Film Essentials: "Metropolis" (1926)

During a recent screening of Metropolis I kept wondering what a remake would look like if one were made in 2009. I kept coming to the same conclusion: it probably wouldn’t look all that much different. Metropolis is a dark, brooding film which achieved that moodiness through production design and cinematography. Fritz Lang’s film nails the vision of a bleak future dominated by a superior few. Cynics might say that in the years since Metropolis was released, Hollywood has churned out remakes, in one way or another. There’s been THX-1138, Blade Runner, and even the brightly colored Logan’s Run that have portrayed wild visions of a dystopian future. Yet none of these have come close to capturing the downright creepy society that Lang delivered in Metropolis. The cavernous sets literally tower over the cast and are the most effective element of the film. Some of the great set pieces included the Tower of Babel, the catacombs, Rotwang’s lab, and the Workers’ City with the heart machine. Of course Lang’s extraordinary use of production design should come as no surprise given that he is a descendent of German cinema. While the Russians were preoccupied with capturing realism and editing, the German style was much more focused on visual aesthetics with little emphasis on storytelling. I found not only the sets and lighting to be visually entrancing in Metropolis, but also the characters. Lang used actors who were well versed in delivering wicked sneers, bulging eyes, and shocked expressions. In a sense, Lang’s actors were used as part of the production design; many of them contribute to Metropolis’ eeriness. Characters such as Joh Frederson, the Thin Man, the machine woman and Rotwang populate Lang’s urban nightmare, and all seem like folks whom you’d never want to run into in a dark alley. There’s really no need to ever consider a true modern remake of Metropolis; Lang’s iconic film can never be matched.