METROPOLIS

METROPOLIS. Fritz Lang, dir. Germany: Ufa, 1926. Available in alternate versions, including attempts at restoration.[1]

Classic silent film of immense influence and continuing artistic value. We see in the film an apparently elevated pleasure-city for the elite and a mechanized underground portion of the Metropolis, where mechanized workers tend the city's machines. An important work for a robot femme fatale and the motif of mechanized underworlds; cf. ANDROID (film), A BOY AND HIS DOG, THX 1138, and EX MACHINA in this Category, and see under Fiction, E. M. Forster, "Machine Stops," and H. G. Wells, Time Machine and First Men in the Moon. METROPOLIS is discussed in TMG[2] by L. Heldreth (essay cited under Drama Criticism).