Metropolis Restored to 1927 Original

February 2010 saw the premier, in Berlin of a newly restored, near-as-damn-it to the original, version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The film is now enjoying a limited theatrical release. Perhaps it is an appropriate moment then, to put its influence and influences into context.

Metropolis and the earlier Russian film Aelita, which inspired it, explore the plight of the proletariat under a greedy, exploitative ruling class. Both feature an uprising, the catalyst for which is a love affair breeching the class divide. Metropolis also follows Aelita's suit in its adoption of a science fiction setting; both films project the tensions of the present onto a dystopian future. However, if Aelita was a conceptually original take the oppressive conditions of pre Revolution Russia, it is Metropolis that is the more cinematically accomplished.

The two films exemplify divergent tendencies. Soviet Cinema would be increasingly informed by Marxism. This was manifest in a Constructivist aesthetic and the technique of Montage, wherein short scenes are cut together, or juxtaposed - as used to conspicuous effect in Sergei Eisenstein's Strike of 1925. Symbolic power and meaning are thus built-up, or constructed through an aggregation of images. This animated Marxist ideas about clash and collectivism, opposed to the Western cult of individualism. Germany, in particular manifested a distinctive concern with individual, subjective experience through its engagement with Expressionism. Though a broadly European movement, it found its most potent interpretation in the art and film of pre Nazi Germany. Whilst the Russian artistic project was an ideologically informed protest against class inequality, Expressionism grappled with more abstract fears; the personal disorientation suffered in a dislocated society. Expressionism frequently describes a nightmare world where nothing is what it seems. Faces are distorted, streets disappear into infinity, buildings loom and tower, cities are labyrinthine.


While montage is an aesthetic interpretation of an ideological idea, in Expressionism, the aesthetic is the idea. Expressionism, particularly in film gives shape and form to primal feelings. Thus it is the aesthetic of Metropolis, rather than its plot that enjoys enduring and universal appeal. Moreover, this aesthetic donated a visual language to film that is still current. When Fritz Lang emigrated to Hollywood to escape Nazism, he took with him some of the most sophisticated cinematic techniques then available. His influence on the biggest movie stage in the world cannot be overestimated. The elongated shadows of Expressionist cinema found a new incarnation in Film Noir as well as the 'ray gun' aesthetic of so many Sci-fi movies. The imagery of Metropolis proved itself adaptable to a range of cinematic genres and its atmosphere of the uncanny continues to resonate.


The official website of the film, featuring the story of its restoration and screening details is www.metropolis1927.com.

Joseph Bouzaglo