We take a look at the different influences that carachterise the movie, as well as its impact on art and culture since its release. Other notable works include Die Nibelungen and the Dr. Mabuse trilogy, the last of which, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse , was filmed in , and was considered an anti-Nazi film as Lang had directly quoted Nazi phrases in the dialogue. A screening of the film was by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, and the film was later banned on the grounds that it was a threat to public health and safety.
The story goes, however, that Goebbels called Lang into his office to inform him that his film was going to be banned, but nevertheless offered him the position of head of the German film studio UFA.
It was during this meeting that Lang decided to leave Germany: he moved to Paris, and then emigrated to the United States, where he went on to become a Hollywood legend.
Metropolis is set in a dystopian future, the then-distant year of The movie depicts a deeply-divided world, where rich overlords enjoy life in luscious gardens, palaces, and run the city from high up in their expensive skyscrapers, while armies of workers slave away deep below the earth, servicing the great machines that power the city.
In the end, Rotwang is killed and Freder fulfils his role as the mediator, by bringing together his father and the workers. Fritz Lang was inspired by various art movements and architectural styles.
One of the major influences was Art Deco, which grew out of the Art Nouveau style and took inspiration from the geometric forms of Cubism, as well as from Constructivism , Functionalism, Modernism and Futurism. Use film and TV in my classroom.
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Apply for British certification and tax relief. Inclusion in the film industry. Find projects backed by the BFI. Read industry research and statistics. Find out about booking film programmes internationally. Pamela Hutchinson 10 January Metropolis Wells in the New York Times in Ninety years later, Metropolis is recognised as one of the landmarks of science-fiction and a highpoint of late silent cinema.
Its gothic-futurist design, wild-haired maniac scientist and sexualised robot-vamp influenced swathes of science-fiction films to follow, not to mention being reinterpreted in everything from pop videos and adverts to high fashion. Still, Wells found its vision of life a century in the future unrealistic — the impossibility of such towering buildings, the low-tech aeroplanes, the workers toiling to produce goods of no value.
His low opinion can be mitigated by two factors: first that he was watching not the bona fide Metropolis but an over-enthusiastically censored and re-cut American release, and second that, with a wince, he suspected that many aspects of the story had been lifted from his novel When the Sleeper Wakes, first serialised in The full Metropolis, the version shown in Germany, remains lost, and for decades its reputation as a triumph of cinematic spectacle rested on butchered versions, such as the one that so underwhelmed Wells.
The discovery of missing footage in Argentina in , means that we now have a near-complete Metropolis, and it can be seen to its best advantage. Directed by Lang from a screenplay by his wife Thea von Harbou , Metropolis concerns a nightmarish future city in which the rich and idle live in cosseted luxury, breathing the fresh air at the top of the city while the proletariat toil in the factories and crawl home to slums beneath the earth. Members of the Nazi party, which Von Harbou later joined, were far more enthusiastic.
Metropolis is flawed but not hobbled by its message. Its scope and style are still breathtaking, and — in its restored version — its narrative is thrilling and expertly paced.
What would science-fiction cinema be without special effects? He made many short films about incredible voyages among the stars, and many more that defy the laws of physics and human biology, but A Trip to the Moon , his Jules Verne-inspired tale of lunar discovery, is the classic.
Then and now, Metropolis shows the dangers of unchecked power. The storyline begins with the privileged frolicking in a literal garden, and the almighty Frederson implies that the underground workers are "where they belong. In Lang's film, there's not even a middle class. When Maria and children from the underground visit their "brothers," Freder is mindful enough to realize his privileged position.
Crucially, he also wants to know about the realities of living "in the depths. In contrast, his father scoffs at the lower class and refuses to change his worldview when new evidence emerges. It's not hard to see the parallels between democratic and conservative perspectives , certainly in the United States. In Metropolis , the upper class' utopian concepts are flawed because they don't respect, or fully acknowledge, the heart and soul of their operation.
On the flip side, the underground can't execute an efficient revolution if they're not sure what they're rebelling against.
Maria functions not as a forceful revolutionary, but rather as someone who understands the system as a whole and recognizes that she needs the right mediator.
When Freder emerges as a logical candidate, he initially romanticizes his work for the underground and loses focus. He's literally distracted by technology robot Maria , and experiences temporary insanity before he recognizes the truth. Metropolis criticizes the upper class' naivete, but also takes aim at egocentric underground figures who prioritize themselves over the safety of others. In essence, as the final act shows, the "head" and "hands" always need some "heart. In the Digital Era, there's a constant battle on social media between heads and hands.
Metropolis reminds viewers about the value of healthy mediation, along with the importance of empathy or heart.
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