Fritz Lang's Metropolis was shown at Stamford Arts Centre last year (1998). There are several surviving prints, although the film was heavily cut after its first showing and no known complete print exists. The print I saw belongs to the BFI.

     In the futuristic city Metropolis, the elite are surrounded by luxury. One of the first scenes shows them surrounded by peacocks and fountains. Our hero, Freder Fredersen, is the son of the master of Metropolis. He (the father) runs the city through an army of blue-collar workers who, behind the scenes, work the machinery and live in awful conditions.

     Freder glimpses Maria, one of the workers, and is immediately attracted to her. He ventures deep beneath the city, and discovers how hard to workers are forced to labour. He witnesses a machine blow up, when one of the workers can no longer control it due to his fatigue. Freder is distressed by what he sees, and goes to see his father, who, predictably, is unsympathetic.

     Later, Freder returns to the bowels of the city, and enters the house of Rotwang. This is where the film, for me, really becomes influential. Rotwang is the first model of the stereotypical "mad professor" character in the visual arts. With his long coat he immediately reminded me of Doc Brown in Back to the Future. Part inventor, sorcerer, and alchemist, Rotwang is mad, bad, and dangerous to know. You can tell because he lives in a Hansel and Grettel style house, and, in case you'd missed the point, he has a pentagram on his front door.

     Rotwang is on Freder's Dad's payroll, and has created a robot which is designed to replace the workers. Incidentally, C3PO from Star Wars is a dead rip-off of this robot. The scene where he awakens the robot seems to be the inspiration for every Frankenstein-style creation scene since.

     Metropolis is spectacularly stylish in its scenery. One can only wonder what Lang would have done with colour. Furthermore, the camera angles work well and would have been breathtaking when first seen. The special effects are perfectly plausible, for instance when the statue of Death comes to life in the cathedral. Despite having been heavily cut, the film seems to work.

It is my favourite film.

Reviewed by Robin Lee