Ever since I've decided to become introduced to silent cinema,with Alfred Hitchcock's outline- setting film The Manxman and John Ford's industrial revaluation western The Iron Horse,the name Fritz Lang has had an almost magnetic grip of being at the very top of my list,of directors whose work I have been eagerly wanting to view.When I heard a few years ago,about a "holy grail" being struck for film history,with a worn out copy of Langs silent epic Metropolis being pulled out of oblivion,and leading to the huge discovery of twenty five minutes of missing scenes/moments being found in the print.After reading that the film was going to be kept safely in a preservation society,due to the understandably fragile nature of the film,my expectations of this cut of the film coming out on home video gradually disappeared.Years later,I decided to search on Amazon UK to see what titles had been realised from The Masters Of Cinema DVD company. (the UK's version of Criterion) To my amazement,right at the very top of the page,was a very sophisticated looking DVD of the reconstructed/restored edition of Metropolis!.With having just started to discover the world of silent cinema,and looking at one of the most tempting DVDs which I have seen in years,I felt that it was the perfect time for me to see the full creation of Fritz Lang's futuristic city.
The plot: Being the son of arguably the biggest titan/philanthropist of a very advance industrial city called Metropolis,Freder has lived a life of complete bliss,where anything he has desired to achieve,has been reached to a level of success, that most of the residents of the city will never reach.Whilst out walking one day,Freder catches a quick glimpse of a girl who he instantly becomes obsessed with seeing again.As Freder is attempting to build the courage to go up to the girl,the girl is suddenly griped by security guards,who drag her down to the second level of Metropolis, where the workers who keep this huge city alive are kept,whilst the rich people in Metropolis live in mansions/villas on the "Top" level.
Not being deterred one bit,Freder decides to secretly travel to the second level for the first time in his life.Getting deeper and deeper into the second level,Freder starts to become extremely sicken at the level of depravity and hopelessness that the lives of the workers have become engulfed in,with some of them even being thrown into a machine to die,just to "help" keep the cites electricity going. Horrififed by his discovery's,,Freder goes to tell his father Jon about what he has seen in the workers section of the city.To his complete surprise Jon dismisses everything that his son has told him,due to him feeling that the city must stay "alive" in anyway possible.Fearing that Freder might attempt to help an uprising begin,and finding out that some workers have gotten hold of secret documents which show the inside stricter to Metropolis's power supply,Jon decides to hire a spy called The Thin man to keep an eye on his son and the workers.Following him,The Thin man gets hold of the inventor of Metropolis:C.A Wotwang to guide him around the city.With there eyes all on him,Freder is eventually found to be attending a secret meeting,where him and a huge number of workers are getting told about a new philosophy from a woman called Maria (who Freder has been crazy about,since catching a quick glimpse of her on the top level of Metropolis)Attempting to accept for the first time in his life that a fall from power might be upon them,Jon and C.A. take the most drastic measures possible to destroy the bubbling uprising,by inventing a robot.Quickly getting hold of Maria,C.A. transfers her appearance to the robot (who he will be controlling).Having succeeded in the transfer of Maria's appearance,C.A. and Jon begin to pray that their fake Maria will stop the up rising dead in its tracks,although none of them have any idea about how much (the real) Maria's philosophy is affecting the workers,who are starting to build up into something that none of them may be able to topple...
View on the film: The first people who deserve a huge round of applause are The Master Of Cinema makers,who have created a obviously lovingly made DVD/Blu- Ray.Although the "new" 25 minutes of extra footage does contain a good amount of grain, (which is understandable,due to the reels of film being left to gather dust) the footage which has been used in previous editions of the film,has now been given a mesmerising remastering,with the quality of the picture being one that could beat a huge number of films made today!.For the adaptation of her own novel,screenwriter Thea Von Harbou, (who Lang would later divorce,shortly after she had become a member of the Nazi's)interestingly shows that during the workers revolt against the "higher-ups",they all struggle to become distinct individuals.With the first part of the film, showing the workers being used as puppets to keep the city alive,who are also hidden away as an embarrassing,necessary "evil" for the higher-ups,to the second half of the film,where the workers turn into a mass tidal-wave,whose destructive nature,leads them to even (temporally) forgetting about their children!.Along with the brilliantly tense screenplay of his then- wife,Fritz Lang delivers the film with masterful directing.For the two levels of Metropolis Lang creates two extremely different "worlds",With the workers level having a menacing foggy Noirish look,which helps to give a sense that anyone could jump out and attack you,to the top level,which is filled with mind-blowing technology,and packed with stunning housing.For the excellent characters of The Thin Man and C.A. Wotwang,Lang gives the film an amazing,creepy Gothic feel,with The Thin Man looking like Dracular working undercover as a spy!.Looking at the structure of the film,Lang seems to have created two distinct parts,which combined to make one unforgettable whole,due to Lang delivering an astonishing film,which mixes gripping Noirish moments,and still-stunningly executed special effects.
