The Filmmuseum is called a museum but you won’t be visiting an exhibition of old projectors or cameras there. All you will get is a seat in their basement auditorium and a chance to see a good movie. The movies are of very different age, sometimes only one year old, sometimes very old. But you will never watch a boring or stupid movie and that’s what makes the place so interesting. They have a program which gets published six months in advance, so you can select what you want to see very carefully. But you can also go there without any clue and you can be sure you won’t regret it.

Most movies are shown “OmU”, the german abbreviation for “original version with subtitles“. Besides the beautiful auditorium the institution runs various ambitious and internationally acclaimed film restoration projects: they have a big archive and they publish about the history of film. But for me the main attraction is that they have a lovely and technically very well equipped auditorium with seats that offer enough room for you and your feet and a selection of movies that will never disappoint and often surprise.

I have been going there since I was 15 and will never forget the Tuesdays I spent seeing all of the John Cassavetes movies, two every week. You get such a superb impression of a moviemaker’s life work.