Streaming - David Hare revels in the cinephile paradise of BABYLON BERLIN

New ultra super duper German sixteen part series Babylon Berlin set in Weimar Berlin 1929 to 34, which started playing on local (and US etc) Netflix last month has grabbed me by the curlies with a vengeance. 

The screen above (crap quality, can't get screens from Netflix streaming) is from the killer 12 minute finale to Episode 2, a giant mass dance sequence set in the historic Weimar epicentre of decadence, the Moka Efti club directed by (I suspect) Tom Tykwer one of the three listed producers and directors for the sereis of 16 eps. Tykwer's "segments" were far and away the best parts of the always interesting Cloud Atlas and first series from the Wachowskis mini series, Sense 8. 

Severija Janusauskaite as Sorokina sings "Ashes to Ashes",
  Babylon Berlin

Indeed in the giant ten minute polysexual orgy in the hot tub in Sense 8, with effectively the entire cast nude and nekkid was an exercise in hot paced, deiriously directed soft core swoon that meets its clothed match here in the killer climax of Babylon Berlin's ep.2. 

(Editor's Note based on seeing the series through: Here is a trailer featuring the theme song by Severija Janusauskaite "Zu Asche, Zu Staub". Spot the homages to Murnau's Sunrise  and to Josephine Baker. Click here ) 


The show is so good, we're not binge viewing at all but leaving it for savoring in a single ep per night.

Uli Hanisch's fabulous set of the exterior of Moka Efti nightclub,
Babylon Berlin (click to enlarge)