The plot: Being the son of arguably the biggest titan/philanthropist of a very advance industrial city called Metropolis,Freder has lived a life of complete bliss,where anything he has desired to achieve,has been reached to a level of success, that most of the residents of the city will never reach.Whilst out walking one day,Freder catches a quick glimpse of a girl who he instantly becomes obsessed with seeing again.As Freder is attempting to build the courage to go up to the girl,the girl is suddenly griped by security guards,who drag her down to the second level of Metropolis, where the workers who keep this huge city alive are kept,whilst the rich people in Metropolis live in mansions/villas on the "Top" level.
Not being deterred one bit,Freder decides to secretly travel to the second level for the first time in his life.Getting deeper and deeper into the second level,Freder starts to become extremely sicken at the level of depravity and hopelessness that the lives of the workers have become engulfed in,with some of them even being thrown into a machine to die,just to "help" keep the cites electricity going. Horrififed by his discovery's,,Freder goes to tell his father Jon about what he has seen in the workers section of the city.To his complete surprise Jon dismisses everything that his son has told him,due to him feeling that the city must stay "alive" in anyway possible.Fearing that Freder might attempt to help an uprising begin,and finding out that some workers have gotten hold of secret documents which show the inside stricter to Metropolis's power supply,Jon decides to hire a spy called The Thin man to keep an eye on his son and the workers.Following him,The Thin man gets hold of the inventor of Metropolis:C.A Wotwang to guide him around the city.With there eyes all on him,Freder is eventually found to be attending a secret meeting,where him and a huge number of workers are getting told about a new philosophy from a woman called Maria (who Freder has been crazy about,since catching a quick glimpse of her on the top level of Metropolis)Attempting to accept for the first time in his life that a fall from power might be upon them,Jon and C.A. take the most drastic measures possible to destroy the bubbling uprising,by inventing a robot.Quickly getting hold of Maria,C.A. transfers her appearance to the robot (who he will be controlling).Having succeeded in the transfer of Maria's appearance,C.A. and Jon begin to pray that their fake Maria will stop the up rising dead in its tracks,although none of them have any idea about how much (the real) Maria's philosophy is affecting the workers,who are starting to build up into something that none of them may be able to topple...
View on the film: The first people who deserve a huge round of applause are The Master Of Cinema makers,who have created a obviously lovingly made DVD/Blu- Ray.Although the "new" 25 minutes of extra footage does contain a good amount of grain, (which is understandable,due to the reels of film being left to gather dust) the footage which has been used in previous editions of the film,has now been given a mesmerising remastering,with the quality of the picture being one that could beat a huge number of films made today!.For the adaptation of her own novel,screenwriter Thea Von Harbou, (who Lang would later divorce,shortly after she had become a member of the Nazi's)interestingly shows that during the workers revolt against the "higher-ups",they all struggle to become distinct individuals.With the first part of the film, showing the workers being used as puppets to keep the city alive,who are also hidden away as an embarrassing,necessary "evil" for the higher-ups,to the second half of the film,where the workers turn into a mass tidal-wave,whose destructive nature,leads them to even (temporally) forgetting about their children!.Along with the brilliantly tense screenplay of his then- wife,Fritz Lang delivers the film with masterful directing.For the two levels of Metropolis Lang creates two extremely different "worlds",With the workers level having a menacing foggy Noirish look,which helps to give a sense that anyone could jump out and attack you,to the top level,which is filled with mind-blowing technology,and packed with stunning housing.For the excellent characters of The Thin Man and C.A. Wotwang,Lang gives the film an amazing,creepy Gothic feel,with The Thin Man looking like Dracular working undercover as a spy!.Looking at the structure of the film,Lang seems to have created two distinct parts,which combined to make one unforgettable whole,due to Lang delivering an astonishing film,which mixes gripping Noirish moments,and still-stunningly executed special effects.