METROPOLIS (1926)

Germany. Direction: Fritz Lang. Production: Erich Pommer / UFA. Screenplay: Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou. Photography: Karl Freund, Günter Rittau. Cast: Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theodor Loos.

Shadow. The shadow of its architecture is long, stretching to Gotham heights, to the damp walls of Blade Runner (1982). Its shadow is tremendous, mephistophelic. Its not exactly happy slave squads populate our proletarian nightmares. Its people, Lang as director, Karl Freund as director of photography, Eugene Schüfftan as the creator of special effects, Otto Hunter, decorator, and Thea von Harbou himself as screenwriter, belong to the Parnassus of people who changed cinema. Its music, the kind that you can’t hear but can sense, embrace the rhythm of each shot. It’s Metropolis.

Special FREE screening in collaboration with the Horror & Fantasy Film Festival