Last saturday night, i went to the opening of German Cinema which was a part of Jerman Fest events (or German Season, as they called it for our foreigners friends, or Deutsche Saison in German) at Taman Ismail Marzuki.
Which at Jerman Fest, there will be a lot of cultural programs and workshops like music, arts, cinemas, literature, sports and lots of it starts from September to December this year.
Jerman Fest begins with screening of the famous silents, Metropolis (1927) along with live film orchestra by Babelsberg from Germany. Featuring the 25 minutes missing footage which were discovered in Argentina. BOY. As in we're all in year 1927 of Metropolis movie premiere.
Or at least, it almost felt like. Because the orchestra was playing inside the theatre while the public screening was outdoor. They used speakers so the outdoor audience could hear the sound also.
I was totally bummed, i had no idea about this. People who watched it in the theatre probably VIP guests and media. or maybe blogger too. I don't know. maybe if i work hard enough writing on this blog maybe i could become one notable film blogger specialise in classic films. I mean, i can't even find any Indonesian ever write about classic film. A girl can dream but....
Damn it i just want a screening with live film score in front of me!
(yeah but at least i can scratch it off my bucket list, with compromise..)
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| there goes the spirit of Cher Horowitz |
So, this was not my first Fritz Lang, but it was my first time watching Metropolis. And i too, love the open air cinema. And (still) lucky me, with live-on-speaker film score played by the marvellous Babelsberg film orchestra from Germany, the sensation was quite priceless. The Babelsberg film orchestra did a very good job on the score. I got chills down my spine the first time the movie began. Even though they broadcast the music through speaker for the public audience, in every echo of the timpani, in every stroke of the violin, the Filmorchester Babelsberg successfully bring the movie come to life.
The story
Metropolis had wide views of the story. Metropolis was a town who run by the hands of working class, ten hours a day below the ground. The working class themselves was visualised with a stiff movement while working with the machine, as if they were part of it. One day, the city mastermind's son, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), saw young woman named Maria (Brigitte Helm) at the children's club who brought along the worker's children to see the lives of the children of the privileged. Freder was stunned with her presence and rushes to the workers city in attempt to find her. instead he was lost to the machine room and saw the explosion. Freder runs to his father, Joh Frederson (Alfred Abel) and tell him about the news. His foreman, Grot hands a paper of a blueprint found from the dead worker's pocket. Frederson was raged, he sent away his assistant, Josaphat, because he had failed him to inform the accident instead heard it from his son.
Joh Frederson, not knowing about this, He go to the mad scientist named rotwang's place and consult about the blue print. Rotwang tells about his new invention, the Maschinenmensch (Machine Man), to resurrects the woman he love, Hel, who left him for frederson and later died for giving birth to Freder.
Rotwang took him underground, and eavesdropping the secret meeting held by Maria and the workers.
The flipped out Joh Frederson ask rotwang to make the Maschinenmensch look like Maria to break the worker's trust in Maria. But instead, Rotwang command the Maschinenmensch to destroy Joh Frederson, and his son. Which later turns to be a lusty robot woman who tear the town in two.
It's amazing to think that this film was made in 1927, not just the visuals but the way the story was told and constructed into one solid film that rich with values and influences which were ahead than any other film at the time. Metropolis uses two biblical references as the spine of the story. One is the tower of babel refers to the city itself. The movie begins with the landscape of metropolis with particular music score that wanted to show the audience the great city of Metropolis. Just like a tower of babel who were built to show power. Second, is the whore of the babel, refers to the robot imposes as Maria.
Filmmaking is never easy not then and not ever. Fritz Lang asked for a six thousand extras to shoot as workers, but in the end, there was only like 1000. They had to use a lot of creativity to achieve the special effects which were later produced so many iconic scenes of metropolis.
This film is the most expensive films ever made at the time.
Fritz Lang didn't fancy the movie later on and wasn't appreciated that much because he wasn't think about the consequences (when he create Metropolis) to audience with the ongoing political situation.
Well, he's making a movie about the falls of a great city, a working class riot (minus the robot), a futuristic ideas in 1927. People can't deal just yet with his idea. With the raging war and everything of course leading countries of the world flipped out and says that this film's a wuss. The New York Times called it a "technical marvel with feet of clay". H. G. wells accussed it of foolishness, cliché, platitude, and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general."
He found the message is too cliche, the mediator of the head and the hand must be the heart. And he's not sure that Thea von Harbou's is still in it anymore.
"The main thesis was Mrs. Von Harbou's, but I am at least 50 percent responsible because I did it. I was not so politically minded in those days as I am now. You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale – definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture – thought it was silly and stupid – then, when I saw the astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures—should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished?
taken from wiki
conclusion
My professor in University once said, it takes time for an art to be understood by the people, a film could made at a time and not succeed at all. Some take 10, 20 or 30 years for audience to actually realised the beauty of it and appreciate the arts. Which was true, sometimes society couldn't accept the idea just yet.
But many years later, etropolis was praised as a genius work of art, a breakthrough in filmmaking. And it has inspired a lot of filmmakers nowadays in their work. The mediator of the head and the hand must be the heart, of course it's fairytale. But if Fritz Lang made the film without von Harbou's thesis, maybe metropolis will sink to the ground, or maybe there will be revolutions for the working class, anything will make a whole different movie than what it is now, or maybe this great film noir will never exists.
and everytime i type Maria, my head playing Maria by Blondie
(photos taken from : http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/behind-the-scenes-photos-of-metropolis-with-robots-and-1593769945)
