Metropolis.

[starlady]

I was offered the day off today yesterday at random. Judging by how late I slept, taking it was the right decision.

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Metropolis. Ein film von Fritz Lang. 1927. Restored edition, 2010.

With the discovery of a copy of the film with more than 30 minutes' additional footage in Buenos Aires in 2008, Metropolis is now as close to Fritz Lang's original vision as it's going to get.

And, wow, what a vision it is.

The film runs two and a half hours in the restored version, and I think my mind was more or less blown by the first half hour. I knew the bare outlines of the plot--workers below, capitalist overlords above--but I had no idea about the details: Freder, the privileged son of Joh Fredersen, the master of Metropolis, falls in love with the worker-prophet Maria, who is kidnapped by the scientist Rotwang so he can give her likeness to his machine-man so that the machine-Maria can sow doubt and discord amongst workers and above-dwellers alike, because Rotwang hates Joh Fredersen. Maria is convinced Freder is the Mediator, the Heart who will mediate between the Brain (the upper classes) and the Hands (the workers) of Metropolis.

This makes the movie sound so logical! It's really not, it's pretty trippy, especially since it's a silent film. Everyone overacts (except the guy playing Joh Fredersen) and some scenes are so freaking Weimar Republic (particularly those in Yoshiwara's nightclub (mm, bonus orientalism!) and in the Eternal Garden)--no one knew how to throw a party like the Weimar Republic, seriously--and then the entire ending sequence is weirdly Christian, to the point where I'm pretty sure Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame ripped it off more or less wholesale. Also if I knew German I could have lip-read the acting, which was interesting; I still caught a few lines like "Maria!" and "Vater!" Also Maria is basically the only woman in the film aside from Freder's mother Hel, who's dead. I wish I could be surprised by that. Instead I'll just say that overacting really contributes to slashiness--Freder/Josaphat in particular seemed pretty obvious, to the point where the male couple in front of me made some comments about it too. (Oh Philly, I love you.)

At this point the film is more of an artifact that a viable futurist text, even though there are clearly still futurist concerns animating it (and I would have loved to have futuransky sitting next to me to put the film in context), but it's so interesting to see a wellspring of science fiction and anime unspooling up on the screen before your eyes. Every dystopian city in sf and anime since owes something to Metropolis, and some anime and sf owe almost everything. For instance, why do evil doubles in sf have more eyeliner? Because machine-Maria wears major eyeliner, that's why! Why did the machine-Maria look so familiar? Because she's in an OTW icon, that's why!
So, yes. I'm wonderfully glad that I finally saw the film, and in the excellent restoration. Will I ever watch it again? I don't know, once was probably enough. I do want to watch the Metropolis anime and rewatch the part of FMA: Conqueror of Shangri-La that has Fritz Lang in it, though.

Comments

[royalarchivist]

Oh! I didn't know they found additional footage for that movie. I saw the older version about four years ago and really enjoyed it at the time (although I've forgotten most of it). I might have to seek out the new version and rewatch it.

Thanks for the tip!! :)

[starlady]

I'm told the new restoration is on Netflix, but I can't vouch for that personally.

And you're welcome! It is unquestionably an experience.

[royalarchivist]

I will have to look into that! XD

[rodo]

My mother watched the premiere on arte and loved the film as well. She also had no idea what she was looking until I told her (I was busy chatting and only cought half of it :(), she can be so clueless sometimes.

[starlady]

Some parts of it I think anyone could identify as Metropolis, others were totally not what I would have expected from Metropolis (I'm not sure cinema had really yet gotten the concept of production design?).

[senmut]

Must. Get. And. OWN!

I left my copy to my kids, but it is the last edition that was released!

[starlady]

I'm pretty sure this one will be on DVD eventually. Then you too can hear the musicians on the soundtrack coughing, and one of the trumpets coming in an eighth-note too soon near the climax. *g*

[jibrailis]

Oh, Metropolis. I first watched it when I was very young and too immature to really do more than giggle at the jerky motions and the overly expressive cue cards. But damn do I want to see it again!

[starlady]

You should! It is much longer now. *g*

[seekingferret]

Ooh, Metropolis is mesmerizing... But it's funny that you say it's still pretty trippy, because I always figured that the reason it was so trippy was because of all the lost footage. Man, German Expressionism, eh?

[starlady]

Man, German Expressionism, eh?

Yeah, pretty much!

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

Oh, I missed the chance to see this recently and have been cursing myself--it's good to see your write-up. It does sound like the kind of thing I'd like to see once on screen and then be able to speak about intelligently! I envy you.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

I found out about it more or less at random, but I'm really glad I did--it was only in Philly for this one week.

I'm told this version is on Netflix, though...

[merin-chan.livejournal.com]

Ah, lucky you! I've been excited about this rerelease since they found the uncut prints, but I don't think I'll get see it in theatre in Tokyo between travel and work. I'm eagerly awaiting the Kino International dvd release.

Also, glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds the Expressionist acting in Metropolis slashy. I've always had a soft spot for Freder/Worker 11811. ^^

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

*reads wikipedia article on German Expressionism* Interesting!

And yes, slashy as hell.

It was only in Philly for one week, and it was totally worth the hassle of getting in to make the screening. It was interesting, the theater was pretty full for 13:00 on a Monday, and we were clearly a little weird cult of people who'd come to see Metropolis.