German Expressionism at its best, science fiction that literally rises from its mechanical surroundings to embrace a higher spirituality, and one of the finest silent films and black and white films of all time. METROPOLIS will probably never be seen in its entirety as a quarter of film is still purportedly lost, but even at its 135 minutes, it packs a wallop of unforgettable imagery and powerful storytelling I've ever seen.
Viewing it almost thirty years later -- I saw a version on PBS when I was seven years old in 1977 -- I can see it as an adult, and the seams certainly come apart, especially in Brigitte Helm's wild overacting, but I admit that even now, it's a visually stunning movie. Focusing on a futuristic dystopia, the story centers on two wildly different societies: the thinkers, who live in privileged bliss, and that of the workers, who (not surprisingly) maintain the city alive while working in near inhuman conditions.
In the middle of these two groups is the Virgin-like (and appropriately named) Maria. She maintains secret meetings in the city's bowels where she talks about a Mediator who will intercede for them, and thus unite the city into a whole. However, events conspire against this as the city's builder, Joh Fredersen, is made aware of this. He orders the scientist Rotwang to "humanize" his robotic creation in order to maintain order among the workers much like every CEO would do today in order to keep his empire from crumbling. But, however, Rotwang has his own agenda.
Rotwang in effect humanizes his cyborg, who not only rouses the workers into destroying the City, but also incites the men of the nightclub with her erotic dancing. It's one of the most bizarre yet powerful scenes in the movie, as is the flooding of its lower levels. Even today, for me, it's frightening to me to watch the water seep unto the upper level and begin to flood the city as the real Maria and the hero, Freder, try to rescue the children of the workers from imminent death. Also still effective was the sequence in which Rotwang chases Maria through the tunnels of the City. Illuminated only by the candle she holds in her hand, it has a stroboscopic effect which is beautiful as it is suffocating.
But hands down, the parts of the movie that stand out to me are the ones in which the robot Maria gets infused with the breadth of the real Maria's life. The use of neon circles photographed against each other is still as haunting today as it must have been then. Her burning at the stake by the city's workers is a marvel of special effects -- it looks genuinely terrifying.
METROPOLIS has, not surprisingly, the single most influential silent and black and white movie of all times. From its use of miniatures and overlapping techniques, its painstaking drawings that depicted the passing of time in a marvelous Babylon of a City, and its opening shot of machines working in tandem -- also seen in Madonna's "Express Yourself" video, which in fact is a direct rip-off of the movie in video form -- it has dictated what dystopias should look like, and it's hard not to see its long hand even in the science-fiction literature of Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and a multitude of movies ranging from DR. STRANGELOVE, VERTIGO, STAR WARS, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, SHADOWS AND FOG, BATMAN, BATMAN RETURNS, DARK CITY, SE7EN, BLADE RUNNER, and many, many more.
Viewing it almost thirty years later -- I saw a version on PBS when I was seven years old in 1977 -- I can see it as an adult, and the seams certainly come apart, especially in Brigitte Helm's wild overacting, but I admit that even now, it's a visually stunning movie. Focusing on a futuristic dystopia, the story centers on two wildly different societies: the thinkers, who live in privileged bliss, and that of the workers, who (not surprisingly) maintain the city alive while working in near inhuman conditions.
In the middle of these two groups is the Virgin-like (and appropriately named) Maria. She maintains secret meetings in the city's bowels where she talks about a Mediator who will intercede for them, and thus unite the city into a whole. However, events conspire against this as the city's builder, Joh Fredersen, is made aware of this. He orders the scientist Rotwang to "humanize" his robotic creation in order to maintain order among the workers much like every CEO would do today in order to keep his empire from crumbling. But, however, Rotwang has his own agenda.
Rotwang in effect humanizes his cyborg, who not only rouses the workers into destroying the City, but also incites the men of the nightclub with her erotic dancing. It's one of the most bizarre yet powerful scenes in the movie, as is the flooding of its lower levels. Even today, for me, it's frightening to me to watch the water seep unto the upper level and begin to flood the city as the real Maria and the hero, Freder, try to rescue the children of the workers from imminent death. Also still effective was the sequence in which Rotwang chases Maria through the tunnels of the City. Illuminated only by the candle she holds in her hand, it has a stroboscopic effect which is beautiful as it is suffocating.
But hands down, the parts of the movie that stand out to me are the ones in which the robot Maria gets infused with the breadth of the real Maria's life. The use of neon circles photographed against each other is still as haunting today as it must have been then. Her burning at the stake by the city's workers is a marvel of special effects -- it looks genuinely terrifying.
METROPOLIS has, not surprisingly, the single most influential silent and black and white movie of all times. From its use of miniatures and overlapping techniques, its painstaking drawings that depicted the passing of time in a marvelous Babylon of a City, and its opening shot of machines working in tandem -- also seen in Madonna's "Express Yourself" video, which in fact is a direct rip-off of the movie in video form -- it has dictated what dystopias should look like, and it's hard not to see its long hand even in the science-fiction literature of Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and a multitude of movies ranging from DR. STRANGELOVE, VERTIGO, STAR WARS, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, SHADOWS AND FOG, BATMAN, BATMAN RETURNS, DARK CITY, SE7EN, BLADE RUNNER, and many, many more.