Week Five: Metropolis (1927)

Director: Fritz Lang

Producer: Erich Pommer

Writer: Thea von Harbou

Cinematographer: Karl Freund and Gunther Rittau

Music: Gottfried Huppertz
Studio: UFA

Starring: Gustav Frohlich (Freder), Brigitte Helm (Maria), Alfred Abel (Joh Frederson), Rudolph Klein-Rogge (Rotwang), Fritz Rasp (The Thin Man), Theodor Loos (Josaphat), Heinrich George (Grot)

You can watch the fully restored Metropolis for completely free on YouTube

Before You Watch the Movie

(First make sure you have read the introduction to this series)
UFA producer Erich Pommer, who was responsible for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and many other films during the golden age of German cinema, was also the producer on all of Fritz Lang’s great German films. Of all the tremendous directors working in Germany during the twenties, Lang would have the longest career as a director, eventually emigrating to America and setting shop in Hollywood for over twenty years. In Hollywood, Lang was known almost exclusively for his excellent stylish crime films, but with a stronger, more trusting relationship with UFA and Pommer, Lang was free to explore a number of other genres including fantasy, romance, and science fiction. Lang’s most famous German film falls into that last category, the immensely impressive and in many ways genre-defining Metropolis.

As should be clearly evident when viewing, Metropolis was an expensive film to make and took nearly two years to film, utilizing giant sets, hundreds of extras, and cutting-edge special effects. Epic films, both in scope and budget, were common in the more affluent twenties, especially in Hollywood where directors like Cecil B. DeMille specialized in bringing a massive spectacle to the screen. However, these films often sacrifice style for scale and often focused on Biblical stories or ancient times. Metropolis couldn’t be more different than these films, it not only has a distinct and original art style, made possible by the futuristic setting but also benefits from Lang’s incredible skill as a visual stylist. Ironically, Maria’s “Legend of the Tower of Babel,” completely outdoes the American biblical epic in just a few brief scenes.

Metropolis is a towering achievement of art design, courtesy of art directors Otto Hunte, Kurth Vollbrecht, and Erich Kettelhut who blend a multitude of different styles into the film: art deco, art nouveau, cubism, modernism, and futurism, into their designs. Additionally, there are straight fantasy designs, such as the Eternal Gardens, as well as Greek neoclassical elements in the Club of the Sons. Additionally, we see the remnants of previous society in the Gothic architecture that the futuristic city of Metropolis was built over top of. The costume designs are equally diverse, from Rotwang’s monkish robes to the elite's Louis XIV-esque extravagance.

The many distinct art styles of Metropolis.

Then there are the steampunkian machines that have a physical aspect to them, so much more than just pushing a button or pulling a lever. These creations might not make the most logical sense, but the obvious tole they take on the workers and serve the theme of the story perfectly.

What takes Metropolis from a triumph art direction to a complete visual marvel is the addition of Lang’s incredible ability to create visually striking compositions on the screen. Lang was a master of German Expressionism and the use of both shadows and unusual, often extreme camera angles. His films are defined by an assertive mise-en-scene with a heavy use of both foreground and background to give depth to the image. 

Lang's Expressionism includes heavy use of deep mise-en-scene.

The camera goes to great lengths, from the very opening shots of the movie, to give us an image of just how beleaguered the workers of the city are, juxtaposing that with the carefree rich that dwell above.

You can watch the fully restored Metropolis for completely free on YouTube

After You Watch the Movie (Spoilers Below)

No sequence encapsulates Lang’s brilliance better than Rotwang’s attack on Maria in the catacombs; it is perhaps the crowning achievement of a career full of visual genius. It is quite an unsettling scene, suggesting a violation of our heroine without a hand ever touching her, it is all done through Rotwang’s flashlight:   

Rotwang menaces Maria without ever touching her, his flashlight violating her in place of a hand.

Lang’s films often have a violence and horror to them and Metropolis is no exception. How could you describe Rotwang’s pursuit of Maria as anything but horror? Or see anything but a monster in his clutching assault of her in the attic? Horror and science often cut-across one another, with Metropolis and a writer contemporary to the film, H.P. Lovecraft, providing early examples.

One of several visually unsettling scenes in the movie, more reminiscent of horror than science fiction.

Another horrific element of the film can be seen in the films significant use of nightmares, hallucinations, and intertextual elements. Some of the most jaw-dropping moments in the film come in the form of Freder’s visions, mixes of reality and nightmare that are rife with Biblical references. The first of his visions comes during his visit to see the machines. Freder witnesses an explosion and sees the machine turn into Moloch, an ancient Canaanite god to which humans usually children, were sacrificed.

Later, Maria tells the story of the Tower of Babel, a story from Genesis 11 about the hubris of man and the mixing up of different languages. The film, which often plays fast and loose with both its references and political ideology, changes this to fit the theme of the story, about how the head and the hands need a mediator or else confusion and suffering will reign.

Once Freder discovers what he thinks is Maria with his father, his mind begins to spin out of control and hallucinations mix with reality in stunning fashion: as he simultaneously sees what is actually happening, the machine-Maria’s dance to enrapture the elite men of the city, as well as apocalyptic visions of sin and death descending upon Metropolis. Freder sees not only the seven deadly sins (Proverbs 6) come to life, but also the personification of Death reaping the city with his scythe, as well as machine-Maria, dressed as the Whore of Babylon (Revelation 17), riding a seven-headed beast that resides on the back of the seven deadly sins.

