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A FILM BY FRITZ LANG, GERMANY, 1927
RECONSTRUCTED & RESTORED 2010,
150 MINUTES

Metropolis is ruled by the powerful industrialist Joh Fredersen. He looks out from his office in the Tower of Babel at a modern, highly technicized world. Together with the children of the workers, a young woman named Maria reaches the Eternal Gardens where the sons of the city’s elite amuse themselves and where she meets Freder, Joh Fredersen’s son. When the young man later goes on a search for the girl, he witnesses an explosion in a machine hall, where numerous workers lose their lives. He then realizes that the luxury of the upper class is based on the exploitation of the proletariat. In the Catacombs under the Workers’ City Freder finally finds Maria, who gives the workers hope with her prophecies for a better future. His father also knows about Maria’s influence on the proletariat and fears for his power. In the house of the inventor Rotwang, Joh Fredersen learns about his experiments to create a cyborg based on the likeness of Hel, their mutual love and Freder’s mother. Fredersen orders Rotwang to give Maria’s face to the robot in order to send it to the underground city to deceive and stir up its inhabitants.

After the robot Maria has succeeded, a catastrophe ensues. The riotous workers destroy the Heart Machine and as a result the Workers’ City, where only the children have remained, is tremendously flooded. The real Maria brings the children to safety along with Freder. When they learn about the disaster, the rebelling masses stop. Their rage is now aimed at the robot Maria, who is captured and burned at the stake. At the same time Rotwang, driven by madness, pursues the genuine Maria across the Cathedral’s rooftop, where he ultimately falls to his death. Freder and Maria find each other again. The son devotes himself to his father, mediating between him and the workers. As a consequence, Maria’s prophecy of reconciliation between the ruler and those who are mastered (head and hands) triumphs – through the help of the mediating heart.

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CREW

PRODUCTION COMPANY Universum-Film AG (Ufa), Berlin

SCENARIO Thea von Harbou

PRODUCTION DESIGN Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, Karl Vollbrecht

SCULPTOR Walter Schultze-Mittendorf

AT THE CAMERA Karl Freund, Günther Rittau

MUSIC Gottfried Huppertz

PRODUCER Erich Pommer

DIRECTOR Fritz Lang

CAST

MARIA Brigitte Helm

JOH FREDERSEN Alfred Abel

FREDER, JOH FREDERSEN’S SON Gustav Fröhlich

ROTWANG, THE INVENTOR Rudolf Klein-Rogge

THE THIN MAN Fritz Rasp

JOSAPHAT Theodor Loos

11811 Erwin Biswanger

GROT, THE GUARDIAN OF THE HEART-MACHINE Heinrich George

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Lang was born in Vienna, Austria in 1890 and died in Los Angeles, USA in 1976. His life spanned service in World War I, spectacular fame in Germany in the 1920s, escape from the Nazis, and a period of emigre reinvention in Hollywood. He produced a series of classic films (from Metropolis, M, and Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [The Testament of Dr. Mabuse] to Fury, The Big Heat, and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt). Lang is widely recognized as one of the most important of all cinema directors.

FRITZ LANG FILMS IN EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT’S THE MASTERS OF CINEMA SERIES:

1922 Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. / Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler.

1924 Die Nibelungen (coming soon)

1927 Metropolis

1928 Spione / Spies

1929 Frau im Mond / Woman in the Moon

1931 M

1933 Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse / The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

1960 Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse / The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse

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KEY EVENTS IN THE FILM’S HISTORY

1927 On January 10, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis premieres in Berlin in a 4189-metre version approved by the director. For the film’s 3100-metre USA release, on March 7, Paramount take the butcher’s knife to the original and remove a quarter, rewriting the film’s intertitles, and changing the characters’ names. Following Paramount’s lead, Ufa withdraws Metropolis and on August 26 re-releases it in a 3241-metre cut shorn of nearly a quarter of Lang’s original. Excised footage would remain lost to the world for more than 80 years.

1969 Using materials from the Staatliches Filmarchiv der DDR, a first attempt is made at restoring Metropolis, but after three years the results are limited.

1984 Giorgio Moroder releases a colourised version of the film featuring a new soundtrack that includes Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury, Adam Ant, etc. Seen as sacrilegious by many and a camp, cult reworking by others.

1987 At the Deutsche Kinemathek in Munich, Germany, restoration efforts are made, but the film remains significantly shorter than the original release.

2001 A digital restoration of available materials is unveiled via the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in Germany.

2005 A “study version” of Lang’s film is prepared, with notes where footage remains missing.

2008 A spectacular find at the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where a dusty 16mm dupe negative with nearly 25 minutes of previously missing footage is discovered.

