Those who toiled knew nothing of the dreams of those who planned ✵ Metropolis - VISIONARIES ✵ 1902–1931 - The Movie Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained) (2016)

The Movie Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained) (2016)

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IN CONTEXT

GENRE

Science fiction

DIRECTOR

Fritz Lang

WRITERS

Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou

STARS

Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Brigitte Helm

BEFORE

1922 With Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, Lang and von Harbou introduce the arch-criminal to the big screen for first time.

1924 The Nibelungs is Lang and von Harbou’s epic two-part silent fantasy.

AFTER

1929 Woman in the Moon is Lang’s next science-fiction masterpiece after Metropolis.

1931 M stands for “Murderer” in Lang and von Harbou’s desolate thriller.

Many movies have journeyed into the future, and most of them owe a debt to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Made in Germany in 1927, this tale of city life projects itself a hundred years ahead of its time.

"Should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished?"

Fritz Lang

Mirror image

Metropolis is set in 2026, but it is really a warped reflection of the era in which it was made. In its striking black-and-white imagery, influenced by German Expressionism, lie the nightmares of a world in flux. The mechanized horrors of World War I were fresh in the memory, and the Nazis would soon begin their rise to power, proposing totalitarian solutions to Germany’s problems.

Lang often said that the idea for Metropolis came to him on a visit to New York in 1924, and it shows. The American city, with its soaring skyscrapers and views of ant-sized citizens, clearly inspired the first science-fiction cityscape ever shown on screen. Lang worked with visual-effects pioneer Eugen Schüfftan to create an exaggerated version of Manhattan, combining models of monorails and shining pinnacles with vast clockwork sets, in which the humans operating the machines are little more than cogs.

In Metropolis, the architecture of the city reflects the rigid structure of its society, whose ruling class, led by Fredersen (Alfred Abel), lives in luxurious towers, while the workers, represented by Maria (Brigitte Helm), are consigned to the sunless slums at ground level and below. The two groups—literally the high-ups and the low-downs—know little of each other, and in the smooth running of the machine city their paths never cross. Only when Fredersen’s privileged son glimpses the worker Maria and falls in love with her does the machine begin to break down, as the two groups—the “mind” and the “hands”—are brought together by the heart.

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Lang’s vision of the cityscape of the future was heavily influenced by the skyscrapers that were being built at the time in New York.

Technology and terror

Lang’s movie revels in cutting-edge special effects, but it doesn’t trust technology with the future of humanity. The 21st-century city is depicted as a malevolent monster, a living, breathing machine incapable of compassion. Maria is duplicated as a Maschinenmensch (“machine-human”), whose unholy birth would later be imitated by Hollywood in Frankenstein (1931). Mechanization is ultimately a means to deceive, dehumanize, and enslave.

Metropolis is often described as the first screen dystopia, and in its prediction of a segregated German society, it is bleakly prescient. But Lang’s movie remains optimistic at its core—it believes the human heart can triumph even when our dreams turn into oppressive nightmares, and for all its concerns, it sees a frightening beauty in the world of tomorrow.

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In an Art Deco vision of hell, the Industrial Machine powering the city is seen as a sacrificial temple of Moloch that consumes its workers.

ALFRED ABEL Actor

Born in Leipzig in 1879, Alfred Abel tried his hand at forestry, gardening, art, and business before taking up acting. Moving to Berlin, he worked with stage director Max Reinhardt, who gave him his first movie role in 1913. He went on to star in more than 100 silent movies, most famously Metropolis. Always elegant, and eschewing florid gestures, Abel remained in demand in the age of sound, but a brief foray into directing was not a success. He died in 1937, two years after the Nazi regime barred his daughter from acting.

Key movies

1922 Dr. Mabuse the Gambler

1927 Metropolis

What else to watch: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) ✵ The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) ✵ Modern Times (1936) ✵ Blade Runner (1982) ✵ Brazil (1985) ✵ The Matrix (1999) ✵ Minority Report (2002)