FILM · 1927 · GERMANY
Metropolis
- Directed by
- Fritz Lang
- Runtime
- 148 min
- Studio
- UFA
324 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
324 Interesting Facts About Metropolis
Interesting Facts (33)
- #001
Writer David Foster Wallace wanted to make a photo of Fritz Lang directing this film the cover of his most famous novel: "Infinite Jest". This was most likely due to how harsh the director was on his cast and crew, putting them through a physically strenuous and grueling shoot. This went along with themes in the novel, in which "Metropolis" is mentioned several times. Wallace was denied permission to do so, as publishers feared his eleven hundred page book was difficult enough to market already. The book went on to be a bestseller, and Wallace remained bitter about the cover.
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Brigitte Helm recalled her experiences of shooting the film in a contemporary interview, saying that "the night shots lasted three weeks, and even if they did lead to the greatest dramatic moments - even if we did follow Fritz Lang's directions as though in a trance, enthusiastic and enraptured at the same time - I can't forget the incredible strain that they put us under. The work wasn't easy, and the authenticity in the portrayal ended up testing our nerves now and then. For instance, it wasn't fun at all when Grot drags me by the hair, to have me burned at the stake. Once I even fainted: during the transformation scene, Maria, as the android, is clamped in a kind of wooden armament, and because the shot took so long, I didn't get enough air."
- #011
To Fritz Lang's horror, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were great admirers of the film. Goebbels met with Lang and told him that, despite his Jewish background, he could be made an honorary Aryan. Goebbels told him, "Mr. Lang, we decide who is Jewish and who is not." That night Lang left for Paris.
- #012
For the Tower of Babel scene, Fritz Lang wanted 4,000 bald extras, but Erich Pommer could find only 1,000 people willing to shave their heads. Because the scene was shot in spring, these extras began to swelter under the hot sun beating down on the exterior as they carried rocks and real tree trunks across the landscape. Some suffered sunburn on their scalps from the long shoots. After the shot, Lang ordered that it be run through an optical printer so that the 1,000 extras would look like the 4,000 he had originally wanted.
- #013
- #014
For decades all that remained of the film were incomplete original negatives and shortened, re-edited foreign release prints; more than a quarter of the film was lost. In July 2008, the German 'ZEITmagazin' reported that film historian and collector Fernando Martín Peña had discovered a 16 mm dupe negative at the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken in Buenos Aires. A full-length 35 mm release print was known to have gone to Argentina in 1928; its last officially documented screening was in the 1950s. Martín Peña recalled stories from the 1980s of Argentine projectionists showing a version more than two hours long, when all versions then known were much shorter. While researching their archives, he found the 16 mm copy, probably part of a private collection donated to the museum. (The original 35 mm film was dangerous because its nitrate could catch fire, so preservationists usually made a 16 mm safety negative.) The reels revealed poor image quality, with damage copied from the original 35 mm film worn down by years of use, while the 16 mm reduction caused frame loss. Nevertheless, it contained almost all of the previously missing sequences: roughly 25 minutes of footage, mainly featuring the Thin Man spying on Freder and the worker 11811 coming and going in Yoshiwara. In October 2008, it was announced that another copy, in the old 9.5 mm format, was held in the film library of the University of Chile and had been deliberately mislabeled to avoid destruction during the 1973 military coup. The missing scenes in the 2008 16 mm print were cleaned, reframed to a 4:3 aspect ratio (to match the existing footage) and reinserted into the film according to the original script. After nearly 80 years, the film is almost complete, except for episodes such as Freder listening to a priest's sermon about the coming apocalypse and Joh Fredersen's quarrel with Rotwang.
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- #021
For the US version, Paramount hired playwright Channing Pollock to rewrite the film around Fritz Lang's footage. He created an entirely new story that blamed all the action on a greedy employee and described most of the rebelling workers as soulless robots. For the film's US release, Paramount replaced the UFA logo with its own and reshot the credits. Lang refused to see this version.
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- #025
Metropolis has a striking connection to the Nazi regime. Fritz Lang's wife, Thea von Harbou, was one of the party's fervent early supporters. Not only Adolf Hitler but his whole circle was fascinated by the film and regarded it as a kind of social blueprint. Lang was, of course, Jewish, but the Führer offered him an exemption to work in Nazi Germany because of his creativity and vision, which was extremely rare there. He fled first to Paris and then to America.
- #026
Effects specialist Eugen Schüfftan created pioneering visual effects for Metropolis. Among the effects used were miniature models of the city, a camera on a swing, and most importantly the Schüfftan process, in which mirrors were used to create the illusion that the actors were in miniature sets. This new technique was not seen again until Blackmail (1929), only two years later.
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- #029
In a contemporary interview, Brigitte Helm described the experience of shooting the film: "The night shoots lasted three weeks, and even though they led to the most dramatic moments — even though we followed Fritz Lang's instructions in a state of simultaneous enthusiasm and ecstatic trance — I cannot forget the incredible tension they put us under. The work was not easy, and the authenticity of the portrayal sometimes tested our nerves. For example, it was not enjoyable when Grot dragged me by the hair to burn me at the stake. I even fainted once: during the transformation scene, Maria was clamped in like an android with a wooden weapon, and because the shot took so long I could not get enough air."
- #030
Fritz Lang and his team went to the United States and bought two Mitchell cameras. The cameras contained the revolutionary "Mitchell movement," which included a series of registration pins that held each frame steady while it was exposed. This resulted in their reputation for shooting extremely stable images. It became very important for this film when shooting special effects, especially during multiple passes of the film stock when parts of the frame were exposed. Various models of Mitchell cameras became the industry standard in the 1950s.
