Metropolis

That word definite is bandied about quite a lot these days, yet it is not always so. But in this case it certainly is the correct word to use! Metropolis, this silent classic amongst classics, is here presented in its most reconstructed and restored version yet and can finally be seen as the director originally intended!

Lang’s Sci-fi opus depicts a rather disturbing future where society is divided into two groups: the wealthy elite of those spending their time in decadence and luxury, and the downtrodden workers doomed to spend their miserable lives in a subterranean sweat shop. All are forced to work a ten-hour shift, with a ten-hour clock being glimpsed throughout.

Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel), the ruthless plutocrat mainly responsible for this unjust state of affairs happens to be the father of Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), the hero of the story. Whilst frolicking with pretty girls in the ‘Eternal Gardens’, Freder spots the beautiful and saintly Maria (Brigitte Helm) coming from the depths with a group of children in order to show them their ‘sisters’ and ‘brothers’. Intrigued and instantly smitten, Freder follows her to the workers world below. This proves to be a real eye opener for him as until then, the hedonistic young man had no idea of the horrors that go on below and how his father’s workers are exploited. Furthermore, the saintly Maria preaches to her flock (all of them male workers) that HEAD and HANDS require a mediator and thus to be patient. The mediator between head and Hands must be the HEART! Needless to say the mediator in question turns out to be Freder… but not quite yet…

The love-struck and newly enlightened Freder goes to plead with his father to lighten the workers load, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. Fredersen’s office is at the top of a building that is a latter day version of the biblical Tower of Babel with which deliberate parallels are drawn. Meanwhile, Grot (Heinrich George) who is Joh’s foreman hints that Freder has been spotted ‘below’ – prompting the suspicious father to look a little further into what Freder is getting up to. To do so, he enlists the help of the Thin Man (Fritz Rasp) to spy on him.
A subplot concerns mad scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), an associate of Joh Fredersen, who had been in love with a woman named Hel, but who left him to marry the latter and then died giving birth to Freder. Rotwang is hell-bent on bringing the spirit of his former love back to life and – brilliant scientist that he is - has built a robot to resurrect her. In order to achieve this evil goal, he kidnaps the good Maria to give his metallic creation her physiognomy. Pretty soon, all hell breaks lose but not that hell, when the ‘evil’ Maria (Rotwang’s robot) stirs up a revolution amongst the workers. Of course, this is precisely what Rotwang wants - pandemonium and riots on the street so Master Joh Fredersen is faced with a difficult situation! But never fear, the HEART is close at hand…

Lang’s film (with a screenplay written by his then wife Thea von Harbou) turned out to be a mega flop upon its initial release but has since influenced countless Sci-fi films such as Blade Runner and Star Wars. In the long run though, Lang’s vision paid off and Metropolis now ranks as the deserved classic that it is.
For a film made in 1927, one can only marvel at the epic scale of the gargantuan sets and the technical expertise as well as the countless extras. The iconic female robot Maria was created by sculptor Walter Schulze-Mittendorff and would not be out of place in a contemporary Sci-fi adventure!
One of the three cinematographers is no less a luminary – the talented Karl Freund who later went to Hollywood (like Lang) and worked as a director (The Mummy, Mad Love).

This fabulous SteelBook Edition contains a host of whopping Special Features:

*Opportunity in every SteelBook to win a unique bespoke Metropolis engraved solid gold bar
Limited to 4000 copies worldwide
*The Fading Image, a rarely seen behind-the-scenes documentary about Moroder’s restoration and scoring of Metropolis
*Metropolis Refound - a 2010 documentary by Evangelina Loguerico exploring the rediscovery of the most complete print of the Fritz Lang masterpiece in an Argentinean film museum.
*Giorgio Moroder presents: Metropolis - the 1984 re-imaging of Metropolis featuring a soundtrack by Moroder himself and artists such as Adam Ant, Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury and many more.
*150-minute reconstructed and restored 2010 version
*2010 symphony orchestra studio recording of the original 1927 Gottfried Huppertz score in 5.1
*Optional English subtitles as well as the original German intertitles
*Full-length audio commentary by David Kalat and Jonathan Rosenbaum
*Die Reise nach Metropolis (2010, 53 minutes), a documentary about the film
*2010 re-release trailer
*56-page booklet featuring archival interviews with Fritz Lang, a 1927 review by Luis Buñuel, articles by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Karen Naundorf, and restoration notes by Martin Koerber and more!