"Metropolis:" Fritz Lang's 1927 Dystopian Sci Fi Classic, Early Films That Paved The Way

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sat Jul 4, 2020, 04:00 PM - Edit history (1)

- Trailer for "Metropolis," German Fritz Lang's silent sci fi masterpiece is almost 100 years old.

BFI, "Metropolis at 90: five early sci-fi films that paved the way for Fritz Lang’s classic." Ninety years after the release of Fritz Lang’s hugely influential sci-fi epic, we look back at Metropolis and the pioneering films that first brought science fiction to life on screen. By Pamela Hutchinson, Jan.10, 2017. - Excerpts:

..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. Despite that, Giorgio Moroder’s 1984 ‘restoration’ with eye-popping colour-washes and an uptempo pop-rock soundtrack made it a cult classic. The discovery of missing footage in Argentina in 2008, 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. The workers begin to organise under the peaceable leadership of a schoolteacher called Maria (Brigitte Helm), so the ruling-class villains have a “man-machine” robot take on her seductive image to lead them astray.

Lang too expressed regrets about the film, mostly the way it sweeps aside its class-consciousness with a call for paternalistic management and its conciliatory motto that “the mediator between the head and hands must be the heart”, a soft-soap conclusion that he called a “fairytale”. 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. The grandeur of the looming future-city was inspired by Lang’s first glimpse of New York from the water, although film historians will note the influence of Giovanni Pastrone’s Cabiria (1914) in the hellish factory...

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/metropolis-fritz-lang-silent-sci-fi

- Proletariat, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proletariat

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. In the early 1980s I saw the version

that had rock songs played throughout. It was amazing.

[appalachiablue]

2. Here's a trailer for the 1984 version, I like the music

and the great action, close up scenes of the worker proletariat Modorer included in it.

I didn't see the 80s production but remember hearing about it. In the mid 1970s I first saw Metropolis; my sister, brother and I knew it was a classic and were amazed when we watched it.

- Trailer, 1984 Giorgio Modorer 'Metropolis' version soundtrack by musicians Pat Benatar, Adam Ant, Freddy Mercury..

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Thank you for finding that for me.

[BigmanPigman]

4. This was hard to find

in the 1980s. I saw it in my film class in college but had to wait years until it was available on VHS. Since then I have seen it on TV a ton of times but the best screening was when it was played at the Museum of Art the night it was my turn to volunteer a few years ago. Seeing it on the big screen again was fantastic!!!

[appalachiablue]

5. Viewing it on a big screen is what it's designed for--

all those grand futuristic sets, crowds in action scenes, the drama and more.

I never saw the 80s version with the music song track but first watched it on a small b/w TV my sister had in the mid 1970s; somehow she received a cable channel that ran almost all classic and old movies.

Lucky for us, 'The Little Foxes,' 'Streetcar,' 'Key Largo' were some of the many fine films we were able to enjoy.

These days and after learning more I'd like to watch 'Metropolis' again. Same for Sergei Eisenstein's 'October,' more Chaplin and other works of that earlier era.

[BigmanPigman]

7. TCM has silent films on Sunday nights usually.

I love the French film The Passion of Joan of Arc.

[appalachiablue]

8. That Joan of Arc is a interesting, I've watched it and

some of their other Sunday night silent classics. TCM has been a big fav for years.

I need to renew TV service, get back to watching TCM and more, like the new 'Grant' series I missed on the H channel.

Netflix that I recently joined to stream online also has some good things to watch, from drama, to nature, and some standard movies going back about 20 years like 'The King's Speech.' I just endured their new Jefferey Epstein film, very well done.

[ChazInAz]

6. This is one of my favorite films.

With the addition of so much missing footage, it's a masterpiece.
Interestingly, there's a stage musical version of it.
I'd love to play Rotwang.

[appalachiablue]

9. A stage version is definitely appropriate given the

theme, drama and elaborate sets of this early classic film.

[cayugafalls]

10. A true classic. With the addition of the found footage it is almost complete.

Adding it to my library was essential and long awaited.

The film holds its story even today. Lang was truly a visionary.