• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Casa Bouquet

let your joy bloom

  • Home
  • About
  • Culture
  • Home-making
  • Education
  • Travel
  • Style
  • Series
You are here: Home / Culture / Metropolis silent classic utopia: Lisa’s Home Bijou

Metropolis silent classic utopia: Lisa’s Home Bijou

September 17, 2018 by Lisa Grable 2 Comments

Film Festival: Silent Greats

Metropolis (1927) is a silent German film that is a masterpiece of art direction and science fiction with a strong philosophy. The film begins with

“The mediator between brain and hands must be the heart!”Metropolis is a classic science fiction movie with a strong cultural vision. Fritz Lang created world of class divide with a beautiful robot. Must see for film buffs. Lisa's Home Bijou: Metropolis (1927)

The story of Metropolis takes place in 2026. We see machinery grinding away and the hands of a clock ticking towards shift change. Clocks are a major visual theme.

metropolis-building-babel
metropolis-workers

Nameless workers trudge through underground tunnels. Their city is deep below the ground while the elite learn and play in majestic buildings above. Young women dress up and live to entertain Freder, son of the master of Metropolis, Fredersen. A Master of Ceremonies takes care that everything is perfect. The world of the elite will remind you of the Hunger Games.

metropolis-club-of-sons
metropolis-eternal-gardens

Maria comes out above ground with a crowd of poor children. She tells them to look at their brothers, looking like a pilgrim in her plain frock. Maria and the children (urchins?) are hustled back underground by the guards.metropolis-maria-children Freder decides to go see where she came from. He is stunned to see the huge machines and thousands of workers that make Metropolis possible. An explosion causes men to fly through the air. Many are burned and hurt badly. Moloch the monster appears in the ruins. Horrified, Freder watches as men are fed to the machine monster. Production starts up again as the dead are carried away.

metropolis-souless-work
metropolis-moloch

Freder rushes to his father’s office, the Master. Joh Fredersen is angry that he hears about explosion from his son, not his chief manager, Josaphat. Father is a very scary dude!

“What were you doing in the machine halls, Freder? –I wanted to look into the faces of the people whose little children are my brothers, my sisters…” Joh and Freder Fredersen

metropolis-fredersen-frederFreder can’t handle what he has seen and his father’s attitude towards the workers. Grot, the foreman, brings Federsen plans he has found in the pockets of two men involved in the explosion. Josaphat starts sweating bullets, and he is fired.

“Father, do you know what it means to be dismissed by you? It means, go below! Father! Go below! Into the depths!” –Freder

Freder hatches a plan to save Josaphat and do something about the workers in the depths. Meanwhile, Fredersen brings in the Thin Man to spy on Freder. Freder takes over a machine for one of the workers, Georgy. He dresses him in his clothes and gives him his driver and sends him to Josaphat’s house to wait for him. Georgy is enticed by the beautiful world above ground. He sees a flyer for the nightclub Yoshiwara, and he’s got all of Freder’s money to party with!

Rotwang, the inventor, lives in a little house that has survived all the modern building around it. Joh Fredersen visits him, and finds a huge statue of Hel, his deceased wife. The plinth reads

“Hel / Born – for my happiness and mankind’s blessing / Lost – to Joh Fredersen / Died – Giving birth to Freder, Joh Fredersen’s son”

Rotwang flies into a fury when he sees Joh. Rotwang has lost a hand recreating an android robot of Hel and he is definitely a mad scientist. Joh asks Rotwang to look at the plans found in the workers’ clothes. Rotwang reveals that there are 2000-year-old catacombs below the city.metropolis-hel-robot An exhausted Freder joins the workers at the end of shift. They trek down into the catacombs for a meeting. Maria preaches to them under candles and crosses. She tells them the story of the Tower of Babel. Freder is completely spellbound by her.

Meanwhile his father watches this peaceful inspirational meeting with Rotwang from a secret passage. Joh asks Rotwang to make the robot look like Maria. He has a plan to use the robot-Maria to betray the movement. Rotwang chases Maria through the tunnels and traps her in his house.

While Freder is at the cathedral looking for Maria, Georgy is leaving the Yoshiwara club. The Thin Man is waiting in the car and he gets Josaphat’s address from him. The Thin Man sends Georgy back to his job underground. The Thin Man is a very threatening figure.

metropolis-rotwang-lab1
Metropolis is a classic science fiction movie with a strong cultural vision. Fritz Lang created world of class divide with a beautiful robot. Must see for film buffs. Lisa's Home Bijou: Metropolis (1927)

Freder hears Maria screaming in Rotwang’s house. He gets trapped in a maze of doors and doesn’t get to Maria before Rotwang uses her for his evil robot.