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- #033
The Maschinenmensch, the robot Rotwang builds to resurrect his lost love Hel, was created by sculptor Walter Schulze-Mittendorff. A plaster cast was taken of the entire body of the actress Brigitte Helm, and the costume was then built around it. The chance discovery of a sample of "plastic wood" (a flexible substance designed as wood filler) allowed Schulze-Mittendorff to make a costume that both looked metallic and permitted a small amount of free movement.
Production Story (173)
- #034
The film's plot originated from a novel of the same title written by Thea von Harbou for the sole purpose of being made into a film. The novel in turn drew inspiration from H.G. Wells, Shelley and Villiers d'Isle Adam's works and other German dramas. The novel featured strongly in the film's marketing campaign, and was serialized in the journal Illustriertes Blatt in the run-up to its release. Harbou and Lang collaborated on the screenplay derived from the novel, and several plot points and thematic elements - including most of the references to magic and occultism present in the novel - were dropped.
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- #037
The American copyright lapsed in 1953, which eventually led to a proliferation of versions being released on video. Along with other foreign-made works, the film's U.S. copyright was restored in 1996, but the constitutionality of this copyright extension was challenged in Golan v. Gonzales and, as Golan v. Holder, it was ruled that "In the United States, that body of law includes the bedrock principle that works in the public domain remain in the public domain. Removing works from the public domain violated Plaintiffs' vested First Amendment interests." This only applied to the rights of so-called reliance parties, i.e. parties who had previously relied on the public domain status of restored works. The case was overturned on appeal to the Tenth Circuit, and that decision was upheld by the US Supreme Court on 18 January 2012. This had the effect of restoring the copyright in the work as of 1 January 1996. Under current US copyright law, it remains copyrighted until 1 January 2023.
- #038
- #039
For the U.S. version, Paramount hired playwright Channing Pollock to rewrite the film around Fritz Lang's footage. He created an entirely new story that blamed all of the action on a greedy employee and identified many of the revolting workers as soulless robots. For the film's U.S. release, Paramount replaced the UFA logo with its own and reshot the credits. Lang refused to see this version.
- #040
As production costs pushed Universum Film (UFA) toward bankruptcy, the studio had signed a deal with Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) that created Parafumet to release the two U.S. studios' films in Germany. It also gave the studios distribution rights in the U.S. and other territories to UFA's films and the right to alter those films as they saw fit. Parafumet cut the picture to about 115 minutes, excising the Thin Man's pursuit of Freder and Josaphat and much of the backstory about Rotwang's past romantic rivalry with Fredersen.
- #041
In January 1926, Universum Film (UFA) executives met to determine what to do about the increasingly costly production, which seemed nowhere near completion. They considered pulling the plug, but instead settled on firing Erich Pommer from his position as head of the studio. He continued running interference on the production until April, when he left for a job at Paramount Pictures in the U.S.
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In an interview, Fritz Lang reported that "the film was born from my first sight of the skyscrapers in New York in October 1924". He had visited New York for the first time and remarked "I looked into the streets - the glaring lights and the tall buildings - and there I conceived Metropolis (1927)." Describing his first impressions of the city, Lang said that "the buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating and very light, a luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize". He added "The sight of Neuyork [sic] alone should be enough to turn this beacon of beauty into the centre of a film".
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- #048
At two-and-a-half hours in length, the film could not be shown enough times in a day to return Universum Film (UFA)'s investment soon enough. As a result, the entire company was restructured, with a new, more conservative board of directors. Appalled at the film's Marxist politics, they pulled it from theatres in the spring of 1927.
- #049
The film was restored, recut to use subtitles instead of intertitles, retinted with different colors, and re-scored with synthesizer music featuring 1979s and 1980s stars Bonnie Tyler, Freddie Mercury, Adam Ant, Pat Benatar and Loverboy in 1984. This "modernized" version goes by the title "Giorgio Moroder presents Metropolis" for Moroder who wrote much of the new music.
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In Oct of 1984 the world premiere of Digital sound in a motion picture theatre took place, using Moroder's digitally recorded version of Metropolis (1927). Orchestrated by John Allen of High Performance Stereo, the event took place in the Magestic Century Plaza Theatre in Los Angeles and was an invitation only event consisting of a few hundred sound professional in the industry. Since the technology of placing Digital sound on film did not exist at the time, the 5 track discrete audio was recorded on an Industrial Sony 3324 digital tape recorder and synced with the picture. The sound system used to present this historic event was John Allen's HPS-4000 system and had the acoustic power equal to 10 Symphony Orchestras.
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According to Jean Oser a German filmmaker of that time as told personally to me in the 1980's / Hitler partially financed the movie - his compatriots all wondered where Lang was getting the money to make the movie and according to Mr. Oser it was Hitler who gave him money. Mr. Oser as did Fritz Lang also fled Germany and then made films for the US army in WW2 and then fled America in McCarthy 50's for Canada because he was a Communist. He established a film school at the University in Regina SK.
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The Maschinenmensch - the robot built by Rotwang to resurrect his lost love Hel - was created by sculptor Walter Schulze-Mittendorff. A whole-body plaster cast was taken of actress Brigitte Helm, and the costume was then constructed around it. A chance discovery of a sample of "plastic wood" (a pliable substance designed as wood-filler) allowed Schulze-Mittendorff to build a costume that would both appear metallic and allow a small amount of free movement.
- #068
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Despite Fritz Lang's great sorrow, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were great admirers of the film. Goebbels met with Lang and told him that despite his Jewish origins, he could be granted honorary Aryan status, saying, 'Mr. Lang, we decide who is Jewish and who is not.' Lang left for Paris that night.
