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Metropolis
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction silent film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang from von Harbou's 1925 novel of the same name (which was intentionally written as a treatment). It stars Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, and Brigitte Helm. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studios for Universum Film A.G. (UFA). The silent film is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction movie, being among the first feature-length movies of that genre. Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–26 at a cost of more than five million Reichsmarks, or the equivalent of about € million.
Plot
In the future, wealthy industrialists and business magnates and their top employees reign over the city of Metropolis from colossal skyscrapers, while underground-dwelling workers toil to operate the great machines that power it. Joh Fredersen is the city's master. His son, Freder, idles away his time at sports and in a pleasure garden, but is interrupted by the arrival of a young woman named Maria, who has brought a group of workers' children to witness the lifestyle of their rich "brothers". Maria and the children are ushered away, but Freder becomes fascinated by her and goes to the lower levels to find her. In the machine halls, he witnesses the explosion of a huge machine that kills and injures numerous workers. Freder has a hallucination that the machine is a temple of Moloch and the workers are being fed to it. When the hallucination ends, and he sees the dead workers being carried away on stretchers, he hurries to tell his father about the accident.
Awards
Cast
- Alfred Abel
- Arthur Reinhardt
- Brigitte Helm
- Curt Siodmak
- Erwin Biswanger
- Fritz Alberti
- Fritz Rasp
- Georg John
- Grete Berger
- Gustav Fröhlich
- Hanns Leo Reich
- Heinrich George
- Heinrich Gotho
- Helen von Münchhofen
- Helene Weigel
- Ilse Stanley
- Margarete Lanner
- Max Dietze
- Olaf Storm
- Rolf von Goth
- Rose Liechtenstein
- Rudolf Klein-Rogge
- Theodor Loos
More details
| author | Fritz Lang Thea von Harbou |
|---|---|
| award | Memory of the World in Germany |
| director | Fritz Lang |
| events | class relations dehumanization gender role intergenerational conflict love modernity revolution technology working class working conditions |
| genre | science fiction |
| keywords | business magnate carnegie science center drive flood gather giving birth horrify machine maschinenmensch moloch pittsburgh rise up robot robot hall of fame rotwang ruling class understand young woman |
| musicBy | Gottfried Huppertz |
| producer | Erich Pommer |
| productionCompany | UFA GmbH |
| publisher | Parufamet |
| recordedAt | Berlin |
| theme | dystopian epic mad scientist silent the future |