Festival Archipel 2018, Genève - notice de Metropolis (Lang)

D.R.

In concert

In an immense city in the third millennium, workers form a caste of slaves are relegated to an underground town while a privileged elite lives in heavenly idleness. Freder, son of the town's master, falls in love with Maria, a young resident of the catacombs… A gigantic and visionary fresco, Metropolis represents the culmination of the German expressionist movement, as well as one of the peaks of silent film. Fritz Lang extends the pessimism of

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to an architectural and social order. He said, «Metropolis was born from my first glimpse of New York's skyscrapers, in October 1924.»  This version was presented in Berlin in 1927, before Paramount cut parts out to make it easier to promote. The cut scenes were thought to be lost, until 2008 when they were found at the Buenos Aires Cinema Museum in Argentina, much to the delight of film-lovers.