- #070
For decades, more than a quarter of the film was lost; all that remained was an incomplete original negative and shortened foreign prints. In July 2008, Germany's ZEITmagazin announced that film historian Fernando Martín Peña had discovered a 16mm dupe negative at the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires. A full-length 35mm export copy had been sent to Argentina in 1928, and its last official screening was in the 1950s. Martín Peña recalled that Argentine film projectionists had shown a cut longer than 2 hours in the 1980s; at the time, all known versions were much shorter. While researching the archives, he found the 16mm copy, likely part of a private collection donated to the museum. The reels showed damaged, low image quality, having been copied from the original 35mm film worn down by years of use; moreover, the reduction to 16mm had led to frame loss. Nevertheless, it contained almost all of the previously lost scenes - about 25 minutes of footage, mainly concerning the Thin Man spying on Freder and the worker 11811 going back and forth to Yoshiwara. In October 2008, another early copy in the old 9.5mm format was found in the film library of the University of Chile, deliberately mislabeled to save it from destruction during the 1973 coup. In 2008, the missing scenes from the 16mm copy were cleaned, reframed to a 4:3 aspect ratio, and re-edited into the film based on the original screenplay. After nearly 80 years, the film is now practically complete; sections such as Freder listening to a priest's apocalyptic sermon and Joh Fredersen's argument with Rotwang are still missing.
- #071
- #072
For the US version, Paramount hired playwright Channing Pollock to rewrite the film around Fritz Lang's footage. He created an entirely new story that attributed all the action to a greedy employee and portrayed most of the rebelling workers as soulless robots. Paramount replaced the UFA logo with its own and reshot the credits. Lang refused to see this version.
- #073
- #074
The film's connection to the Nazi regime is quite striking. Fritz Lang's wife, Thea von Harbou, was an ardent and early supporter of the party. Not only Adolf Hitler but the entire inner circle was fascinated by the film and saw it as a kind of social plan. Lang was, of course, Jewish, but the Führer offered him a pass because of his genius and vision; this was very rare in Nazi Germany. He fled to Paris, and then to America.
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The film's story originated from the novel of the same name, written by Thea von Harbou solely for the purpose of being filmed. The novel was also inspired by the works of H.G. Wells, Shelley and Villiers d'Isle Adam, and other German dramas. The novel featured strongly in the film's marketing campaign and was serialized in the magazine Illustriertes Blatt before the screening. Harbou and Lang collaborated on the screenplay adapted from the novel, and many plot points and thematic elements were removed, including most of the novel's references to magic and occultism.
- #083
In an interview, Fritz Lang said, 'the film was born from my first sight of the skyscrapers in New York in October 1924.' It was his first visit to New York, and he stated, 'I looked into the streets - the glaring lights and the tall buildings - and there I conceived Metropolis (1927).' Describing his first impressions of the city, Lang said, 'the buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating and very light, a luxurious backdrop suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize.' He added, 'The sight of Neuyork [sic] alone should be enough to make this beauty beacon the center of a film.'
- #084
In January 1926, executives at Universum Film (UFA) met to decide what to do about a production that was becoming increasingly costly and seemed impossible to complete. They considered halting the project, but instead decided to remove Erich Pommer from his position at the head of the studio. Pommer continued to interfere with the production until he left for a job at Paramount Pictures in the United States in April.
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H.G. Wells found the film 'quite stupid' and wrote: 'I do not think it would be possible to make a sillier one. It comes from the great UFA studios and gives the impression of enormous cost. It presents almost all the stupidities, clichés and confusions about mechanical progress and progress in general in a single whirlpool, with a sauce of its own peculiar sentimentality.'
- #090
On the verge of bankruptcy, UFA signed the Parafumet agreement with Paramount and MGM. This agreement provided for the distribution of American films in Germany while allowing UFA productions to be cut and rearranged in the US. Parafumet reduced Metropolis to about 115 minutes; it removed the pursuit of Freder and Josaphat and Rotwang's past rivalry with Fredersen.
- #091
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David Foster Wallace wanted to put a photograph of Fritz Lang reflecting his harsh demeanor on set on the cover of 'Infinite Jest.' The publishers did not allow it, thinking the eleven-hundred-page book would be difficult to market. The book entered the bestseller lists, and Wallace remained resentful of that decision.
- #094
American copyright expired in 1953 and video versions proliferated. In 1996 copyright was restored, but its constitutionality was questioned in the cases Golan v. Gonzales and Golan v. Holder. On January 18, 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the restoration of copyright as of January 1, 1996. Under current law, the film remained copyrighted until January 1, 2023.
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The Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels was impressed by the film's message of social justice. In a 1928 speech he said: 'The political bourgeoisie is about to leave the stage of history. In its place, the oppressed producers of brain and hand, the laboring forces, are advancing to begin their historical mission.'
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The German filmmaker Jean Oser told me in the 1980s that Hitler had partly financed the film. According to Oser, his friends wondered where Lang had found the money, and the answer was Hitler. Oser, like Fritz Lang, fled Germany, made films for the US Army during World War II, then, on the grounds that he was a communist, took refuge from the US in Canada during the McCarthy era and founded a film school at the University of Regina.
- #112
Fritz Lang wanted 4,000 bald actors for the Tower of Babel scene, but Erich Pommer could only find 1,000 volunteers. In the scene, shot in spring, the extras sweated as they carried set rocks and tree trunks under the scorching sun; during long shoots their scalps were sunburned. To make 1,000 extras look like 4,000, Lang ran the footage through an optical printer.
- #113
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- #115
The nightmare scene in which the workers are fed to Moloch was shot in the middle of winter. Despite the lights and heaters, the studio was extremely cold; the extras, most of them unemployed men, had to walk naked into the god's mouth. Lang shot the scene over so many days that his assistants feared a revolt. In the end Pommer came to the set and told the director to stop.
