Metropolis
(DVD)

Metropolis, the novel by Thea von Harbou, first appeared in the magazine Illustriertes Blatt, Frankfurt.

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1927.

Music by Gottfried Huppertz ; performed by the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin ; conducted by Frank Strobel ; set design, Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, Karl Vollbrecht ; camera, Karl Freund, Günther Rittau ; sculptor, Walter Schultze-Mittendorf.

Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theodor Loos, Erwin Biswanger, Heinrich George, Brigitte Helm.

The future. Metropolis is a wonderful city, high above the ground its towers stand. The people prosper, the economy is flourishing, the suspended streets are busy. But Metropolis also has a great secret, so hidden that not even Freder Fredersen, son of founder Joh Fredersen knows about it. He is spending his free time in the Eternal Gardens, when suddenly a woman shows up, with what looks like a class of children. They're from the City of Workers, in the depth, Freder learns. "These are your brothers," she tells the children, before she is forced to leave. Freder is so intrigued he follows them into the depth and doesn't like what he sees. The workers are exploited, they must do labor like robots. Freder tries to convince his father to change, while the woman tries to keep workers' morale high by predicting a man will stand up that will mediate. Someone that will use both hands and head, someone that will be the heart. Soon after its premiere, Metropolis was severely shortened and altered. Since then, more than a quarter of the film was assumed to have been lost. In 2008, an almost complete version of the film was discovered in Buenos Aires. The material was heavily damaged and, because it had been printed on 16mm film stock, does not have the full-aperture silent picture ratio. Utilizing the footage from Argentina, a virtually complete Metropolis has been reconstructed and its proper editing has been restored. The text of the intertitles was taken from German censorship records and has been translated into English. In order to maintain the scale of the restored footage, the missing portion of the frame appears black. Black frames indicate points at which footage is still lost. Intertitles in a different typeface have been added to summarize the contents of the missing scenes.

DVD; region 1, NTSC; full screen presentation; Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo.

Silent film with English intertitles and music score.