Variations on a classical documentary short subject number three. City by night in colour. Starting with title cards sporting a palette, Werner makes it clear that this film is all about the lights and hues a true 20th-century municipality produces and cultivates after dark. Accordingly, the voiceover begins: “The modern city knows many colours”. Then, one gets to see the industrial production of lightbulbs, which is a nicely meta touch. The twilight-set opening minutes bask in a soft glow – but come night, the screen becomes a canvas for the most resplendently vivid signs; and thus, an elegant lady of means might enjoy her cigarette while watching through her salon’s window a gigantic neon chicken leaving lambent red footprints in the sky.

Olaf Möller and Jon Wengström