Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)
As you may remember, I saw Lang’s M last year (read my review) and gave it a full five stars. This movie, which was made a few years prior to M, is almost as impressive.
The plot is simple. It’s set in a futuristic city which is divided between the working class and the city planners. One day, the son of the city’s ruler ventures below the surface where he witnesses the true horrors of what the working class have to endure. Oh, and he also falls in love with a girl. This girl, Maria (Brigitte Helm) also happens to be a prophet of sorts, and she predicts that a savior will come to bridge the gap between the workers and the upper-class.
Unfortunately, a lot of the original film has been lost. The version I saw was about two hours long, and I’ve been told that a subplot involving Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel) and Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) was missing from this version. It’s too bad, really. I would have loved to have seen the complete movie. But, all the same, this is captivating stuff.
Lang is so good at creating an atmosphere, and almost immediately was I totally immersed in this world. We get to explore this through the eyes of our protagonist, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) as he gets deeper and deeper into the underworld.
As with M, it’s staggering to realise that this movie was made 80 years ago. Some of the effects are impressive in their own right. Lang was truly a visionary in that regard. He has lightning effects and TV surveillance and a lot of other things which is amazing when you consider when it was made.
There are a couple of absolutely breathtaking sequences, especially those involving hundreds of people being shepherded through the machinery; an endless stream of disposable men and women who replace those who are killed when performing arduous manual labour. You have to see it to believe it.
All in all, I’m very glad I finally made time to see this movie. It’s a true classic that still holds up today.
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