Apparently my "Metropolis" review was deleted at some point. It's the best silent film I've seen yet. The Kino Video restored version is just incredible. Frit Lang was a visionary, a big, big part of early Sci Fi.
...and Brigitte Helm was so hot when she was evil...
Well, it did help give us that other sci-fi masterpiece,
"Blade Runner", its visual (and to a certain extent,
philosophical) "off-spring" as it is.
My favorite scene is when Johan (the son?) sees that
big machine and imagines it consuming peoples, "Moloch!".
Did anyone know that Fritz Lang and his wife came up for
the idea for the film and wrote it down (actually his wife
wrote much of the story, with Fritz doing much of the
screenplay), after they saw the New York City skyline?
The Langs were apparently so awed by the city's look,
as well as its hectic, chaotic feel, that they came up with
the idea of the film (it should be remembered that back
then America seemes to Europeans like the nation of the
future, the symbol of technological progess).
Also, the film as it is, it only an severely edited version.
The original longer one was not found (I think).
"The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari" and "Faust" are two other
silent german masterpieces.
Last edited by King Burger on Mar 21st, 2005 at 09:01 AM
The Kino Video DVD version of "Metropolis" has scenes with placards that have to describe what went down in some frames because the original negative was so far gone. If you've seen the DVD, though, you'd flip over the restoration.
I'm hoping to get it soon, but I have a hard time spending $25 on a DVD. I'm cheap.