Seizing a rare opportunity, in-between my swooning over the masterpiece of modern cinema that is Fantastic Four and whatever Adam Sandler is up to these days, Rikke and I went to a showing of the 1927 Fritz Lang classic, Metropolis this evening in Cinemateket. The catch being, that the two-hour black and white and entirely silent film was being accompanied by a pianist throughout.
And it was pretty swanky, I gotta say.
I’ve only seen Metropolis once, back in 2000, when I was writing my Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep paper, and I dare say I wasn’t quite ready for it back then. This time around however, perhaps sparked by the filled cinema or the live music, I felt much more inspired.
Fritz Lang, the (and I do not use this word lightly) visionary director of Metropolis, uses the polarized technology-dependent society of Metropolis to pull into perspective the industrialization of Europe in the early 20th century, the segregation of the classes in Europe at the time as well as the God-syndrome tendencies of maniacal scientists. Not so much a ‘movie’ in the ‘let’s go and see a movie and be entertained’ vein, as it is one long abstracted social and political juxtaposition piece.
The style of the sets, the acting, the flow of the story; well pretty much the entire movie, is so different from the popcorn munchers or even the too-trendy-for-school indie productions you frequent alone on weekday evenings when no one’s watching. It’s all so simple, so minimalistic, yet so expressionistic. And that’s not even thinking about the mindboggling special effects (there are things I can’t even figure out how they did!), the vision of the towering city with its angular skyline, traffic jams and crowded sidewalks.
I was almost shocked at the blatant luridness of the false Maria (the robot Efficiency), as she is lifted out of a figurative basket, held by what appeared to be muscular black men, as John Masterman and Rotwang the Scientist watch the upper class crowd intently to see whether their robot can fool them into thinking it is a real human. She starts dancing, draped in a see-through cloth, ever so slowly. Soon she’s on her knees wearing little more than the 1927-equivalent of a pair of hotpants and some jewelry covering her nipples, wriggling like there was no tomorrow!
In 1927!
To be fair though, I don’t think the average joe cinema-goer will find Metropolis particularly riveting. And to be fair, it’s pushing it at 120 minutes. But as the most expensive silent film of its time, I can only imagine how it must have blown people away. If you haven’t seen it, then at least you can take comfort in having seen its reflection in movies like Star Wars, Blade Runner and Fifth Element, to name but a few.
PS: It should be said that I believe we saw the American release of the movie, for those interested in that kind of thing. Though back when I first saw it, on VHS, I believe I watched the British version, which differs in a number of areas.
Don’t be surprised; there’s a reason that decade was called “The Roaring 20s.” These things are cyclical; the uptight Victorian values of the late 19th Century gave way to the swinging flapper days of the early 20th, which lasted through wartime, followed by a swing back to the conservative after WWII. Then there were the 60s and the 70s, and look at us now. I just wonder if the cultural swing applies to quality science fiction as well. ;-)
I recently saw METROPOLIS in Austin with music by a live DJ. It was really an incredible experience. I’m sure it was different in many ways than seeing it with a pianist, but that’s whats kind of cool about showing these silent films with live music.
Metropolis is one of those amazing movies that will have an impact on me for the rest of my life. I’m a film student in the US and have been a huge fan of Metropolis since my first viewing in 2003. However, I have only seen the 80 min German Giorgio Moroder version. So there have been some significant parts of the movie I havnen’t seen. None the less it’s an awesome movie and I’m glad to here there are other people out there that share the same interest.
Holy crap! I’m jealous. Metropolis is one of my ultimate-all-time-…-if-I-were-stranded-…-two-hours-left-to-live movies. I picked it up on DVD a few years back but that was before the most recent restoration which restored some lost footage. Personally, I would like to collect all the different versions. (even the rock-music-backed one)
While this may sound slightly lame, it’s worth seeing the Osamu Tezuka’s 2001 Anime interpretation. Very (extremely) loosely based on the themes of Lang’s, it hammers home the same morals and themes while being absolutley breathtaking. In fact, I could watch them both back to back.
It isn’t lame to suggest Tezuka’s Metropolis. It’s a very good film, and it covers similar ground. I’d also second seeing the movie if you haven’t. The Jazzy soundtrack is really good to boot.
I’m pretty jealous of this too. I love this film and would love to see it with a piano accompanying the visuals. That’s such a great idea. I’ll have to keep any eye out for anything similar happenign in England. I dount it though.
Tezuka’s Metropolis is extremely well made and a very good film indeed. I saw the restored version of Metropolis a while ago on DVD.
I have yet to see the original Metropolis, but I can highly recommend the anime version!
It’s interesting you mention versions, as nobody knows what Lang’s original version contained.
Over the years people have cut parts out and added extra scenes that they found lying around the studio. There’s even a 3 hour version where a large part of the film is repeated for some unknown reason.
This is a great movie. There have been many many musical accompaniments to this film over the years. I don’t think a lot of them get recorded though. The film is so huge in it’s themes, scope and execution that it really is fun to play music along with. I did this a few years ago with a few friends and it was well received. We used drums, electric guitar, synthesizers, and samples. It’s so much fun and there are a million ways you can interpret the visuals and story. It’s very fun to improvise to.
I have also seen other people cynically say “Oh, yes, another performance of music to Metropolis. Not a very original or exciting concept.” I think this is wrong though. Boring is in the eye of the beholder and/or musicians. Personally, I think this film could be interpreted musically in an infinite number of exciting ways, and intend to do a few more in the coming years.
We have a building in Montreal that always reminds me of the one depicted in the image above. It’s called the Sun Life building and it’s a masonic wonder. Massive, entirely stone, pillars abound —- it’s just glorius and speaks of a time when architecture was something more tangible and artful.
Oops! Here’s a link: http://www.sunlifebuilding-montreal.com/
Oh oh I’m going to disagree with Joen, this could get ugly. No way dude, the Otomo Metropolis (based on Tezuka’s manga) was really not that great. I hink even Tezuka wasn’t keen on ever making it into an animated series. I remember reading that somewhere. Anyway I enjoyed the animation, just not the story very much, or the execution.
I do really want to look at the original, but the piano idea sounds BRILLIANT.
PS loving all the javascript you’ve got going on Mike, lets just see how it all pans out :)
Im so jealous of you right now.
I really want someone to screen the original King Kong too. While not as subtle as something like Metropolis, there is a masterpiece of budget filmmaking going on in that movie that many modern filmmakers could learn from.
It’s funny you should mention it Gregory, because we’re seeing that later this month :)
Where? When? How can I obtain tickets??! Will I have to fly over there?
I’m only half joking too…
The 14th if I recall correctly, same place we saw Metropolis, and you can call them for tickets ;)
weeps at his lack of ability to understand anything on their page
Damn me for being english!
Have you seen NIN Metropolis?
http://www.killpopradio.com/met.html