1
00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:08,357
The hero, the searcher is shown the way.

2
00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:47,716
"Like the trail of a scent",
says the novel,

3
00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,634
"the glow in front of him
led him up the stairs."

4
00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:16,231
The old house sucks Freder in,
it makes him its prisoner,

5
00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:19,830
it draws him into the depths.

6
00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:57,233
The machinery of the old house is like
a model of the narrative mechanism,

7
00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,716
which keeps both
hero and audience moving...

8
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:06,640
always being shown something,
before it quickly disappears again.

9
00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,550
Another sign... Mary's scarf.

10
00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:17,719
And once again Freder's call for
the virgin, the mother is answered by...

11
00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:24,472
a vision, a staging.

12
00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,993
An earlier concept for the film
presented medieval and modern ages

13
00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,476
in different forms.
"Mrs. von Harbou and l",

14
00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:40,676
remembers Lang forty years later,
"included a battle between modern science

15
00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:45,077
and occultism in the screenplay,
the sorcerer was the evil force

16
00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:50,558
behind all events" - but they deviated,
Lang says, from this concept.

17
00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:56,229
Although not entirely:

18
00:03:56,280 --> 00:04:00,273
"Centuries behind, centuries ahead",
it says in the screenplay,

19
00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:05,269
Rotwang's laboratory was "half a quack's
kitchen from the year 1 500

20
00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:10,110
and half experimental laboratory
of a man from the year 2000."

21
00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:15,075
In Rotwang's character Harbou and Lang
merged both magic and modernity

22
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:20,319
in one entity. A hermaphrodite,
like the film in which he appears.

23
00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:24,793
That could have been conceived and staged
by him, just like the transformation

24
00:04:24,840 --> 00:04:28,515
of the mechanical woman
into the image of Mary.

25
00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,918
His staging combines both feminine
and masculine form and movement,

26
00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:40,918
translated into a spectacle of light.

27
00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:44,078
A Luciferic act of procreation.

28
00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:50,113
Rotwang endows his machine
with Mary's attributes...

29
00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:54,153
but he also allows the feminine
sexuality, which is repressed

30
00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:58,273
in the figure of the virgin-mother,
to be unleashed in the double.

31
00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:02,313
The chaste Mary, the white and merciful,
the virgin,

32
00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:05,716
and the hot, destructive,
the red, the vamp

33
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:09,037
are two aspects of the same character.

34
00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,673
Rotwang's experimental table,
with Mary as Snow White waiting

35
00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:30,713
in her glass coffin to be awakened,
can be seen as the couch

36
00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:34,912
of Rotwang the psychoanalyst.
Her subconscious manifests itself

37
00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:40,398
in the arcs of light stretching
between her and the mechanical woman.

38
00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:16,758
Freder, like awakening from a nightmare,
sees himself in another one.

39
00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:31,034
Hel's room...
her memorial is behind the curtain.

40
00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:51,917
Mary's Theme, agitato, in a minor key.

41
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:18,519
The false Mary,
flesh of the flesh of the true Mary,

42
00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:23,509
while at the same time
a remote-controlled machine at the core.

43
00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:38,118
Why is Fredersen so doggedly determined,
to destroy the true Mary?.

44
00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:51,399
In the figure of the merciful preacher,
he seems to sense a female challenge

45
00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:56,958
- that of matriarchy - to his patriarchal
principle of absolute power.

46
00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,871
Freder's Oedipus experience.

47
00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:16,234
The shock causes Freder to see father
and mother - whom he images as Mary -

48
00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:21,400
rotating around each other. At this point
in the novel Freder chokes his father:

49
00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:25,433
"l want to kill you! I want to
destroy you! I want to murder you!"

50
00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:29,359
In the film, a fall
- "downwards, into the depth" -

51
00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,198
into the chasm of his subconscious.

52
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:38,994
Freder in bed,

53
00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:43,079
the father in tails.
An obvious feeling of helplessness

54
00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:46,476
in front of his father's
aura of authority.

55
00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:52,311
The son remains in the care of the,
in part female, staff.

56
00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:54,999
A sick child.