“I want you to visit those in the depths, in order to destroy the work of the woman in whose image you were created!” –Joh

Joh has a big party with the elite men (in 2026, they are still wearing 19thcentury white tie!). The anti-Maria rises up out of a smoking urn to do a little hootchie-coochie dance and completely entrance the men.metropolis-anti-maria Freder has had a complete breakdown and is having delirium in his bedroom. He sees the seven deadly sins from the cathedral come to life. He’s such a sensitive soul, he reads Revelations while he’s recovering.metropolis-7-sins Josaphat comes to his house, dressed as a worker. He explains that the elite men are fighting and killing each other over anti-Maria, and she leads wild nights in the Yoshiwara club. Along with her gig at Yoshiwara, anti-Maria also preaches to the workers in the underground chapel, inciting them to revolt.metropolis-workers-revolt Fritz Lang created an amazing dystopian world with the settings in the underground (the tunnels, the machines, Maria’s chapel) and the metropolis above (Yoshiwara Club, the cathedral, Rotwang’s house, the majestic buildings and modernistic transportation). The way people can be swayed and become a mob is dynamically portrayed and the philosophy of brotherhood is memorable.metropolis-transportation The film was originally about 2 ½ hours long. It was cut after its initial release, leaving director Fritz Lang to mourn his creation. An old original copy was found in Argentina in 2008 and was used to restore the film. When looking for the film today, look for the longer complete version with its original score. But for fun, you might enjoy the 1984 version with the Giorgio Moroder’s digital music.

Resource links for Metropolis

  • https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/
    • Metropolis (1927) from IMDb
  • http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/metropolis-fritz-lang-silent-sci-fi
    • From BFI Film Forever, five early films that paved the way to Metropolis
  • http://www.pbs.org/wnet/cinemasexiles/biographies/the-directors/biography-fritz-lang/106/
    • Biography of Fritz Lang from PBS Cinema’s Exiles
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsVcUzP_O_8
    • Madonna’s Express Yourself
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axSnW-ygU5g
    • Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial

plumeria barAffiliate links: if you make a purchase using these links, I’ll receive a small compensation towards maintaining this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Related posts

The Big Parade Our Dancing Daughters The General
Share this post:
error
fb-share-icon
Tweet
fb-share-icon

Filed Under: Culture, Movies Tagged With: 1927, classic films, Fritz Lang, German expressionism, Metropolis, robot, science fiction, silent films, special effects, utopia

Previous Post: « Hildene estate Lincoln home Manchester Vermont
Next Post: Vintage Autumn Giveaway 09.22.18 – 10.15.18 »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Clearissa Coward

    November 6, 2019 at 10:08 am

    I have never heard of this one. TFS

    Reply
    • Lisa Grable

      November 6, 2019 at 4:09 pm

      Hey Clearissa, Do you know Madonnaʻs “donʻt go for 2nd best baby.. express yourself”? If you watch this film, youʻll see where the design ideas came from!

      Reply

What are your thoughts? Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hey, I’m Lisa

Lisa Grable, Casa BouquetI’m an educator, grandmother, classic movie fan, sewer and crafter, and I love Hawaii. Read more about me …

Subscribe for email updates

Don't miss a post! Receive an email when new posts are published. Get freebies!

Please follow & like us :)

Facebook
Facebook
fb-share-icon
Pinterest
Pinterest
fb-share-icon
Instagram
Follow by Email
RSS

Amazon

Zoom hula classes from Kanoe Miller

kanoe miller hula Oct. 2022Kanoe Miller teaches 5 week hula sessions on Zoom. Kanoe dances at the Hale Kulani in Waikiki and began her hula studies with Maiki Aiu Lake. Call or email to register. Times listed are Hawaii Standard.

More in Lisa’s Home Bijou

vintage movie theater sign

Recent Posts

joy of giving giveaway hostesses Nov 2022

Joy of Giving giveaway 11.12.22 – 12.15.22

back to school giveaway 08.27.22 - 09.27.22

Back to school giveaway 08.27.22 – 09.27.22

summer cash giveaway

Summer Cash Giveaway 07.23 – 08.23.2022

College preparation at the end of high school includes planning, tips, and checklists. Entrance tests, applications, financial aid, and more!

6 tips for college preparation – applying, FAFSA

Posts by Category

Casa Bouquet parties

Over the Moon

Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party
Wonderful Wednesday
Thursday Favorite Things

Featured series

Casa Bouquet pie recipes series.
College planning posts for middle and high school students. Download free checklist, cost calculation, and career interest worksheets. Resource links!

Copyright © 2022 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework · Design by Stephanie Jones

 

Loading Comments...