People on Sunday

Filmed on location in Berlin, using a cast of amateurs in roles based on their actual day jobs, People on Sunday sustains a lyrical tranquility as people swim, listen to music, flirt, and generally enjoy their time away from the daily grind. The film was an unassuming but groundbreaking response to the big-budget films being produced by UFA at the time, and boasted a crew of young German cineastes who would later become major filmmakers in Hollywood: Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Fred Zinnemann, and Billy Wilder. A timeless, seminal cinematic paean to the last days of Weimar Germany. Courtesy of Eye Filmmuseum.