A course in symbology & cryptic messages

Metropolis (Silent, 1927)

Director: Fritz Lang

This silent film is a treasure that was lost in the annals of time, and the reel of films was recovered piecemeal in Argentina. It was written by a husband and wife team of Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang, who later separated due to a difference in political ideologies.  In essence, it portrays a futuristic time (2026) when a city built by Joh Frederson is divided into two social classes. The ruling party enjoys a cushy life on land whilst the oppressed robotic-like workers live deep underground, literally working themselves to death to keep the evil machines in working order so that life as they knew in Metropolis, the city, can function.

The film references many biblical events, although many of these religious innuendos can be construed as a pure figment of our own interpretation of the story. The copy I watched had some exciting director's comments explaining cryptic messages hidden in the story.

Metropolis 2026

It has the reputation of being the most expensive silent movie ever produced and ear-marked Lang as an influential film-maker making Nazi's Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels, approach Lang to fulfil the Nazi party's agenda, which he politely declined and absconded to Paris before the day was through.

Queen used scenes from this film in the music video for their 1984 hit song, 'Radio Ga Ga'.
The film starts with the classic scene of workers changing shifts, dragging their feet in a zombie-like fashion as they enter and leave a lift deep into the city's depths.

Virgin Maria

Up above on land, the privileged sons of the ruling class (industrialists) have a carefree life in the 'Club of Sons', enjoying sports and social activities. All girls go agape, trying to be Mr Joh Frederson's only heir, Freder's consort. (Joh is supposed to denote  Jehovah)

Freder's philandering days end abruptly when he lays his eyes on Maria when she brings the children of the workers' clean up on the surface just momentarily to show them how rich people live. (Maria, a virgin with children?)

Freder runs after Maria as she disappears behind the door. He misses her but instead witnesses an explosion in the machine room. He is aghast at the workers' living conditions and the accident.

He rushes to his father's office, Tower of Babel, the highest building in the city to convey the news.
The father, a true 'time is money' industrialist, does not take the news well. Just then, the engineer, Grot, walks in some sketched plan found in the injured workers' clothes. Angered, Mr Frederson sacks his personal secretary, Josaphat. Depressed that dismissal would mean moving into the depths to join the workforce, Josaphat attempts suicide just to be stopped by Freder in the nick of time. He is hired by Freder instead.

Meanwhile, Freder trades places (uniform) with a struggling worker, #11811. The worker later absconds with the money found in his pocket to be wasted in the red-light district Yoshiwara.

Hel

We are then shown a strange house in the middle of Metropolis occupied by an inventor, Rotwang, who lost a hand during a mishap. He now wears a steel prosthesis (a hybrid of man and machine).

All three men have something in common - Frederson's deceased wife was Rotwang's former girlfriend and was Fredo's mother. The lady in common is Hel (Nordic Motherly Goddess of Death).

Frederson pays Rotwang a visit, who is still sore for losing his girl even though Hel is long dead and gone. The slightly mad Rotwang had a statue of Hel and invented a 'Machine Man' in her mould. Interestingly, we see perched above the machine is a pentagram with a downward pointed star denoting the Satanic practises.

Rotwang reads the sketched plan as referring to a catacomb (an ancient underground cemetery). Frederson and Rotwang follow flights of stairs to the catacomb to witness Maria, the priestess, giving a sermon on love and patience and to wait for the mediator to arrive to allay the workers' worries. Amongst the crowd is also a love-smitten Fredo.

The story of the biblical Tower of Babel is told, emphasising how (just like in Metropolis) there is a discord between the brains of the construction and the brawn, resulting in revolt.
Rotwang devises an evil plan to make the Machine Man, in the image of Maria, mislead the workers to fight the establishment, simultaneously destroying his arch-enemy, who stole his girl. He chases and apprehends Maria. This sequence is supposedly legendary with brilliant use of series of light and shadows to evoke fearful emotions in Maria. (The comments say that it is symbolic of a hybrid of man and machine (steel-handed Rotwang) and evil (torchlight will illuminate light- Lucifer bearer of light)??)

On a 7-headed 10-horned beast

The false Maria starts her nefarious act. Seeing her intimate with his father, Freder falls ill (Oedipus complex, as the machine man, is shaped after Hel!). By the time Freder is convalescing, Metropolis is in tatters. The workers have stopped working, the city is flooding, the rich kids patronising Yoshiwara are up in arms against each other over False Maria, and the workers have abandoned their kids while they just follow False Maria aimlessly, creating anarchy. (Here, she is compared to the Whore of Baghdad as described in the Bible).

To summarise, Fredo, Josaphat, and the Real Maria rescue the children. Fredo and Rotwang engage in a duel in a cathedral with gargoyles, which ends when Rotwang falls to his death.
Workers realise that they have been misled. Sanity is restored. Fredo becomes the Mediator they have been waiting for, acting as the go-between between his father and Grot, representing the working class. END.

Memorable quotes

• People spoke the same language but could not understand each other.
• Great is the world and its creator, and great is man.
• The mediator between head and hands must be the heart.