Metropolis

I saw Metropolis at The Balboa with 24-year-old Brett Miller on the organ providing live accompaniment, and all I have to say is WOW. I never want to watch this movie again unless it's paired with a live orchestra performance. Silent film doesn't have to mean quiet. Also, the Q&A between Miller and a local film professor added to the experience. Brett Miller, have you ever been told you sound like Jesse Eisenberg? Brigitte Helm absolutely stole the show in her dual roles, especially as the false Maria. Her transformation into something uncanny and seductive is still unsettling nearly a century later. That dance sequence feels like a spell being cast, even in its goofier moments. You can see the DNA of German Expressionism in every shadow, every exaggerated movement, and every impossible set. The intermezzo act was my favorite, with the retelling of the Tower of Babel and the descent into the final act, where the story came to life. Death itself rose and played a bone flute for the Seven Deadly Sins like some macabre pied-piper. It’s surreal, biblical, theatrical in a way that modern films rarely are. The lighting and choreography are what really stuck with me. Everything feels intentional, almost ritualistic, like the actors are part of the machinery of the film itself. Look at the first shift change - the workers leaving and the workers coming in moving at different speeds, the choreography of the workers as parts of the machine - the entire thing was a production. It felt more like a theater performance than a movie. It’s easy to see how Metropolis shaped not just sci-fi, but the horror genre too! The visual language of unease is a thread through the entire movie. After singing all my praises, the ending didn’t land for me. After everything - the flooding, the destruction, the uprising - it resolves in a way that feels willfully naive. I kept thinking, what happens next? You don’t just rebuild a city (or a class system) with a handshake and a metaphor. It undercuts some of the weight the film builds so well. As a piece of film history, it’s kind of undeniable. I could watch it a million more times. Happy birthday to me! Edit to add: Cool piece of film history I learned during the Q&A! They didn't have the complete film until 2010! The footage was found in Argentina and restored. The screenplay wasn't locked down; all they had was the score, and it lines up perfectly - only around 40 measures needing to be cut.