Metropolis

[anart]

This is a 1927 silent film by Fritz Lang that very well may blow your mind. It deals with the Metropolis - a society delineated into the elite, and the worker class - who lives in underground cities. The son of the designer of the city of Metropolis happens upon the inner workings where he witnesses mass human sacrifice to a godlike machine - named Moloch - that emerges when the factory 'overheats', I swear that the facial expressions of this son, Feder, resemble G.W. on more than one occasion, though perhaps a G.W. that overcame the influence of his psychopathic parents. The 'tower of babylon' is the main office where Feder's father is located, where you find him managing his worldwide financial tickers - and his father even vaguely reminds me of Bush senior -- all of this occurs in the first 15 minutes!! For all but the elite, man is machine in this film.
When Freder first ventures into the 'depths' to help the workers, the only label above the door is a large V (or Roman numeral 5). There is even an enormous stone disembodied head (of a woman) inscribed with: HEL - BORN FOR MY HAPPINESS AND MANKIND'S BLESSING lOST TO jOH FREDERSON DIED GIVING BIRTH TO FREDER, JOH FREDERSEN'S SON. The revealing of this head is one of the parts of the original film that was lost. There is one man in the entire city who is an 'inventor' - an intellectual - and he was in love with HEL - the woman who inspired the disembodied head - and there is more to that story than I will tell here. If you get the chance, you have to see this film - it is incredible.

From the introduction: "All that survives of the original "Metropolis" is an incomplete original negative and copies of the shortened and re-edited release prints. Over a quater of the film has to be considered lost." I have to wonder if portions of this film were 'lost' intentionally.
I would love to know what is in this lost quarter, while Freder seems to choose the opposite path that G.W. chose, the inner workings of the machine presented in this film made 79 years ago are incredibly applicable today.

 

[ArdVan]

Hi Anart

Which version did you see? There are different versions and older reconstructions. I've just seen the newest digital restored version from 2001 on DVD. This version is almost as long as the original (80% of the original), with all frames still existing today, including the original music from 1927. The missing parts are shown as text frames with another font explaining the missing plot.

In a way it is funny to see, how the makers of movie thought 1927. On one hand there are the rich people on the top of Metropolis and the worker slaves are hidden below. They even don't have homes outside. And on the other hand in the end everything should be forgotten. The city is destroyed, but the worker have seen that they can't live without the rich on the top and come to shake hands with the psychopathic boss who wanted to destroy them and Maria. And of course the workers will work hard again to build up the city again.

Maria says in the end to Freder a message:

Head and Hands want to join together but they don't have the heart to do it...
Oh mediator (Freder), show them the way to each other...

The mediator between head and hands must be the heart!

Then the leader of the workers shakes hands with Joh Frederson.
And all live happily forever. Sorry, getting cynical here. :P


But maybe, we should look at this movie more in the light of the teachings of Mouravieff, because it reminded me as an analogy of our centres, and about our missing magnetic centre.

BTW, did you remark that the only really old things were the house of the robot inventor Rotwang and the huge cathedral?

 

[anart]

Yep, that was the version I saw - and I agree with your 'cynical critique', as well - the ending was wrapped up nicely for the city. I was just fascinated by the entire production, including the only 'old' thing being the house of the intellecutal/inventor/obsessive who pretends to help the pathocracy while actually working to destroy it. The inclusion of what are now considered Illuminati/NWO symbols also caught my eye as being perhaps too coincidental for happenstance - Moloch, V, the world wide financial tickers in the head office, the whole premise of control over the workers, lots of 1's and 7's thrown around in there too, although I do admit the possibility that I'm seeing implications that are not really present. At any rate, I find it to be a fascinating film altogether and really fun to watch.

 

[ArdVan]

...the house of the intellecutal/inventor/obsessive who pretends to help the pathocracy while actually working to destroy it.

Well, it's always the same story: Two men fall in love with the same woman. And the one who didn't get the woman destroys the live of the "rival".

HEL - BORN FOR MY HAPPINESS AND MANKIND'S BLESSING lOST TO jOH FREDERSON DIED GIVING BIRTH TO FREDER, JOH FREDERSEN'S SON.

And the obsession cumulated in making first the stone head memorial and later the robot, Rotwang wanted to create Hel as a robot for himself (I don't wana look at the psyche of this man in detail :) ) and only on Fredersons wish made a visual copy of Maria.

Apart from the story, I find the movie fascinating too and find this is also an example of really good use of the newest technologies to restore a old movie. It is as if old times are alive again. The pictures flawless restored, you feel like being in 1927.

But it shows me also how fragile our society is. Almost nothing made by it endures 100 years.

 

[hnd]

It was discussed four years ago, but I saw éMetropolis" this summer and happened to read the comments and want to share the piece of information (from wikipedia) I will quote below:

The film was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. The two wrote the screenplay in 1924, and published a novelization in 1926, before the film was released. Lang was influenced by the Soviet science fiction film Aelita by Yakov Protazanov (1924), which was an adaptation of a novel by Alexei Tolstoy. The plot of Aelita included a revolution taking place on the planet Mars. Meanwhile, Von Harbou was already close to the Nazis and influenced the scenario. Therefore, the film, like the fascists, advocates "class collaboration" rather than the Marxist ideal of "class struggle".

Fritz Lang later expressed dissatisfaction with the film. In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich (available in Who The Devil Made It...), he expressed his reservations.

The main thesis was Mrs. Von Harbou's, but I am at least 50 percent responsible because I did it. I was not so politically minded in those days as I am now. You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale — definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture — thought it was silly and stupid — then, when I saw the astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures— 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?

In his profile for Lang featured in the same book, which prefaces the interview, Bogdanovich suggested that Lang's distaste for his own film also stemmed from the Nazi Party's fascination with the film. Von Harbou became a passionate member of the Nazi Party in 1933. They divorced the following year.

It seems as if there is STS influence in it.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Just a quick note that the lost footage of Metropolis has recently been discovered and there will be a DVD release of the complete film. Apparently a lot of the bit characters are more fleshed out and some vague plot points are clarified. I haven't seen the film yet, but plan to whenever I can get hold of the new release!

 

[durabone]

Now that is some sweet news Approaching Infinity, thanks!! And thanks for the details of the missing segs & restoral. This recent post where Lang is dissing his own film begs some interesting questions.

We musn’t forget that in 1924, Lang’s masterpiece “Die Nibelungen” presents similar themes, and is arguably at the heart of Third Reich popular mythology.

For those that don’t know, the Nibelungen were also forced to live underground and to work for their masters. They prayed incessantly in anguish to their God to save them from their oppressor, God’s nephew. The Silver Surfer was sent down to rectify the situation. His solution? He flooded the caves where the Niebelungen worked, killing them all. No more complaints, problem solved!

Not all of the themes in this mythos are the focus of Lang’s film, which tends to focus more on our “heorine” Kriemhild. This film was also scripted by Lang’s wife, von Harbou, and it is well known that Wagner’s “Ring Opus” (same basic tale in music) was official music of the 3rd Reich, listened to many times by senior staff. The film is in three parts: “Die Nibelungen”, “Siegfried”, and “Kremhild’s Revenge” EDIT: Kino Films offers the restoral

I’d like to know now how Ms. von Harbou became so familiar with these themes, that she wrote this major contribution to the Third Reich mythos several years before she joined the party? Also how did she come into this position of power over(?) Fritz Lang, and gain opportunity to make these films? (Lang’s later work after their divorce has been characterized as empty blood lust by compare.)