- #116
For decades all that remained of the film was an incomplete original negative and shortened foreign prints; more than a quarter of it had been lost. In July 2008, ZEITmagazin announced that film historian Fernando Martín Peña had discovered a 16 mm dupe negative in a museum in Buenos Aires. A full-length 35 mm copy had gone to Argentina in 1928, and its last official screening was in the 1950s. Peña recalled that Argentine projectionists had shown a cut longer than 2 hours in the 1980s; while researching archives, he found the 16 mm copy, donated from a private collection. The reels had been copied from 35 mm worn down by years of use and were of low quality, but they contained about 25 minutes of footage that had previously been lost. In October 2008, another early copy, 9.5 mm, was found at the University of Chile, mislabeled to save it from the 1973 coup. The missing scenes in the 16 mm copy were cleaned up and re-edited; the film was almost complete, with only sections such as Freder listening to the priest's sermon and Joh Fredersen's argument with Rotwang still missing.
- #117
- #118
In an interview, Brigitte Helm said Lang's pressure was enormous. The shoot lasted more than a year; in the scene where the false Maria is burned, Lang told the actor playing Grot to drag Helm by her hair. According to many sources, Helm's dress caught fire because Lang wanted countless retakes.
- #119
In the rooftop chase, Helm and Rudolf Klein-Rogge had to climb to the tops of the exterior sets and run on planks 25 feet above the ground. At the end of the scene, Helm jumped for a rope attached to the cathedral bells without a stunt double; there were mattresses in case she fell, but the height was dangerous. She caught the rope on the first try, and as the ringing bell slammed her against the walls she slid down; bruised, she fled the set in tears.
- #120
- #121
The wide shots of the city were done with stop-motion; cars, planes and elevated trains moved. The cars were modeled on the newest taxis in Berlin. Building the city model took months, and shooting a few short scenes took days. The laboratory ruined the first shots: the backgrounds were dimly lit, but the lab chief thought this was a mistake and brightened them, destroying the forced perspective.
- #122
At that time there was no optical printing; for the masking effect, a large mirror was placed at an angle while the live image was projected from behind. The mirror's silver coating was strategically scraped away so that the projected image would be exposed; a single mistake could ruin the entire mirror. This process was repeated for every shot and is known as the 'Schüfftan Process.'
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- #128
For the American version, Paramount hired the playwright Channing Pollock, who rewrote the film around Lang's images. He created a new story that blamed all the action on a greedy employee and described the rebelling workers as soulless robots. Paramount replaced the UFA logo with its own and reshot the credits; Lang refused to see this version.
- #129
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- #132
For the heart machine explosion scene, Lang refused to use dummies; extras were thrown into smoke and fire wearing safety belts. While testing the belt on his assistant Gustav Puttscher, he nearly hauled him up to the ceiling. During the shoot he asked the extras to act as if they were in pain, but they were already genuinely suffering.
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In an interview about the shoot, Brigitte Helm said: 'The night shoots lasted three weeks; even though we followed Lang's directions in a trance, the hardship we endured is unforgettable. Grot dragging me by the hair and tying me to the stake was no fun at all. During the transformation scene I fainted once: I couldn't get any air inside the wooden clamp.'
- #142
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- #145
Fritz Lang and his team went to the US and bought two Mitchell cameras. Thanks to the 'Mitchell movement', which held every frame steady with registration pins, these cameras produced extremely stable images; this was vital especially for special effects shots requiring multiple exposures. Mitchell cameras remained the industry standard until the 1950s.
- #146
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- #152
The film's story originated from the novel of the same name written by Thea von Harbou solely for the purpose of being filmed. The novel drew inspiration from works by H.G. Wells, Shelley and Villiers d'Isle Adam and from other German dramas. The novel featured strongly in the film's marketing campaign and was serialized in the magazine Illustriertes Blatt before the release. Harbou and Lang collaborated on the screenplay adapted from the novel, and many plot points and thematic elements were removed, including most of the novel's references to magic and occultism.
- #153
- #154
The film drew heavily on biblical sources for several of its key scenes. In her first speech to the workers, Maria uses the story of the Tower of Babel to emphasize the discord between intellectuals and workers. In addition, the delirious Freder imagines the false Maria as the Whore of Babylon seated on a multi-headed dragon. The name of the Yoshiwara club refers to Tokyo's famous red-light district.
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- #157
In an interview, Fritz Lang said the film was born from his first sight of New York's skyscrapers in October 1924. It was his first visit to New York, and he stated that he conceived Metropolis when he looked at the streets and saw dazzling lights and tall buildings. Describing his first impressions of the city, Lang said the buildings looked like a vertical sail hanging in the dark sky, a very light, luxurious backdrop that glittered to dazzle, distract and hypnotize. He added that the image of New York alone was enough to make this beacon of beauty the center of a film.
- #158
In January 1926, Universum Film (UFA) executives met to decide what to do about the never-ending and increasingly costly production. They considered canceling the project, but instead decided to remove Erich Pommer from his post as studio head. Pommer continued to interfere with the production until he left for a job at Paramount Pictures in the US in April.
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The two-and-a-half-hour film could not be screened enough times in a single day for Universum Film (UFA) to recoup its investment quickly enough. As a result, the entire company was restructured and a new, more conservative board of directors was appointed. Horrified by the film's Marxist politics, the management pulled it from release in the spring of 1927.
