Fritz Lang
Metropolis

LA RECENSIONE

"Metropolis". The film that best represents the fate and drives of the entire humanity.

With what strength of spirit can one approach reviewing a film of such magnitude? Only with the humility of someone who knows they are dealing with a work that transcends its purely cinematic meaning to become a true Existentialist Manifesto and a Historical/Sociological treatise appreciated by a vast group of admirers spread all over the world.

This "Metropolis" by Fritz Lang, from 1926, is indeed a film that has sparked entire bibliographies on both its intrinsic and extrinsic meanings of this story of sci-fi/politics, filled with imagination and foresight of worlds and visions that remain dramatically current even today. There has been much discussion about "Christian Message" (the figure of the aristocratic and ethereal Maria – a name that guarantees – who, enlightened by her conscience, converts to the will of the people), of "Marxist-Leninist Message" (the people's seizure of power), of "Dantesque Vision" (the volumetric dimensions of the heavenly upper and infernal lower levels), the "Apocalyptic" (the destruction of everything to hasten the future rebirth of a new society), and many other interpretations all valid and plausible, with different overlapping layers of reading that are sometimes perfectly distinguishable within the work.

Metropolis is one of the first science fiction films where director Lang (I hope someone starts reviewing his other works!) perfectly combines avant-garde ideas of scenic architecture, photographic and psychological portraits of archetypes with a unique intensity, and pro-communist content (when the term "communist" still had only positive and ideologically pure connotations) in the eternal struggle of Power (the privilege of a small caste) against the working class (exploited and without any rights... well, what a novelty!). All held together by a cinematic rigor and compositional ability in framing and photography truly commendable.

One of the great films protected by History (Unesco included it among the "World Heritage" works and even the UN selected it for the "Memory of the World" in '94!) that has been recently "remastered", precisely in 1994, thanks to a coloring of the original masters (I would dare to say "superfluous as much as useless") and the rewriting of the original soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder (equally dispensable!!).
A strongly symbolic and idealistic film, with the revolt of the people/workers against the dictatorship oppressing them, that speaks to us about strong values (and if we want, somewhat forgotten) like the right to Freedom as the Supreme Value, the desire to aspire to a better world, the possible revolution that starts "from below", from the streets and factories, in short, from the people (the period of the trade union struggles of the '70s would have to wait almost 50 years!!).

'Metropolis', ultimately, speaks about us, about our desires and impulses, filtered through the eye and sensitivity of an era (1926) that had just emerged from the nightmare of the First World War and was unaware of the approaching second international conflict in 20 years.

A film AGAINST every form of violence and a certain way of understanding Progress and Modernity but also against "uncontrolled revolution" born of Chaos that inevitably leads only to nothing, but also a work IN FAVOR of Hope towards a Humanity that only by harmonizing its extreme fringes (the beautiful final scene of the right and left hands clasping together in a show of cooperation) can aspire to a truly better World.

Something that, judging by how everything is going for the worse (from the international political situation to the latest catastrophic environmental reports), is conceivable only in the year of NEVER.