Review of Metropolis (1927) by Filipeneto — 23 Jan 2020

One of the most visually appealing silent films I know.

This is probably one of the greatest silent films ever made and one of the great classics of cinema before the Second World War. It is amazing how, in a sense, it is still up to date and influencing more recent films ("Elysium" is the name that occurs to me more quickly now because I saw it recently, but there are more). Its futuristic look has influenced most of the sci-fi films, such as "Star Wars", "Star Trek", the animated series "Futurama" and even the cartoon "The Jetsons".

Made with great quality, it is a film whose elegant cinematography already reminds us of the look of the first spoken films, in the thirties. There is some academic debate about whether this film belongs to the expressionist movement or not. Personally, I think there are clear expressionist influences on the story told, where paranoia and mistrust towards authority are constant, but visually, they are no longer expressionist.

The story told is deeply dystopian and mixes futuristic elements with biblical allusions: Metropolis is a huge futuristic city run by one man: Johann Fredersen, who lives in the New Tower of Babel. However, it is supported by an immense number of workers who, in the depths, operate a series of machines for hours on end, in inhuman conditions. Freder, the son of Johann Fredersen, decides to try to put an end to this injustice.

In the film, in addition to the good performances of actors such as Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge and Brigitte Helm, production values ​​stand out. The music is excellent and matches the film perfectly; the costumes are good and the sets, especially, are great. The special and visual effects are good and work very well. The scene of the creation of the Woman Machine is particularly stunning. Cinematography uses a lot of light and shadow and the film is very visually pleasing, one of the most pleasant in silent cinema, in my opinion.