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One of the designers and builders of the giant steam-powered machine in the film was Albert Sammt. By trade, Sammt was a rigger and elevator operator in the airship industry. Surprisingly, many airship workers like Sammt, who were looking for work at the time, found jobs as technical crew in the film industry. When he returned to the German airship industry, Sammt eventually rose to the rank of captain. Captain Albert Sammt, under the command of Captain Maximilian Pruss, served as first officer on the DLZ-129 Hindenburg. Sammt was among the crew who survived the 1937 disaster.
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Science fiction writer H.G. Wells described the film as 'the stupidest film ever made.' In a harsh review, he wrote, 'I do not think it would be possible to make a stupider one. It comes from the great Ufa studios in Germany and gives the impression of having been produced at immense cost. It concentrates almost every possible foolishness, cliché, platitude and confusion about mechanical progress and progress in general, along with a sauce of its own peculiar sentimentality, into a single whirlpool.'
- #168
While production costs drove Universum Film (UFA) to the brink of bankruptcy, the studio signed a deal with Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) called Parafumet, agreeing to distribute the two US studios' films in Germany as well. The deal also gave the studios the distribution rights to UFA films in the US and other territories, and the right to alter those films as they wished. Parafumet shortened the film to about 115 minutes, cutting the Thin Man's pursuit of Freder and Josaphat and much of the backstory involving Rotwang's past romantic rivalry with Fredersen.
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David Foster Wallace wanted to use a photograph of Fritz Lang on the cover of his most famous novel, 'Infinite Jest.' The reason was that the director had put his cast and crew through a physically grueling shoot, which was consistent with the novel's references to 'Metropolis.' However, the publishers would not allow it, worried that marketing the eleven-hundred-page book would be difficult. The book became a bestseller, and Wallace remained bitter about the cover.
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American copyright expired in 1953, and many versions were released on video. In 1996, copyright was restored along with foreign productions, but this extension was challenged in the cases Golan v. Gonzales and Golan v. Holder. On January 18, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that copyright was restored as of January 1, 1996. Under current law, the film remained copyrighted until January 1, 2023.
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In October 1984, the world digital sound premiere was held in a movie theater at the Majestic Century Plaza Theatre in Los Angeles, using Moroder's digitally recorded version of Metropolis. The event was presented with John Allen's HPS-4000 system and had acoustic power equal to 10 symphony orchestras.
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The film was restored, subtitles were used instead of intertitles, it was recolored in different colors, and in 1984 it was re-scored with synthesizer music featuring stars of the 1970s and 1980s such as Bonnie Tyler, Freddie Mercury, Adam Ant, Pat Benatar and Loverboy. This 'modernized' version is known as 'Giorgio Moroder presents Metropolis'.
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The film's plot is based on the story of Buddha's enlightenment: a prince is isolated from the outside world by his father and raised in luxury. When he leaves the palace, he discovers the suffering of ordinary people, renounces his wealth and seeks an answer. This story was Christianized and carried to medieval Europe as the parable of Barlaam and Josaphat, with a monk added who converts the prince to Christianity. Because the parable was believed to be true, Barlaam and Josaphat were canonized as saints by the Catholic Church. The film retains the name Josaphat but gives it to the prince's adviser; the role of Barlaam passes to Maria, the love interest and spiritual guide of the prince Freder.
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In his father's office, Freder looks at a clock showing the hours from 1 to 10. This suggests that time measurement has shifted to the decimal system in the future. However, his father's wristwatch at the meeting with Rosgauten shows 1 to 12; clocks from 1 to 10 are meant to indicate 10-hour shifts.
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According to what German producer Jean Oser himself recounted in the 1980s, Metropolis was partly financed by Hitler. Like Fritz Lang, Oser fled Germany, made films for the US Army during World War II, took refuge in Canada during the McCarthy era on the grounds that he was a communist, and founded a film school at the University of Regina.
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Behind the Scenes (59)
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The establishing shots of the city - with cars, planes and elevated trains moving about - were shot using stop-motion photography. The cars were modelled on the newest taxicabs driving the streets of Berlin. It took months to build the city model and several days to film the few short sequences. Then the lab ruined the first shots. The backgrounds in the shot had been dimly lit to create a greater sense of depth, but the head of the lab, who developed the film himself, decided that was a mistake and lightened the backgrounds, thereby destroying the sense of forced perspective.
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For decades, all that survived of the film were an incomplete original negative and shortened, re-edited foreign release prints; over a quarter of the movie was lost. In July 2008, Germany's 'ZEITmagazin' reported film historian/collector Fernando Martín Peña's discovery of a 16mm dupe negative at the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken. It was known that a full-length 35mm export copy went to Argentina in 1928, its last officially documented screening being in the 1950s. Martín Peña recalled tales of Argentinian movie operators screening a 2 hours-plus cut during the 1980s; all then-known versions ran far shorter. Searching their archives, he found the 16mm copy, probably part of a private collection donated to the museum. (Early 35mm film was hazardous as the negative's nitrate could ignite, preservers often making a 16mm safety neg.) The reels revealed a poor picture quality with damage copied from the original 35mm film, worn from years of use, whilst the 16mm reduction left frame-loss. Nonetheless, they contained almost all of the previously missing sequences: some 25 minutes-worth of footage, predominantly involving the Thin Man who spies on Freder, and worker 11811 heading to and from Yoshiwara. In October 2008 it was announced that another early copy in the obsolete 9.5mm format had been held in the University of Chile's film library, intentionally mislabelled to escape destruction during 1973's military coup. The missing scenes from the 2008 16mm print were cleaned up, reframed into the 4:3 aspect ratio (to match the existing footage) and re-edited into the film based on the original screenplay. After almost 80 years, the film is now practically complete, barring sections such as Freder listening to a priest's sermon on the coming apocalypse and Joh Fredersen's fight with Rotwang.
