Metropolis

Damn! Still not the latest version with the restored missing scenes. This is the 2001 cut, with intertitles filing in the missing scenes. This is a rewatch, although the first time I saw it was the colourised version with a cheesy soundtrack by Bonnie Tyler, Queen and the rest (1985 version). That was a garbled mess even if the visuals are nice. As it is, the intertitles about the missing scenes does fill in some answers to the 1985 version, like how Maria escaped and what happened between worker 11811 and Josaphat.

It's still a strange and beautiful film, even if I thought the scenes of expositing the future was short, few and far in between. The plot is neo-Marxist in tone, the ant-like workers revolting against the upper class hedonists. There are elements of 20s Futurism all over the place, though I would have liked it to use zeppelins instead of biplanes in the cityscape shots. Still some profound mysteries go unanswered... Why would the builder of Metropolis want to destroy the drones since they are responsible for the upkeep of the city? What exactly is the role of the Thin Man besides spying on the founder's son? The robot transference only applies to living beings, why did Rotwang, the mad scientist, want to graft the founder's dead wife in the first place? What is the fate of worker 11811?

As it stands, I tend to differ from most popular opinion. Metropolis is hardly Lang's best film, that would be the intriguing and startling "Spione". IMHO, Metropolis is overrated. In much the same way I feel that "Touch of Evil" is Welles' best, not "Citizen Kane", and "Le Doulos" is Melville's finest, not "Le Samourai". That's going against the grain for you.