Metropolis
Synopsis
An influential German sci-fi set in a highly-stylized city where a beautiful utopia exists above a bleak underworld populated by downtrodden workers. Privileged youth Freder discovers the grim scene beneath the surface and sets out to free them with the aid of rebellious teacher Maria.
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The first modern blockbuster, the big-budget big bang, but it clinches that title only owing in part to its visionary grandiosity, its awesome scale, its ribald ridiculousness. The thing that really marks METROPOLIS as the first of its kind is its oppressiveness—the mix of elation and enervation, triumph and trepidation that greets everything from Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s CLEOPATRA to Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON.
Kyle A. Westphal
August 18, 2017
Ferdy on Films
It’s still easy to feel Metropolis’ power even after intervening decades… If A Trip to the Moon was the seed of science fiction on screen, Metropolis is its green stem, and much more too. The floodtide of Fritz Lang’s visual techniques and the expanse of the film’s evocation of the future might have met resistance of mind and eye in its day, but even in an abused and truncated form enough of his vision remained to stun the eye and light the creative spark.
Roderick Heath
October 18, 2016
With his engineering background and architect’s eye, Lang favored orderly, symmetrical compositions; as the critic Frieda Grafe put it, he brought out “the hidden geometry in every shot.” In “Metropolis” Rotwang’s wild gestures, the robot Maria’s erotic contortions and the destructive frenzy of the workers’ revolt threaten to overwhelm Lang’s clean lines and precise spaces.
Dave Kehr
November 19, 2010
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