Metropolis (1927)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Thea von Harbou (screenplay)
Thea von Harbou (novel)

Release Date:

13 March 1927 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Romance | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.

Plot:

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

Plot Keywords:

Worker | Vision | Future | Kiss | Death

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Alfred Abel	...	Joh Fredersen
Gustav Fröhlich	...	Freder, Joh Fredersen's son
Rudolf Klein-Rogge	...	C. A. Rotwang, the inventor
Fritz Rasp	...	The Thin Man
Theodor Loos	...	Josaphat
Erwin Biswanger	...	11811
Heinrich George	...	Grot, the guardian of the Heart Machine
Brigitte Helm	...	Maria / The Robot

Runtime:

153 min | Germany:147 min (2001 restored version) | Germany:210 min (premiere cut) | Germany:80 min (Giorgio Moroder version) | Germany:93 min (re-release version) | USA:114 min (25 fps) (1927 cut version) | USA:123 min (2002 Murnau Foundation 75th aniversary restored version) | Spain:118 min (DVD edition) | USA:117 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Colour:

Black and White (tinted)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (1995 restored version) | Silent (original release)

Certification:

Germany:12 (video rating) (re-release) | West Germany:16 (theatrical re-release) (1962) | Germany:18 (original rating) (1927) | Germany:o.Al. (DVD re-rating) | Iceland:L | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Canada:G | Chile:TE | Norway:12 (1986) | Peru:PT | Portugal:17 (original rating) | Portugal:M/6 (DVD rating) | South Korea:12 (DVD rating) | Spain:T (DVD rating) | Sweden:11 (re-release) | Sweden:15 (original rating) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Universum Film (UFA)

Trivia:

The restored version of 2001 is based on a digital restoration at 2K resolution from the best available sources. The image quality far surpasses anything seen since the original release of the film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: On the Kino DVD, a shot in chapter 7 that lasts nine seconds is backwards. The shot starts at 16 minutes, 33 seconds. It is the third of four cityscape shots in a row. The vehicular traffic in this third shot moves on the left side. The traffic moves on the right side in the second and fourth shots. There is a backward script letter "B" on the left side of the third shot. These indicate the third shot is backwards. If the third shot is reversed, it becomes apparent that it is a close-up of the bottom of the fourth shot.

Quotes:

Freder: It was their hands that built this city of ours, Father. But where do the hands belong in your scheme?
Joh Frederson: In their proper place, the depths.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Superior Firepower: The Making of 'Aliens' (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Here's My Heart

Restored Kino DVD changed my view of this film.

I doubt that I'd ever seen anything resembling a "complete" version of METROPOLIS before, though certain of its scenes were familiar to me, if only as used and abused in such films as Diane Keaton's HEAVEN (1987). In any case, whatever I had seen before had nothing like the clarity and beauty of the Kino restoration. I expected to be distracted by the restoration's technique of concise written descriptions of missing sequences, but the narrative coherence that these provided was definitely worth it. As "exaggerated" as the style of acting seems by contemporary standards, some performances, such as the Master of the city, are amazingly nuanced and layered, and Brigitte Helm is stunning as both Maria and her evil clone. The meticulous design of the film, the unerring camera placement and Lang's muscular choreography of the crowd scenes are breathtaking. I'd thought of METROPOLIS as a curiosity ("important" = "dull") but now I've come to appreciate it as the seminal work it has always been.