, 1989 that a great moment in history took place: the opening of the Berlin Wall.  There are a lot of celebrations going on in the city today (and I really wish I was there!) and a lot of memories brought back.  The unexpectedness of the event was truly amazing and people around the world were deeply moved.

In 1988, British actress Tilda Swinton (who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress last year) starred in a short film, "Cycling the Frame," in which she rode a bicycle 160 kms around the Wall.  Now, twenty-one years later, she has done it again in "the Invisible Frame," a 60 minute film that recently was shown at the Vienna Film Festival and, paired with the first film, has made appearances at various Goethe Institutes around the world to mark the anniversary of the Wall's opening. 

Ms. Swinton had not been back to Berlin since her earlier film, a clip from which I am unable to find.  However, here is a clip from this most recent voyage of rediscovery in one of Europe's bike friendliest cities:

If you do not have Flash installed, you can go to this website for the preview.

If your German is good, you can read more about this in the Berliner Morgenpost here.

No comments: