Directed by - Fritz Lang
"There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator"
In a distant time and place the rich live in cities in the sky while the poor work far underground. But while thoughts of rebellion are stirring within the masses the scientist Rotwang is creating his own sinister solution to their problems…
Of course if you’re like me then you’ll have seen a lot of the visuals from this film before; the city-scapes, the oppressed workers, not to mention the robot. They have all been used, rehashed, mimicked and parodied almost as much as the Odessa Staircase from ‘Battleship Potemkin’. Not least by Queen’s ‘Radio Ga Ga’ which was in the charts for so long in 1984 that I frankly got sick to death of the video.
And today the story of 'Metropolis' would be thought unoriginal as it follows the similar dystopian theme used in any number of novels and movies from ‘1984’ to ‘The Hunger Games’. Even 'The Host' director Joon-ho Bong's new movie 'Snowpiercer' includes the 'Them and Us' core theme, although it that scenario they are passengers from either the front and back of a train traveling in perpetual motion. The trailer for the film shows ranks of passengers and the swaying motion of the train which together is reminiscent of Lang's walking-workers at the start of 'Metropolis'.
The acting in 'Metropolis', as with most films of the silent era, is very stagey and over played. In fact the hero Freder is so wooden that at times he looks more like a robot than the robot! But it is the mesmerizing Brigette Helm who for me is the star of the movie as both the angelic Maria and also the evil and sexy android version of herself, with those crazy eyes and crooked smile.
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| Android Maria - Giving it the evil! |
Classic scene - The creation of Android Maria (every home should have one!)...
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