Tehran – A restored version of Fritz Lang’s 1927 German science fiction film Metropolis will be screened on Friday at the Iranian Artist Forum (IAF) in Tehran.
The 153-minute film will be exhibited in Persian subtitles at IAF’s Naseri Hall at 6pm, Honaronlein reported.
It is a silent film in black and white, oscillated between expressionism and new objectivity. The script, adapted from the original novel by Thea von Harbou, was co-written by then-married Fritz Lang. Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge are one of the main roles.
In a future city that is sharply divided between the working class and the city planner, the son of the city’s mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the arrival of a Savior who mediates differences.
Despite being the most expensive film in cinema history at the time, a serious and commercial failure upon release was quickly cut.
It was gradually rehabilitated in the second half of the 20th century and is evidenced by multiple influences, particularly in popular culture, until it achieved its status as a major masterpiece in cinema history.
It was restored several times in 2001 and became the first film to be included in the UNESCO World of Memory International Registration.
Fritz Lang (1890-1976) was a German dual citizen from marriage since 1919 and was a naturalized American in 1935.
Inventor of numerous innovative techniques that became the norm and won the title of “Master of Darkness,” he became a cinema in 1919, introducing expressionist aesthetics that inspired films, particularly film noir.
His works intersect with revival themes, revenge, the driving of death that undermines individuals and society, manipulation of crowds by Superman, struggle for power, human violence for humans, and the freedom of evil. It’s the double, an image of intrusive strangeness, that exists in almost every part of his film.
SS/SAB