(original 153 min; Moroder's 83 min)
Released 1927-01-10; Moroder's 10 August 1984
Director: Fritz Lang
Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich
Drama | Sci-Fi | {nm = not a musical}
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/
This version was constructed by Giorgio Moroder (b. 1940 in Italy). The 1984 featurette interviews GM, who saw the movie when he was young, and wanted to bring it back to the fore. A lot of the film had been lost and he hunted down some of the lost footage. (More would be found later, hence the 2010 release titled The Complete Metropolis, 147 min.) He scored the scenes with rock music, including one scene with Freddie Mercury's (solo, but owned by Queen Music) Love Kills. It only lasts 1.5 minutes, but it is well-placed (in a bordello); it's also too appropriate for FM himself, since he died from a sexually transmitted disease, although the lyrics talk more about heartache than sickness. (FM was diagnosed in 1987, AIDS was coined in '82.)
I've not yet learned to appreciate this movie. The acting is so theatrical. I've seen other silent films of that vintage, and they are far more sophisticated than this: Sunrise (1927, American), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, French).
In this version, I'm confused by the "humanized" robot going rogue and inciting violence. The plan was that she would help the Master of the City to control the workers, who were on the verge of rebellion. Why didn't she attempt that? I'm also confused by the Master's son having fevered visions: which images are his fever and which are real? The Complete version is on its way; and I found the novel online, so maybe I'll find answers.
Universum Film (UFA), dir. Lang; 6
