‘There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.’ Beautiful yet dystopian, Metropolis depicts a sprawling mega city which divides the ‘hands’ and the ‘head.’ Structured into two different levels, the labourers live underground in a dingy urban squat, whilst the upper citizens reside in the high levels of the Metropolis, surrounded by luxurious skyscrapers, theatres and stadiums. Using this context, director Fritz Lang explores a social crisis between the workers and owners in capitalism. Autocratic Joh Fredersen (played by Alfred Abel) is the overseer and leader of Metropolis, his son Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) living an easy and epicurean life in the upper city, who falls in love with the caring and gentile Maria (Brigitte Helm) from the working class sector of the city.
It’s hard not to appreciate the ambition of this film. A silent movie, created in 1927 showing a vast city with contrasting levels. Even with today’s special effects and improved set design, some modern day films fail to create a world with the same calibre as Fritz’s. Immaculate sets and cinematography really stands out in the film and owes a lot to German Expressionism as well as the creator of the ‘Schüfftan process’, Eugen Schüfftan. Employing a technique that he invented himself, he uses mirrors to insert actors into miniature sets. This was used a lot throughout the first half of the 20th century, until the ‘blue screen’ (now ‘green screen’) technique became standard, and very early CGI was created. However antiquated this system is though, impressively, it makes Metropolis seem very real. The use of lighting also plays a heavy part in the creation of this world, with the upper levels of Metropolis bright and pristine, in contrast with the dingy, smoky underground. Schüfftan’s cinematography clearly shows a higher and healthier lifestyle in the upper levels, whilst the labourers suffer from the machines and smoke down below.
Another factor one has to consider is the acting. Although this may seem like an obvious statement when talking about a film, the fact that Metropolis is a silent movie means that the filmmaker relies heavily on the actors movements and facial expressions to convey the plot coherently. A special mention should be given to Brigitte Helm. She portrays Maria with the utmost brilliance, having to dramatically change her personality when acting as her machine counterpart, a chaotic and debased persona created to cause havoc and revolution through the underworld of the city, whom Helm depicts fantastically through widened eyes and elaborate movements.
Although the movie lacks dialogue, one cannot ignore the marvellous musical score, composed by Gottfried Huppertz. The melodic and dreamy sounds encompass the earlier scenes showing Freder in the glorious upper city, whilst the beat of drums and crashing of symbols envision the working classes routine, keeping the motors running and the cogs of Metropolis ticking. Tempo and beat increases when building up to the more climatic sequences, with the softer moments accompanied by chimes and sometimes complete silence. A film such as Metropolis relies as much on the score as it does the acting, and Huppertz does a tremendous jobs contrasting the two levels of the city, as well as complimenting the more cinematic, plot driven scenes.
Meticulously crafted and remastered, for a film that was left in ruins after most of it was destroyed, Metropolis lives on as a masterful piece of work, showing us what a city could become in the future if we dropped morality and let a class system divide us completely.
