Metropolis (1927)

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.

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

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

Stars:

Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge

Top 250 #90 | 3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
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 - Georgy
Heinrich George	...	Grot - the Guardian of the Heart Machine
Brigitte Helm	...	The Creative Man / The Machine Man / Death / The Seven Deadly Sins / Maria

Storyline

Sometime in the future, the city of Metropolis is home to a Utopian society where its wealthy residents live a carefree life. One of those is Freder Fredersen. One day, he spots a beautiful woman with a group of children, she and the children who quickly disappear. Trying to follow her, he, oblivious to such, is horrified to find an underground world of workers, apparently who run the machinery which keeps the above ground Utopian world functioning. One of the few people above ground who knows about the world below is Freder's father, Joh Fredersen, who is the founder and master of Metropolis. Freder learns that the woman is Maria, who espouses the need to join the "hands" - the workers - to the "head" - those in power above - by a mediator or the "heart". Freder wants to help the plight of the workers in the want for a better life. But when Joh learns of what Maria is espousing and that Freder is joining their cause, Joh, with the assistance of an old colleague and now nemesis named ...

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Plot Keywords:

worker | children | future | savior | garden | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official North American site for 2002 restoration

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

13 March 1927 (USA)

Also Known As:

Metrópolis

Filming Locations:

Filmwerke Staaken, Staaken, Spandau, Berlin, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

DEM 6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,070 (USA) (8 August 2003)

Gross:

$26,435 (USA) (11 November 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universum Film (UFA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

153 min 210 min (premiere cut) 93 min (re-release) 114 min (1927 cut) 123 min (2002 Murnau Foundation 75th aniversary restored) 119 min (DVD edition) (2002 Murnau Foundation 75th aniversary restored) 80 min (Giorgio Moroder) 145 min (2010 restored)

Sound Mix:

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

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the novelization, the robot is described as a woman "of glass and metal," and her name is Parody; Maria's features are sculpted onto its face by Rotwang itself, using Maria as a guide.

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Goofs

Towards the close of the film, as Freder is grabbed by the mob, his shirt is pulled open. When next seen, it is fastened up again.

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Quotes

Maria: There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.

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Crazy Credits

Restoration based on the version in the Filmmuseum Munich and material preserved in the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv

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Connections

Referenced in Micmacs à tire-larigot (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Machines"
Written by Giorgio Moroder
Performed by Giorgio Moroder
Courtesy of Columbia Records
(from the 1984 re-release)

User Reviews

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.