2010 An extended restoration, featuring the materials found in 2008, returns a cinema classic to virtually its original version – the “director’s cut” – immaculately reconstructed and restored.

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One of the biggest film events of the century, a “Holy Grail” among film finds, Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi epic can finally be seen – for the first time in 83 years – as the director originally intended and as seen by German cinema-goers in 1927.

Shortly after that 1927 release, an entire quarter of Lang’s original version was cut by Paramount for the US release, and by Ufa in Germany, an act of butchery very much against the director’s wishes. The excised footage was believed lost, irretrievably so – that is, until one of the most remarkable finds in all of cinema history, as several dusty reels were discovered in a small museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2008.

Since then, an expert team of highly respected film archivists has been working at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in Germany to painstakingly reconstruct and restore Lang’s film. The results, as premiered at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival in February 2010, are spectacular.

Late in his life, Lang responded to a question on Metropolis by asking his own question, “Why are you so interested in a picture which no longer exists?” Finally, reconstructed and restored, the director’s film “exists” once more.

KEY FEATURES

A “Holy Grail” of film finds, reconstructed and restored with 25 minutes of footage previously thought lost to the world

Newly found material returns the film to the original release version seen by German cinema-goers in early 1927

For the first time in 83 years, the film finally seen as the director intended

Official archival reconstruction and restoration by the highly respected Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung

One of the key works of master director Fritz Lang (M, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [The Testament of Dr. Mabuse ], Die Nibelungen, The Big Heat, etc.)

Among the most iconic and influential films of all time, a cinema classic with a huge cult following

The mother of all sci-fi films and a major influence on Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), George Lucas (Star Wars), and pop culture in general (referenced by Madonna, Beyoncé, Janelle Monáe, and countless others)

First ever film to be included on the UNESCO Memory of the World “register” of essential cultural artifacts

New 2010 symphony orchestra recording of the original 1927 Gottfried Huppertz score

Immaculate image quality for 2K "digital cinema" screenings (*except where format isn't supported)

Newly translated English subtitles of the original German intertitles

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)

In the futuristic year of 2026, in the city of Metropolis, wealthy industrialists reign from high-rise tower complexes, while underground-dwelling workers toil to operate the underground machines that power the city. Joh Fredersen is the city's master. His son Freder idles away his time in a pleasure garden, but is interrupted by the arrival of a young woman named Maria, who has brought a group of workers' children to witness the lifestyle of the rich. Maria and the children are ushered away, but Freder, fascinated, goes to the machine rooms to find her. Witnessing the explosion of a huge machine that kills and injures several workers, he hurries to tell Fredersen about the accident. Grot, foreman of the Heart Machine, brings to Fredersen secret maps found on the dead workers. Freder secretly rebels against Fredersen by deciding to help the workers, after seeing his father's cold indifference towards the harsh conditions they face.

Fredersen takes the maps to the inventor Rotwang to learn their meaning. Rotwang had been in love with a woman named Hel, who left him to marry Fredersen and later died giving birth to Freder. Rotwang shows Fredersen a robot he has built to "resurrect" Hel. The maps show a network of catacombs beneath Metropolis, and the two men go to investigate. They eavesdrop on a gathering of workers, including Freder. Maria addresses them, prophesying the arrival of a mediator who can bring the working and ruling classes together. Freder believes that he could fill the role and declares his love for Maria. Fredersen orders Rotwang to give Maria's likeness to the robot so that it can ruin her reputation among the workers, unaware that Rotwang plans to use the robot to kill Freder and bring down Metropolis. Rotwang kidnaps Maria, transfers her likeness to the robot and sends her to Fredersen. Freder finds the two embracing and, believing it is the real Maria, falls into a prolonged delirium. Intercut with his hallucinations, the false Maria unleashes chaos throughout Metropolis, driving men to murder and stirring dissent amongst the workers.

Freder recovers and returns to the catacombs. Finding the false Maria urging the workers to rise up and destroy the machines, Freder accuses her of not being the real Maria. The workers follow the false Maria from their city to the machine rooms, leaving their children behind. They destroy the Heart Machine, which causes the workers' city below to flood. The real Maria, having escaped from Rotwang's house, rescues the children with the help of Freder. Grot berates the celebrating workers for abandoning their children in the flooded city. Believing their children to be dead, the hysterical workers capture the false Maria and burn her at the stake. A horrified Freder watches, not understanding the deception until the fire reveals her to be a robot. Rotwang chases the real Maria to the roof of the cathedral, pursued by Freder, and the two men fight as Fredersen and the workers watch from the street. Rotwang falls to his death. Freder fulfills his role as mediator by linking the hands of Fredersen and Grot to bring them together.​

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySY1Cr5Sh5k

​highlights​

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0NzALRJifI&t=1278s

entire film​