- #212
For the explosion of the heart machine, Fritz Lang refused to use dummies as stand-ins for the workers thrown about. He insisted that would look phony. So extras were to be hooked to harness belts and thrown through smoke, steam and fire. To lighten the mood before shooting, he insisted that his assistant, Gustav Puttscher, try out the harness, and then had him yanked almost to the top of the soundstage and left him there. During filming, he insisted the extras show pain, even though there were no close-ups. Fortunately for him, they already were in pain.
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The nightmare in which workers are fed to Moloch was filmed in the middle of winter. Despite the lights and several heaters, the studio was extremely cold, a special hardship on the extras, most of them unemployed men, who had to walk naked into the mouth of the god. Fritz Lang took so many days filming the sequence his assistants feared the extras would revolt. Finally, Erich Pommer came to the set and informed the director that he had more than enough footage already and needed to stop.
- #215
Fritz Lang and his team traveled to the United States where they acquired two Mitchell cameras. The cameras contained the revolutionary "Mitchell movement" which included a set of registration pins that would hold each frame steady as it was being exposed. This resulted in their reputation for shooting rock steady images. This became crucial for this film when shooting special effects, especially when portions of the frame were exposed during multiple passes of the film stock. The various models of the Mitchell cameras became the industry standard through the 1950s.
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One of the designers/builders of the giant steam powered machine in the film was Albert Sammt. Sammt, by trade, was a rigger and elevatorman in the airship industry. Surprisingly, many airshipmen like Sammt who were looking for work at the time, took positions as technical crew in the motion picture industry. Upon returning to work in the German airship industry, Sammt was eventually promoted to captain. Captain Albert Sammt, under the command of Captain Maximilian Pruss, served as first officer of DLZ-129 Hindenburg. Sammt was amongst the surviving crew of the 1937 disaster.
- #218
- #219
Fritz Lang wanted 4,000 bald extras for the Tower of Babel sequence, but Erich Pommer could only find 1,000 willing to shave their heads. Since the scene was shot in the spring, these extras got to swelter under the hot sun shooting the exteriors as they hauled prop rocks and real tree trunks across the landscape. Some got sunburns on their scalps from the lengthy shoot. After shooting, Lang ordered the shot run through the optical multiplier to make the 1,000 extras seem like the 4,000 he had originally wanted.
- #220
For the chase across the rooftops, Brigitte Helm and Rudolf Klein-Rogge actually had to climb across the tops of the exterior sets and race on planks 25 feet above the ground. At the end of that sequence, Helm, without benefit of a stunt woman, had to leap for the rope attached to the cathedral's bells. Although mattresses were placed in the event of a fall, the height would still make the stunt dangerous. She caught the rope first try, and then slowly slid down it as the ringing bell sent her careening into the set's walls. Bruised and battered, she fled the set in tears.
- #221
The scene in which scantily clad dancers and nightclub patrons spill out into the streets was filmed on a chilly spring night. It was so cold that, to keep the extras from rebelling, Fritz Lang ordered flasks of cognac for them. When that ran out, actor Alfred Abel offered his coat to one of the dancers.
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- #227
The nightmare sequence in which the workers are fed to Moloch was shot in the middle of winter. Despite the lights and a few heaters, the studio was extremely cold, a particular hardship for the extras, most of them unemployed, who had to walk naked into the god's mouth. Fritz Lang spent so many days shooting the scene that his assistants feared the extras would revolt. Eventually Erich Pommer came to the set and informed the director that he had more footage than he needed and had to stop.
- #228
For the rooftop chase, Brigitte Helm and Rudolf Klein-Rogge actually had to climb to the tops of the exterior sets and race along boards 25 feet above the ground. At the end of the sequence, Helm had to jump for a rope hanging from the cathedral bells without the help of a stunt double. Although mattresses were placed in case of a fall, the height still made the stunt dangerous. She caught the rope on the first try and then slid slowly down as the ringing bell dragged her toward the set walls. Bruised and battered, she fled the set in tears.
- #229
- #230
The defining shots of the city, with cars, aircraft and elevated trains moving, were filmed using stop-motion photography. The cars were modeled on the newest taxis circulating on the streets of Berlin. Building the city model took months, and shooting a few short scenes took several days. Then the laboratory ruined the first shots. The backgrounds in the shot had been dimly lit to create a greater sense of depth, but the head of the laboratory, who developed the film himself, decided this was a mistake and brightened the backgrounds, destroying the sense of forced perspective.
- #231
For the explosion of the heart machine, Fritz Lang refused to use dummies in place of the workers being flung around. He insisted it would look fake. The extras therefore had to be strapped to girders and thrown into the smoke, steam and fire. Before the shoot he insisted that his assistant Gustav Puttscher test the safety harness, then nearly hauled him to the top of the sound stage and left him there. During filming he insisted that the extras show pain even though there were no close-ups. Fortunately for him, they were already in pain.
- #232
- #233
Fritz Lang wanted 4,000 bald actors for the Tower of Babel scene, but only 1,000 people were willing to shave their heads. In the scene, shot in spring, the extras sweated under the scorching sun as they carried set rocks and real tree trunks; during the long takes, their scalps were sunburned. To make 1,000 people look like 4,000, Lang ran the footage through an optical printer.
- #234
- #235
The nightmare scene in which the workers are fed to Moloch was shot in the middle of winter. Despite the lights and a few heaters, the studio was extremely cold; the extras, most of them unemployed men, had to enter the god's mouth naked. Lang shot the scene for so long that his assistants feared a revolt; in the end Erich Pommer came and told the director he had to stop.
