Perhaps I’m eighty years behind, but I finally had the chance to see Fritz Lang’s Metropolis last night. The Guild, our local indie cinema, was showing a restoration that included many scenes thought lost. It’s a silent film, so its language must be visual. Even visual metaphors are used, juxtaposing mechanics killed in an explosion with savages sacrificing themselves before a pagan god. I’ve seen this sort of visual language used before, in F. W. Murnau’s Faust, which is from the same period. I noticed Murnau’s estate had purchased the rights to this film, and his signature is the first thing shown on the screen.
Many silent films are accompanied by live musicians. The showing of Metropolis we attended did not have a live accompaniment … quite. Instead, there was a live rerecording of the original score that Gottfried Huppertz composed for the film. That the score was recorded live was given away by the subdued coughs during quiet passages.
The film itself is divided into three movements: Prelude, Intermezzo, and Furioso – markings that are observed at least passingly in the score. The score itself is a heavy Wagnerian affair. It nicely complements the action onscreen, which is not surprising since Huppertz himself accompanied the actors by playing piano reductions of the score during filming. Huppertz’s mark on the filming is evident throughout, from the exotic dances of the Machine Man to the fearful reactions to Maria’s tolling of the church bell. His use of the Dies Irae in the cathedral reminds me of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique in its marriage of the divine and the diabolic. All these scenes work so well with Huppertz’s score that it would be a markedly different film without it.
