Flick Review < Metropolis | Fritz Lang, 1927 & Behind The Scenes
Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang, 1927
Screenplay by Thea von Harbou
Cinematography Karl Freund / Günther Rittau / Walter Ruttmann
The screenplay of Metropolis was written by Fritz Lang and his wife, Thea von Harbou, a popular writer in Weimar Germany.
Shooting of the film was a draining experience for the actors involved, due to the demands that Lang placed on them. For the scene where the worker’s city was flooded, Brigitte Helm and 500 children from the poorest districts of Berlin had to work for 14 days in a pool of water that Lang intentionally kept at a low temperature
Brigitte Helm sustained cuts and bruises while in character as the robot, as the costume was rigid and uncomfortable.
Shooting lasted over a year, and was finally completed on 30 October 1926.
The effects expert Eugen Schüfftan created pioneering visual effects for Metropolis. Among the effects used are miniatures of the city, a camera on a swing, and most notably, the Schüfftan process, in which mirrors are used to create the illusion that actors are occupying miniature sets.
The film’s original score was composed for a large orchestra by Gottfried Huppertz. Huppertz drew inspiration from Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, and combined a classical orchestral voice with mild modernist touches to portray the film’s massive industrial city of workers.
Metropolis was extremely expensive and not a financial success, almost bankrupted the studio that made it (UFA). The film was cut almost as soon as it was released, and shortened yet more radically in the UK and USA.
Metropolis is a 1925 novel by the German writer Thea von Harbou. The story is set in 2026 in a technologically advanced city, which is sustained by the existence of an underground society of labourers. The son of one of the city’s founders falls in love with a girl from the underground society, as the two societies begin to clash due to the lack of a unifying force.
The novel was serialised in the magazine Illustriertes Blatt in 1925, accompanied by screenshots from the upcoming film adaptation.
Metropolis, Thea von Harbou, 1927
Metropolis, Thea von Harbou, London The Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd., 1927
On the set of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis 1927
Fritz Lang, Brigitte Helm and Thea von Harbou taking a break during the epic production of Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang on the set of Metropolis
