This semester we dedicate us, after the motive of the Doppelgänger, to a well known motive in the history of cinema – the city. With the rise of metropoles, such as New York, Moscow, Berlin and many others, the city encroached into the view of cinema. Latest during the 1920s, when the first city-sinfonies were made, the city as a movie motive was born.
Part of the program is the well known movie Blade Runner, which is set in the fictional Los Angeles in the futuristic year 2019. Los Angeles becomes through its position as Hollywood-breeding-chamber also a topic in the essayfilm Los Angeles Plays Itself. Life on the urban streets can be seen in the satire Badou Boy. But not only the street has many adventures to offer. In Vive L`Amour everything revolves around encounters in a Taiwanese city flat. With Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt and M we travel back in time to the era of classical city movies. Even if the city is not in the foreground, we can feel its presence through the citizens living in there. This is also the case in The White Ballon by the Iranian director Jafar Panahi.
Likewise part of the program is Ozu’s Tokyo Story, a fish out of water story, which shows that a city can deeply change somebody. With Güeros our journey goes into Mexico-city, a infinitely large place, which is even suitable for a roadtrip. Further in the program comes Roma, a episodic love letter of Federico Fellini, and The Third Man, a mistery-movie with Orson Welles in the Viennese sewers. Of course no movie set in our city can miss the list. With Grauzone, in a grey Zürich, in which the 1968 movement can still be felt.
Last but not least, I want to thank the members of the Progigroup, which have made this program. The interesting discussions, funny comments and movie suggestions as well as the consumption of plenty of chocolate cake and beer have made our sessions a weekly highlight. I’m excited to toast with more beer in the cinema. In that spirit: Prost and Bonne Projection!

Olivia Sacker, Leitung Programmation