Metropolis
Visionary silent cinema classic by Fritz Lang about a futuristic city where workers toil for their domineering overseers.
An eye-popping marvel of mammoth geometrical production design and magnificent special effects, METROPOLIS is set in a glittering megacity of the 21st century where the masses work as slaves for the good of a ruling elite. The downtrodden workers toil robot-like in the grim subterranean factory city, succored by saintly Maria, who urges them to shun revolution and wait patiently for the arrival of a Mediator. The plot has the ruling tyrant and a mad scientist conspiring to replace Maria with a robot doppelgänger.
Inspired by Lang’s first glimpse of the Manhattan skyline, METROPOLIS was a production of truly massive proportions: the size of its budget was unprecedented, its cast numbered over 37,000. The result is the grandest science fiction film of the silent era.