- #236
- #237
In a contemporary interview, Brigitte Helm said the pressure Fritz Lang put them under was immense. The shoot lasted more than a year, and the director's demands pushed their physical health to the limit. In the scene where the false Maria is burned, Lang told the actor playing Grot to grab Helm by the hair and drag her; according to many sources, Helm's dress caught fire because Lang often demanded retakes.
- #238
For the rooftop chase, Brigitte Helm and Rudolf Klein-Rogge had to climb to the tops of the exterior sets and run along planks 25 feet above the ground. At the end of the scene, Helm had to jump for a rope hanging from the cathedral bells without a stunt double; although mattresses were placed below in case of a fall, the height was dangerous. She caught the rope on the first try, and as the ringing bell slammed her against the set walls she slid slowly down; she fled the set in tears, covered in bruises and scrapes.
- #239
- #240
The wide shots of the city (with cars, planes and elevated trains in motion) were filmed using stop-motion photography. The cars were modeled on the newest taxis driving through the streets of Berlin. Building the city model took months, while shooting a few short scenes took days. Then the lab ruined the first shots: the backgrounds in the footage had been dimly lit to create a greater sense of depth, but the lab chief decided this was a mistake and brightened the backgrounds, destroying the sense of forced perspective.
- #241
There was no optical printing system at the time; for the mask effect, a large mirror was positioned at an angle to reflect a piece of artwork while the live image was projected onto the opposite side. To expose the reflected image, the silver coating on the back of the mirror was scraped away at strategically chosen spots; a single mistake would ruin the entire mirror. This process was carried out for every shot that had to be combined and is known as the "Schüfftan Process," developed by Eugen Schüfftan.
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- #245
For the explosion of the heart machine, Fritz Lang refused to use dummies instead of the workers being hurled through the air, saying it would look artificial. The extras were to be strapped into safety harnesses and flung through smoke, steam and fire. Before the shoot, he asked his assistant Gustav Puttscher to test the harness and nearly had him pulled to the top of the sound stage and left there. During the shoot, he wanted the extras to look as if they were in pain, even though there was no close-up; luckily for them, they already were.
- #246
Effects expert Eugen Schüfftan created groundbreaking visual effects for Metropolis: miniature models of the city, a swinging camera and, most importantly, the Schüfftan process, in which mirrors made actors appear to be inside miniature sets. This technique was seen again only two years later, in Blackmail (1929).
- #247
The Maschinenmensch (the robot Rotwang builds to resurrect his lost love Hel) was created by the sculptor Walter Schulze-Mittendorff. A full-body plaster cast was taken of Brigitte Helm, and the costume was built around it. A chance discovery of a sample of "plastic wood" (a flexible substance designed as wood filler) allowed Schulze-Mittendorff to make a costume that both looked metallic and allowed a small amount of free movement.
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In a contemporary interview, Brigitte Helm described her experiences during the shoot: "The night shoots lasted three weeks, and even if they led to the greatest dramatic moments - even if we followed Fritz Lang's directions as if in a trance, at once exhilarated and spellbound - I cannot forget the incredible tension that overwhelmed us. The work was not easy, and the authenticity of the portrayal sometimes strained our nerves. For example, being dragged by my hair by Grot and burned at the stake was no fun at all. Once I fainted: in the transformation scene, Maria was clamped as the android in a kind of wooden vise, and because the shot took so long I could not get enough air."
- #250
The scene in which scantily clad dancers and nightclub regulars spill into the streets was shot on a cool spring night. It was so cold that, to head off a revolt among the extras, Fritz Lang ordered them bottles of cognac. When the shoot was over, the actor Alfred Abel gave his jacket to one of the dancers.
- #251
- #252
Fritz Lang and his team traveled to the United States and bought two Mitchell cameras. The cameras featured the revolutionary "Mitchell movement," which held each frame steady while it was exposed; this earned them their reputation for rock-solid images. It was especially crucial for special-effects shots, in which portions of the frame were exposed over multiple passes of the film stock. Various models of Mitchell cameras became the industry standard well into the 1950s.
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Albert Sammt, one of the designers of the giant steam machine, was a pulley operator and elevator man in the airship industry. Like many airship workers who lost their jobs, he found work as part of a technical crew in the film industry. When he returned to the airship industry, he was promoted to captain and became first officer of the DLZ-129 Hindenburg under the command of Captain Maximilian Pruss. He was among the crew who survived the 1937 disaster.
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In October 1984, the world premiere of digital sound in a movie theater took place at the Magestic Century Plaza Theatre in Los Angeles with Moroder's digitally recorded version of Metropolis. John Allen's HPS-4000 system was used, and the 5-channel discrete sound was recorded to an industrial Sony 3324 digital tape and synchronized with the picture. The sound system had the acoustic power of 10 symphony orchestras.
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Characters & Cast (9)
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Fritz Lang began shooting with a different actor cast as Freder. But in the first days of filming, Thea von Harbou noticed the handsome Gustav Fröhlich, one of the extras in the worker role. When the early work featuring Freder proved unsatisfactory, she insisted to Lang that he drop his original actors and cast Fröhlich in the role.
- #268
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Fritz Lang had begun shooting with another actor in the role of Freder. But in the first days, Thea von Harbou noticed Gustav Fröhlich, who was playing as an extra in one of the worker roles. When the first actor's performance proved unsatisfactory, she convinced Lang to give the role to Fröhlich.
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Easter Eggs & References (12)
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In his father's office, Freder looks at a clock with the hours of 1 through 10. This suggests that, in the future, time measurement has been changed to the decimal system. Maybe, but the father's watch face, when meeting with Rosgauten clearly reads 1-12. The 1-10 clock faces are to indicate the 10 hour shifts.
