dance of the masses
by Douglas Messerli
Thea
von Harbou and Fritz Lang (based on a novel by Thea von Harbou) (writers),
Fritz Lang (director) Metropolis [the
restored film of 2010] / 1927

After his workshift—during which he has
found a strange, folded map in Georgy’s work clothes—Freder follows other
workers into the underground tunnels lying below the worker’s city for a
clandestine meeting led, quite surprisingly, by Maria, who speaks to the
workers of the coming of a kind of messiah, the Mediator, who will help them to
negotiate with the leaders such as Fredersen for a better life. Moved, by her
words, Freder himself perceives that he is in a position to be such a mediator,
and approaches Maria with the news.

Rotwang, we discover, was also in love
with Fredersen’s wife, who died years earlier, and has created a robot to bring
her back to life. Observing the beautiful Maria at the meeting, he determines
to use her face and body to bring his robot into being, presumably, upon Fredersen’s
instructions, as an evil Frankensteinian force to help the workers in their own
self-destruction (why he would want this, resulting as it must in the loss of
power for the upper-world city, is unexplained). But Rotwang has other plans in
mind, and bids his “evil Maria” to obey only him.
Freder who accidentally has heard Maria’s
cries from the house in which Rotwang has captured her, attempts to enter, but
is barred, until, one by one, doors open and close behind him, entrapping him
in the same house while Maria’s visage is morphed onto the robot’s frame.
There are other subplots, Freder’s being
followed by The Thin Man, ordered by Fredersen to keep watch over his son,
Georgy’s adventure in the licentious nightclub Yoshiwara, and numerous other
plot twists that keep the action moving, but hardly matter in the larger scheme
of things. What is at center is the now “evil Maria’s” ability to convince the
workers to attack and destroy the machines, which are now seen as gigantean
Molochs, idolatrous gods to which the workers must daily bow and by which they
are destroyed.

The most exciting scene of the film,
certainly, is the worker’s entry into the machine plants and their destruction
of the power systems. What they do not comprehend, as they attempt, finally, to
destroy the very “Heart Machine,” the machine that ultimately controls all the
others, is that in doing so they inadvertently have flooded their own houses,
where their children lay in bed. The loyal worker Josaphat tries,
unsuccessfully to tell them while Maria works them into a greater and greater
frenzy.
Meanwhile, the good Maria has escaped,
miraculously unscathed, Rotwang’s chambers and made her way, with Freder, to
the worker’s city. Observing what has occurred, she rings the town bells to
warn the children, who come rushing out of their homes at the very moment that
the streets are filling with water. Freder and Georgy have followed the workers
to explain what is happening, but are trapped, temporarily, in the remnants of
the destruction. Finally escaping, they join Maria hovering in the town square
with the children, and order them to attempt to escape upwards into the world
above. Doors are bolted and blocked, and for a while it appears all will drown,
until Freder is finally able to break through, leading the children, along with
Maria to safety in the posh halls of the executives’ club. In the transferal,
however, Freder and Maria become separated.
The “evil” Maria, who has already
enchanted the wealthy patrons of Yoshiwara, returns to Metropolis, with the
workers, who have finally discerned what has happened and despair for the lives
of their children, chasing her with the intent of her destruction. When they
finally encounter her in the midst of a celebratory group of night clubbers
determined to dance their way into oblivion, they create a pyre upon which they
tie her, setting it afire. Freder, believing it is the “good” Maria tries to
convince them to cease, without success, and as the flames surround her, all
suddenly perceive that behind the outward visage, she is only a metal
construction.
The “good” Maria, however, has been
cornered outside the cathedral by Rotwang, who believing she is “his” Maria is
determined to now consummate the sex for which has created her, and takes her
to the towers of the church. Perceiving what has occurred, Freder goes on the
chase, with the masses behind him. After several battles between the two,
Freder defeats the evil genius, freeing Maria. The last scene, as they exit the
cathedral (symbolizing also their spiritual marriage) they encounter the crowd
slowing moving in a large triangle toward them, facing off against Joh,
Freder’s father. Meeting the foreman, Rot, Joh attempts to speak conciliatory
words, but cannot. The Mediator, Freder, must bring them together in a
handshake, as all realize the truth of Maria’s words: There can be no
understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as
mediator.”


What one perceives, despite the banal plot
and the deteriorated, interleaved clips, however, is a thing of visual
magnificence. The most expensive film of its time (made at a cost of over five
million Reichsmarks in 1927), Lang’s work is a wonder even today, and visual
splendors have been imitated in hundreds of other films. Lang’s creation of the
city, both above and below ground, is a wonder to behold, and his scenes in
Rotwang’s laboratory as the mad scientist transforms his metallized robot into
a human being has been repeated in nearly every horror film that portrays such
scenes. Just as remarkable are Lang’s portrayals of the masses, as they slowly
march forward in what one can only describe as patterned dances, looking at times
eerily like the films we have of Holocaust prisoners on their way to the
showers. Only at the foot the Heart
Machine do they actually break into a leaping dance. So ritualistic and
overpowering are these scenes, that the Nazi rallies and, particularly, Leni
Riefensthal’s films employ crowds in a somewhat similar manner.
Lang’s work, however, is far more than
that. In Metropolis Art Deco takes on
Bauhaus, Fascism rubs elbows with free-market consumerism, Karl Marx meets
Marilyn Monroe.
So taken was Joseph Goebbels with Lang’s
vision, that he offered the director the position of head of the Film Division
of the Nazi government. Lang sat impatiently through the long conversations
with Goebbels, only hoping to be able to get the bank before it closed. By the
time Goebbels was finished with him, it was too late. Lang put together a few
of his possessions and as much money has he could gather and left the country
immediately, leaving behind his wife, Thea von Harbou, the writer of Metropolis, who remained a Nazi
supporter throughout the War.
Never would Lang again be able to make
the brilliantly visual films that he had in Weimar Germany, although he did
accomplish some fine works for the Hollywood industry. Metropolis, however, remains his cinematic highpoint, even though
it is a far cruder film that his nightmarish M.
Los Angles,
October 19, 2012
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