Metropolis (1927)

Metropolis is a 153-minute running science-fiction movie that was released in 1927. The story of the movie is based on many associated creative movements commencing in Germany earlier than the First World War. The movie was directed by a German-Austrian screenwriter, filmmaker, actor and occasional movie producer, Fritz Lang. Lang and his wife, Thea von Harbou written the movie and Gustav Frohlich, Brigitte Helm, Rudolf Klein-Rogge and Alfred Abel were some of the stars performed the leading role in the movie. It is a silent movie, produced by a German-born movie maker and executive, Erich Pommer in a film studio, situated in Babelsberg. The Metropolis movie is considered a groundbreaking work of science novel genre in films, being the primary feature length film of the genre.

Metropolis was produced during the Weimar Era in Germany, and it is set in an innovative urban dystopia, and follows the efforts of Freder, the rich son of the ruler of the city, and a poor employee, Maria, to conquer the huge gap, unraveling the classes of their city. The production work of the Metropolis movie was commenced in 1925, at a budget of five million Reichsmarks. As a result, it was the most costly movie ever released equal to that point. The innovative style of the movie is influenced by the effort of Antonio Sant'Elia, a Futurist architect from Italy.

Pre-production of the movie

The plot of the Metropolis movie was originated from a chronicle of the same name written by Harbou for the only reason of being made into a movie. The story in sequence drew motivation from H. G. Wells, the works of Villiers d'Isle Adam and Shelley and other dramas of Germany. The story featured strongly in the marketing movement of the movie, and was sequential in the Illustriertes Blatt periodical in the make to its release. Lang and Harbou worked together on the screenplay based on the novel, and numerous plot points and thematic components, including the majority of the references to the supernatural and occultism present in the story, were dropped. The screenplay of the movie experienced several re-writes, and at one stage, it featured a conclusion where Freder, the rich son of the ruler of the city, would have taken off to the stars. This plan element afterward became the foundation for “Woman in the Moon”, the silent science fiction movie of Lang.

Special effects in the movie

The Special effects in the Metropolis movie were created by Eugen Schufftan, a Jew cinematographer from Germany, which generated groundbreaking visual effects for the movie. Among the special effects employed in the movie include a camera on a swing, miniatures of the city, and most remarkably, the Schufftan method, in which mirrors are employed to generate the illusion that performers are absorbing miniature sets. This new method was observed again just after two years in Blackmail, a movie by Alfred Hitchcock released in 1929.

Music of the movie

The original score of the Metropolis movie was composed by Gottfried Huppertz, a composer from Germany, for a huge orchestra, who pooled a classical orchestral voice with gentle modernist touches to depict the movie's huge manufacturing city of employees. The score of the movie was recorded for the release of its 2001 DVD release with Berndt Heller, who was organizing the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Germany, the Rundfunksinfonieorchester Saarbrucken. It was the primary release of the realistically reconstructed film to be accompanied by the original score of Huppertz.

Nominations and awards

The Metropolis movie won the 2000 Avignon/New York Film Festival award for the Best Music category.

The movie won the 2002 special New York Film Critics Circle award for the restoration.

It won the 2000 Online Film and Television Association award for the best Motion Picture category.

The Metropolis movie was nominated for the 1985 Razzie Awards and the 2001 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA awards.