- #283
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Deeper Meaning (25)
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The film's plot owes much to the story of Buddha's enlightenment: a prince is isolated from the outside world by his father and raised in luxury. On a rare trip outside the palace he discovers the suffering of the common man, renounces his wealth, and wanders in search of an answer. This story was Christianized and brought to medieval Europe in the parable of Barlaam and Josaphat (a name derived from bodhisattva) by adding the character of a hermit who converts the prince to Christianity. The parable was widely believed to be true, to the extent that Barlaam and Josaphat were both canonized as saints by the Catholic church. The film preserves the name Josaphat but attaches it to the prince's advisor rather than the prince himself; the role of Barlaam is given to Maria, who is the prince's (i.e. Freder's) love interest as well as his spiritual guide.
- #289
The film drew heavily on biblical sources for several of its key set-pieces. During her first talk to the workers, Maria uses the story of the Tower of Babel to highlight the discord between the intellectuals and the workers. Additionally, a delusional Freder imagines the false-Maria as the Whore of Babylon, riding on the back of a many-headed dragon. Also, the name of the Yoshiwara club alludes to the famous red-light district of Tokyo.
- #290
Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels was impressed with the film's message of social justice. In a 1928 speech he declared that "the political bourgeoisie is about to leave the stage of history. In its place advance the oppressed producers of the head and hand, the forces of Labour, to begin their historical mission".
- #291
Brigitte Helm said in a contemporary interview that the amount of pressure that Fritz Lang put upon them was immense. Shooting took well over a year, and some of the demands they faced from their director put strain on their physical health. During the scene in which the false Maria is burned at the stake, Lang instructed the actor playing Grot to grab and drag Brigitte Helm by the hair (which he is shown to do). According to many sources, Helm's dress caught alight during this same scene, as Lang frequently demanded numerous retakes.
- #292
Contains a major spoiler — show
In keeping with the Biblical themes, "Josephat" is a common shortened version of Jehoshaphat. The biblical Jehoshaphat was a priestly king of ancient Judah, known for generally being a good and fair leader, and learning from his mistakes. A fitting moniker for Freder's friend who gets fired by Joh Fredersen.
- #293
Contains a major spoiler — show
Rotwang has a memorial monument to Hel. While it's explained that Hel was the late wife of Joh Fredersen, "Hel" is also the Norse goddess in charge of the "Halls of Hel," or underworld. Her name, and the location (often shortened simply to "Hel," which gave us the word hell), were synonymous with death. To be blunt, Rotwang was quite literally worshiping death, which helps explain his plan for the mechanical Maria.
- #294
There was no optical printing system at the time, so to create a matte effect, a large mirror was positioned at an angle to reflect a work of art, and live images were projected onto the back. The silver coating behind the mirror had to be scraped away at strategically chosen spots to reveal the projected image. A single mistake would ruin the entire mirror. This was done for every separate shot that had to be combined this way. The procedure was developed by Eugen Schüfftan and is known as the "Schufftan Process."
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The film draws on the Bible in its key scenes. In her first speech to the workers, Maria uses the story of the Tower of Babel to emphasize the discord between intellectuals and workers. In Freder's vision, the false Maria appears as the Whore of Babylon riding a many-headed dragon. The name of the Yoshiwara club, meanwhile, refers to Tokyo's famous red-light district.
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The film's plot owes much to the story of Buddha's enlightenment: a prince is isolated from the outside world by his father and raised in luxury. On a rare excursion from the palace, he discovers the suffering of ordinary people, renounces his wealth and sets out in search of an answer. This story was Christianized and brought to medieval Europe as the parable of Barlaam and Josaphat (a name derived from bodhisattva), with the addition of a monk character who converts the prince to Christianity. The parable was widely believed to be true, so much so that Barlaam and Josaphat were canonized as saints by the Catholic Church. The film keeps the name Josaphat but gives it to the prince's adviser; the role of Barlaam is given to Maria, the prince's (that is, Freder's) lover and spiritual guide.
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In his father's office, Freder looks at a clock with hours from 1 to 10. This might suggest that time measurement has been converted to a decimal system in the future, but the clock face at the father's meeting with Rosgauten reads 1-12. The 1-10 clock faces are meant to indicate 10-hour shifts.
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Career & Awards (10)
- #312
Science fiction author H.G. Wells called this "quite the silliest film". In a scathing review, he wrote that "I do not believe it would be possible to make one sillier. It comes from the great Ufa studios in Germany, and the public is given to understand that it has been produced at enormous cost. It gives in one eddying concentration almost every possible foolishness, cliché, platitude, and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general, served up with a sauce of sentimentality that is all its own."
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Life & Family (3)
- #322
Much to Fritz Lang's dismay, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were big fans of the film. Goebbels met with Lang and told him that he could be made an honorary Aryan despite his Jewish background. Goebbels told him "Mr. Lang, we decide who is Jewish and who is not." Lang left for Paris that very night.
- #323
The connection of this film to the Nazi regime is quite remarkable. Thea von Harbou, who was Fritz Lang's wife, was an ardent and early supporter of the party. Not only Adolf Hitler, but all the inner circle were entranced by the film and considered it as a sort of social blueprint. Lang, of course, was Jewish but the Fuehrer offered him a pass for his ingenuity and vision, very rare in Nazi Germany. He fled to Paris, then eventually America.
- #324
The connection of this film to the Nazi regime is quite remarkable. Thea von Harbou, who was Fritz Lang's wife, was an ardent and early supporter of the party. Not only Hitler, but all the inner circle were entranced by the film and considered it as a sort of social blueprint. Lang, of course, was Jewish but the leader offered him a pass for this. Very rare in Nazi Germany. He fled to America and American cinema was much the better for that.
Sources & editorial notes
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