The Deutsches Filmmuseum on the Museumsufer is both a film museum and a working cinema, with a permanent collection that walks visitors through the technical history of moving images — Edison kinetoscopes, magic lanterns, early projection cameras — and a programme of repertory and arthouse screenings that takes place in the basement cinema almost every evening. The permanent exhibition is laid out hands-on: you can crank a zoetrope, watch shadow plays, and step inside a recreation of an early Lumière brothers screening room.
The temporary exhibitions are the museum's strong suit — recent shows have covered Stanley Kubrick, Hayao Miyazaki, Jean-Luc Godard and the special effects of the Star Wars films, usually with serious loans from the artists' estates or studios. The cinema downstairs shows German films with English subtitles regularly. Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm; closed Mondays.