#4 - METROPOLIS (1927)
Directed by - Fritz Lang (Germany)
It's fascinating to consider the socio-political atmosphere of the time in which Fritz Lang was making his masterpiece Metropolis, not only in Germany but the whole world. In particular, it is the Fascist and Communist idealism, and their impact on the working class that seems to inevitably have heavily influenced the film, and their being represented in a poetic excercise of futuristic science fiction that came frighteningly close to what was contemporary.
It's almost impossible to understand Lang's rejection of the story's poliical implications; many years later he would even say that he detested the film by the time he was finished with in. Incredible to believe his resentment for a film that is so universally praised, and has influenced the work of so many whether directly or indirectly. Perhaps, however, it is true that the key to the film, and its core message, has more to do with the contrast between machinery and humanity. This is a message that is encapsulated in the film's well known final title card "The intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart."
Here, the workers are shown as nothing short of slaves, their flesh often at one with the machines which they work on. They move in synchronism, much like lifeless robots. They are exploited to make the wealth of a class of very few, selected wealthy people. They are manipulated, physically and mentally, by plots, plans and schemes that feed the hate and unhappiness. The chaotic developments are inevitable. And yet whatever trouble inflicts Metropolis, at its core it is the love story between a man and a woman, the first a wealthy young man, the latter a working class hero. It is a point of connection between two divided classes.
As more complete background information on the film: Metropolis became a work which fascinated the Nazi Party, and its original author Von Harbou became a passionate Nazi herself in 1933. Lang was married to Von Harbou, but he divorced a year after her subscription to the Nazi Party, and would continue on to make cinema history for years to come.