... and the story is worth paying attention! It is just about a perfect silent film experience. It is the story of a two-tiered society. Above ground, a modern city, with most of the young people immersed in decadent behavior and leisure, because all of the machines, below ground, do the work. Joh Fredersen is the architect of the city, and must be some kind of strongman, because if he fires you the result is you are sent to live "in the depths", below the city, with the workers. The workers have an existence so bleak that they trudge together in some kind of synchronized slouched shuffle as the shift changes among those tied to the giant machines. Even those getting off for the shift show no joy. It is almost prescient of concentration camp occupants a decade or so later .
Freder, Joh Fredersen's son, has life change for him when Maria, a beauiful young prophetess, emerges from the depths with the children of the workers' city and mentions that these young men playing above are their brothers. He wants to learn all he can about the workers below, and does not share dad's indifference at their fate. Worried about the prophetess perhaps inciting the workers to rebel, and worried about his son's over concern for and curiosity about the workers, Joh Fredersen goes to consult the inventor Rottwang.
This is his first mistake, because Rottwang hates Joh Fredersen, and he's quite open about it. Apparently "Hel", Fredersen's wife, once belonged to Rottwang, but married Fredersen and died giving birth to Freder. Forgive and forget are just not in Rottwang's vocabulary, and to prove it he has a giant statue, a kind of tomb erected in his home to her memory. So when Fredersen asks for Rottwang's help to destroy the faith that Freder and the workers have in Maria, he shouldn't be so sure that this isn't a plan to destroy Fredersen instead, and yet Fredersen stupidly trusts him.
Let me just say that my husband likes few silent films, but he'll sit down and watch Metropolis every time because the sets are so engrossing. Such symbolism goes on here. "Maria" must be an analog of the Virgin Mary. There are references to one of the machines when it boils over and explodes as "Moloch" the god to which human beings were sacrificed by being thrown into a raging fire. When Maria appears in the catacombs below the workers' city, it appears to be some kind of makeshift chapel with three crosses on one side and two crosses in the middle. Why five crosses? Then when Maria talks about the Tower of Babel she turns it into some kind of lesson on mistreated and abused labor. And then there is a reference to "Babylon the Great" in such a way as I think Saint John never intended. And on it goes.
With this being a little more than a decade out from WWII, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to these German actors and actresses. Brigette Helm, who played Maria, lived a long life, but the coming of sound and the take over of the German film industry by the government caused her to retreat to Switzerland, where she lived until 1996 at age 90. Alfred Abel, who played Joh Frederson, died in Berlin in 1937. Gustav Frohlich, who played Freder, lived until age 85 in 1987. He served in the German army during the war, and he was banned from acting from 1941-1943 because of a dust up he had with Joseph Goebbels over Frohlich's girlfriend at the time.
I'd highly recommend this for a bewildering plot and eye popping art design.
Freder, Joh Fredersen's son, has life change for him when Maria, a beauiful young prophetess, emerges from the depths with the children of the workers' city and mentions that these young men playing above are their brothers. He wants to learn all he can about the workers below, and does not share dad's indifference at their fate. Worried about the prophetess perhaps inciting the workers to rebel, and worried about his son's over concern for and curiosity about the workers, Joh Fredersen goes to consult the inventor Rottwang.
This is his first mistake, because Rottwang hates Joh Fredersen, and he's quite open about it. Apparently "Hel", Fredersen's wife, once belonged to Rottwang, but married Fredersen and died giving birth to Freder. Forgive and forget are just not in Rottwang's vocabulary, and to prove it he has a giant statue, a kind of tomb erected in his home to her memory. So when Fredersen asks for Rottwang's help to destroy the faith that Freder and the workers have in Maria, he shouldn't be so sure that this isn't a plan to destroy Fredersen instead, and yet Fredersen stupidly trusts him.
Let me just say that my husband likes few silent films, but he'll sit down and watch Metropolis every time because the sets are so engrossing. Such symbolism goes on here. "Maria" must be an analog of the Virgin Mary. There are references to one of the machines when it boils over and explodes as "Moloch" the god to which human beings were sacrificed by being thrown into a raging fire. When Maria appears in the catacombs below the workers' city, it appears to be some kind of makeshift chapel with three crosses on one side and two crosses in the middle. Why five crosses? Then when Maria talks about the Tower of Babel she turns it into some kind of lesson on mistreated and abused labor. And then there is a reference to "Babylon the Great" in such a way as I think Saint John never intended. And on it goes.
With this being a little more than a decade out from WWII, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to these German actors and actresses. Brigette Helm, who played Maria, lived a long life, but the coming of sound and the take over of the German film industry by the government caused her to retreat to Switzerland, where she lived until 1996 at age 90. Alfred Abel, who played Joh Frederson, died in Berlin in 1937. Gustav Frohlich, who played Freder, lived until age 85 in 1987. He served in the German army during the war, and he was banned from acting from 1941-1943 because of a dust up he had with Joseph Goebbels over Frohlich's girlfriend at the time.
I'd highly recommend this for a bewildering plot and eye popping art design.