The seduction of a city, told as a mix of reality, hallucinations, and biblical references.

Even beyond the Biblical allusions of the film and the political ideologies, the central aspect of the film is the two Marias, characters that look alike (though light, makeup, and Helm’s acting make the difference between them clear to the audience) but act nothing alike and most importantly, have completely different effects on people.

The angelic Maria, juxtaposed...

...with the Robot Maria.

The people are calmed and inspired by the real Maria...

...while Robot Maria brings forth lust and violence in the people.

Hands reaching for the two Marias.

Machine-Maria nearly brings down the city, but the real Maria saves it. Freder may be the prophesied mediator but Maria is the true hero of the film, she inspires Freder’s change of heart, keeps the hopes of the workers alive, and, through her strength and determination, saves hundreds of children from drowning.

In addition to strong visual compositions, violence, and horror, another hallmark of Lang filmmaking is the use of visual motifs that repeat not just throughout individual films but across productions decades apart. Metropolis has two such motifs that we see often in Lang’s work: clocks (and circles in general) and doorways.

Two Lang common trademarks, clocks and doors, in one shot (from Ministry of Fear, 1944...

...and The Woman in the Window, 1944)

Given the theme of the film “The Mediator between the Head and the Hands must be the heart,” it should come as no surprise that hands recur prominently in Metropolis: in addition to the different types of hands reaching for each Maria, we see the many other times that the hand is the dominant image on the screen, a buildup that is paid off in the scene of the film when Freder joins the hands of his father and Grot together in unity.

If parts of Metropolis remind you of other works of science fiction, you are dead on. The art of the film was highly influential on the look of golden age science fiction. Up to this point, the genre was limited to the likes of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells-style heavy sci-fi or the pulpy Edgar Rice Burroughs westerns in space type stories, Metropolis was one of the very first serious works of science fiction in any medium. The film, along with the launch of Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories in 1926 was the beginning of the science fiction revolution that we still enjoy today as well as establishing a retro-futuristic vision of the future. The idea of a future society built up into a sprawling, vertical city has become a staple of the genre and a go-to future vision for the writers and filmmakers alike. The Star Wars planet Coruscant and Blade Runner’s version of Los Angeles being two prominent examples. Blade Runner also uses a mix of art styles beyond just futuristic:

The most obvious influence Metropolis had on Star Wars artist Ralph McQuarrie, who based the design of the gold droid C-3PO on the “Maschinenmensch,” though they play dramatically different roles in their respective films. There is also a common through-line that begins with Metropolis, and runs prominently through science fiction, notably in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and its film adaptation, Blade Runner: the fear that people we think of as human are actually robots. 

Rotwang uses his creation to wreak havoc upon his enemies, who have no reason to believe that the Maria they are following is anything but the real thing. What is more terrifying than an adversary wearing the face of a friend? Future science fiction stories would expand on this further and others, such as “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell or The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney will switch from robots replacements to alien imitations. Both these stories have been used as the basis for several films, most famously Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The Thing (1982). 

The way that the “science” in Metropolis is visualized also had a profound influence on both science fiction and horror: Rotwang’s lab, with it bubbling liquids, countless switches, neon tubes, and arcing electricity would become synonymous with the mad scientist's lab as soon as 1931’s Frankenstein. The original Shelley novel was an obvious influence on Metropolis, (Rotwang/Maschinenmensch, Dr. Frankenstein/his monster) but the original novel had Frankenstein bringing his creation to life through the use of alchemy, not electricity and science. Metropolis ensured that all future versions of Frankenstein would follow the latter path.

See if you can spot the subtle influence of Metropolis...

...on James Whale's Frankenstein (1931).

Metropolis.

Frankenstein.

Metropolis.

Frankenstein.

Metropolis.

Frankenstein.

Metropolis.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Metropolis was controversial with contemporary critics and not a resounding box-office success, the beginning of the end of an era for Lang. Though he would make one more science fiction/fantasy in his career, never again would he be given the creative freedom and budget to create an epic like this again. Though it is difficult to argue with his eventual output, one can’t help but dream of an alternate reality in which the director got to make another film of this proportion in Hollywood.

See Also

Destiny (1921) dir. Fritz Lang

A fantasy romance in the vein of Orpheus but inspired by folklore from around the world. Lang often focuses on death in his films but Destiny sees him talking a softer touch than normal.
Watch it for free on YouTube

Die Nibelungen (1924) dir. Fritz Lang

A two-part epic based on an important German heroic poem. Rivaling Metropolis for visual beauty and creativity, but as mythological fantasy instead of science fiction. Not as influential but just as incredible.
Watch it for free on YouTube

Frau im Mond aka Woman in the Moon (1929) dir. Fritz Lang

Lang’s final foray into science fiction, this time focusing on space travel. Like Metropolis it had an influence on science fiction that would follow but had also predicted many future real-life aspects of rockets and space travel.
Watch it for free on YouTube

Let me know what you think either here or on Twitter @bottlesofsmoke