Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4096 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-01-24
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL
• Subtitled in: English, French, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 118 minutes

DVD Description
Fritz Lang's Metropolis is perhaps the most famous German film of all time, and certainly one of the most influential of all silent films. In its lifetime it has been: drastically re-edited (shortly after release); unseen for decades; revisioned with a modern music score in the 1980s; and thanks to the work of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and a network of archives all over the world, restored in 2001. This restoration of Metropolis is almost certainly the most complete and authentic version possible of Lang's original 1927 vision.

Special Features
The extensive 2001 official restoration presented for the first time in the UK or USA with original German intertitles and optional subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German on the main feature and supplements.

Original 1927 orchestral score by Gottfried Huppertz, newly arranged by Berndt Heller.

Full length audio commentary by film historian Enno Patalas. In German audio with optional subtitles, and also presented in English audio.

The Metropolis Case (2002) - a 44-minute documentary by Enno Patalas on the making of Metropolis.

A 9-minute restoration documentary (2002) with Martin Koerber.

Production stills, posters, costume designs, stills of missing scenes, and architectural sketches.

28-page booklet containing extensive restoration notes by Martin Koerber, and writing by Otto Hunte, Günther Rittau, Aenne Willkomm, Brigitte Helm, and Rudolf Arnheim.

Synopsis
METROPOLIS, a visionary and elaborate spectacle by director Fritz Lang is an epic projection of a futuristic city divided into a working and an elite class. Its exhilarating climax brings the city to its knees, as the classes clash against each other. In the 21st-Century, a de-humanized proletariat labors non-stop in a miserable subterranean city beneath a luxurious city of mile-high skyscrapers, flying automobiles, palatial architectural idylls, tubes and tunnels. With stunningly inventive special effects, Lang's allegorical narrative and architectural vision creates a highly stylized vision of a not-so-unlikely future (especially for 1926 when the film was made.) As the elite frolic above the clouds, thousands of miserable workers toil night and day inside the belly of the gigantic machine that runs the entire city. Metropolis is controlled by a sinister authoritarian whose son, Freder, rejects his father's callous philosophy and attitude towards laborers. Meek though they are, the workers are encouraged by Maria, a wistful young woman who wills her comrades to embrace patience and silent strength. Upon discovering her influence upon the workers, a mad scientist kidnaps Maria and creates a robot in her image that will incite the workers to revolt. As Freder races against time to save Maria and curtail the damage done by her doppelganger robot, Metropolis is enveloped in chaos and the classes are brought together in a breathtaking and highly moralistic climax.

Customer Reviews

The city as nightmare
BEWARE SPOILERS

Fritz Lang's futuristic Metropolis is set in as it happens something like the current era. Most of the population are workers who slave underground to keep the massive machine that is the city going while the privileged stay above ground and live hedonistic lives. It is impossible not to see this in Marxian terms, the prols exploited by the capitalist class. At the time of the film's production in Germany, there was indeed a specter haunting Europe and it was indeed the specter of communism. Curiously Lang ends the film with a blatant political statement. He has labor and capital reluctantly shake hands. I find this curious because there is little doubt that for the previous two and a half hours the film depicts the capitalist class in the person of Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel) as seeing the workers as mere automations to be exploited. I think Lang wanted to dodge the political implications of his film. I think he was less interested in ideology than in showing striking visuals of man in the world of machines, of humans as machines themselves, and other humans more like brains without bodies, wet wear blind to anything but production and keeping the hive buzzing.

Metropolis is like a hive or an ant colony except that the workers never get to go out and forage. Their world is dark and steamy; they are for the most part without hope as they come and go with their heads bowed in submission.

In another sense (and this metaphor is directly from the film) the workers are the hands of the body and the capitalists the mind. Maria says, "Between the mind that plans and the hands that build there must be a Mediator, and this must be the heart." Maria is a prophet who predicts the coming of this Mediator, who one might, in all innocence, believe to be a nice stand-in for, say, Jesus Christ. Politically speaking, then, perhaps what Lang is saying is that the war between communism and capitalism will eventually be mediated by the Second Coming. Expressing this commonplace idea with striking visuals rather than speaking it in so many words, exemplified the power of the relatively new medium of the "picture show."

This is the first silent film I've seen in many years. It's a bit over the top in terms of acting, which of course was deliberate since facial expressions and body language were used to replace words that would have to be read. Modern audiences may find this convention comical or just weird. I found the scenes showing the characters running at something like one and a half times real human speed a bit amusing. I don't know enough about silent films to know whether that was deliberate or something Lang thought effective. Gustav Frohlich, who has the male lead, in particular is a frenzy of action and contorted facial expressions. Brigitte Helm, who plays Maria and her deadly clone (and the robot and the dancing woman as well) is even more over the top in her physical gyrations, but her performance stands out because there is nothing quite like it in filmdom, at least nothing that I have ever seen. It is both the heavy makeup and her wild, demonic (and seductive) expressions that allow us to clearly see when she is the evil clone and not the demur, heroic Maria. For me she was the most memorable part of the film.

There is quite a bit of trivia and film history associated with this landmark film. The film seen today is a 2001 reconstruction of the original, part of which has been lost. The missing action is explained in text before going on to the next scene. Metropolis was said to be Hitler's favorite film, which doesn't surprise me, and it was the most expensive film made up until that time, and employed a huge cast.

But see this for Fritz Lang's stunning and haunting visuals, which remain even to this day as striking works of art.

A work of art
What a work of art. This film is worth seeing for the sets and cinematography alone - and the restoration is brilliant. What a pity that not all of the film could be save. Like Nosferatu it would have been a tragedy if the film had been allowed to deteriorate to the point of total destruction. Fortunately both films, magnificent versions of German 1920s art.

If the backgrounds are magnificent it is a pity that the male and female leads are so overstated.Their acting is typical of much of the time but starts to look over the top now whilst the contrast between the youngsters and their stage trained seniors is obvious.

The bonus material is fascinating especially the item about how the film was restored.Truly a DVD for the film afficionado.

A picture of Hel
In the back ground we see a picture of the Metropolis in 2026 that is watched over by Johhan 'Joh' Fredersen (Alfred Abel). He stole the heart of Hel from C.A. Rotwang, der Erfinder "The Inventor" (Rudolf Klien-Rogge) and married her. It was speculated that Hel fell for Joh's position of power more than love. Hel dies in child birth.

Rotwang being lonely invents a robot replacement for Hel. Rotwang loses a hand in the process. We see the machine person Hel on the poster the same way Joh saw it when he learned of its existence.

Meantime it looks like Jon's son Freder Frederson (Gustov Fröhlich) has been smitten by a kindly girl Maria (Brigitte Helm) with a mission. This mission is stated in the beginning credits as the "Head" and the "Hands" will be brought together by the "Heart."

Joh must squelch the son's infatuation with Maria and put the workers in their place.

Looking at the sight of Rotwang's machine person, an evil plan forms in Joh's mind. Little does he know what plan is in Rotwang's mind.

But we do.

Hel is the name of the queen of Helheim, the Norse underworld.

This is a 1927 movie, made at the UFA studios. Learn more of UFA in the book "The UFA Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company" by Klaus Kreimeier