Metropolis (movie)

Template:Simplfy Metropolis is a silent science fiction film created by the famed Austrian-German director Fritz Lang. It was produced in Germany in the Babelsberg Studios and released in 1927 during the height of the Weimar Republic. It was the most expensive silent film of the time, costing approximately 7 million Reichsmark (equivalent to around $200 million in 2005) to make.

The screenplay was written in 1924 by Lang and his wife, Thea von Harbou, and novelized by von Harbou in 1926. It is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and examines a common science fiction theme of the day: the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism.

Plot

The film is set in the year 2026, in the extraordinary Gothic skyscapers of a corporate city-state, the Metropolis of the title. Society has been divided into two rigid groups - one of planners or thinkers, who live high above the earth in luxury, and another of workers who live underground toiling to sustain the lives of the privileged. The city is run by Johhan 'Joh' Fredersen (Alfred Abel).

One of the workers, the beautiful Maria (Brigitte Helm), takes up the cause of the workers. The son of Frederson, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), becomes infatuated with Maria, descends into the working underworld and, shocked at the working conditions, joins her cause. To counter the threat of worker dissatisfaction his father has The Robot built by the scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge). The Robot is given Maria's appearance and is directed by Joh to spread disorder and so allow the workers to be crushed.

The film climaxes with an attack on the upper world, foreshadowing the "destruction of the enemy in the citadel" ending still seen in films. But through the intervention of Freder, Joh and the worker's leader are persuaded to reconcile their differences and work together - an anti-Communist gesture.

Background/production

The film features special effects and set design that still impress modern audiences with their visual impact - glorious expressionist design and geometric forms. The effects expert was Eugen Schüfftan who did sterling work on the enormous set.

According to Lang his inspiration for the settings of the Metropolis came during a trip to Manhattan, New York, New York, USA.

Release

On January 10, 1927 the film premiered in Berlin and a badly-edited version was released in the United States in March of that year. Following the bankruptcy of the filmmakers, the American print seems to be the only extant copy.

Restorations

Several restored versions (all of them missing footage) were released in the 1980s and 1990s, running for around 90 minutes. A 147 minutes, digitally restored version was released in 2002 by the F.W. Murnau Foundation. It is believed that the original film was over 210 minutes.

Other websites

• Metropolis: A Film Far Ahead of its Time
• The official site of the new restoration
• About restoring 'Metropolis'
• Metropolis novelization by Thea von Harbou
• Metropolis at the UNESCO Memory of the World register
• Metropolis on IMDb
• Metropolis at the Open Directory Project
• Metropolis at MetaCritic
• Metropolis at Rotten Tomatoes