57
00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:37,149
Freder's unconscious state
again fades into a Rotwang staging.

58
00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:45,753
Can it be that Freder and Rotwang
are not so much rivals

59
00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:50,635
as the alter egos of each other?.
They love the same woman, the dead Hel.

60
00:09:50,680 --> 00:09:54,673
The absence of the mother,
the lover provides the inspiration

61
00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:59,430
for Freder's visions just as much as
for Rotwang's stagings.

62
00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:07,473
Rotwang's audience consists
entirely of men, old and young,

63
00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:10,080
fathers and sons.

64
00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:17,795
"Like a blasphemous halo",
says the screenplay,

65
00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:24,434
the diadem on the woman's head appears
in the round opening of the domed roof...

66
00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:30,317
that fades out. Rotwang's show is a film,

67
00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:37,034
another of Rotwang's light productions,
with footlights and counter lighting.

68
00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,594
Rotwang's show and Freder's delirium
become one.

69
00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:05,359
An important strand in this mesh,
Freder's reminiscence

70
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of the monk's sermo in the cathedral,
has again been cut by the adaptors.

71
00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:38,630
diverges from the action which was shown:

72
00:11:38,680 --> 00:11:42,673
isolated, edited gestures
and the positions of the dancer,

73
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combined with the picture
of the audience

74
00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:48,797
- groups, singles, only eyes finally -

75
00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:54,030
Rotwang's production becomes Lang's...
pure montage cinema.

76
00:12:27,680 --> 00:12:31,673
Rotwang's show
now clearly becomes Freder's vision,

77
00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:38,592
the memory of the seven deadly sins
in the cathedral,

78
00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:45,590
of the monk's sermon
on the Whore of Babylon,

79
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which he associates with the image
of the false Mary, the New Hel,

80
00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:52,712
the mother-whore...

81
00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:02,109
which becomes one with that
of the Metropolis, the Mother City.

82
00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:42,916
Freder, convalescent, is reading.

83
00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:48,830
A copy of the page which was shown
at this point in the film.

84
00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:23,638
Again, two parallel scenes, the second
once more cut by the adaptors.

85
00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:26,997
The spy reports to the father,

86
00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:30,792
the friend to the son.

87
00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:42,113
Nothing remains of this scene,
but screenplay and score

88
00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:46,153
Iead to the assumption
that these takes were repeated here.

89
00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:34,233
Only very few of the Yoshiwara takes
have remained intact,

90
00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,317
this one in a copy found in Australia,

91
00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:43,158
incomplete, the end is missing,
as one of the sons shoots the other.

92
00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:50,791
Freder and Josaphat set off,

93
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,280
Fredersen gives Slim an order...

94
00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:02,751
A third reporting situation
is blended in after the other two.

95
00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:17,512
Rotwang tells Mary.

96
00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:39,792
Included in his report,

97
00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:46,393
as a parallel action, is the activity
about which Rotwang is speaking.

98
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,910
Like the group of rich sons
in the dancehall,

99
00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:56,035
the group of Workers in the catacombs,
too, fall under the spell of the vamp.

100
00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:27,677
Like the evil character in a fairy tale,
Rotwang pretends his own child

101
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to be the one he keeps as a prisoner.

102
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:27,228
Ufa regarded the "red" Mary's speech
as "inciting"

103
00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:32,229
and ordered a milder form for
the second version. Instead of...

104
00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:36,239
the title became:
"Who wants to work himself to death

105
00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:39,670
for the rulers of Metropolis??'

106
00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:42,709
Instead of...

107
00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:47,272
"Who is the life force
of the machines of Metropolis??'

108
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:02,511
Instead of...

109
00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:07,998
in the revised version it became:
"Who are the slaves of Metropolis??'

110
00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:14,715
And for...

111
00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:18,676
the false Mary had to say:
"Let them rot..."

112
00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:39,394
Freder, who only had visions before,
has gained a critical, perceiving view.

113
00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:48,152
He sees through the double.

114
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:10,473
The adaptors found the construction with
Rotwang's report as the framework

115
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:14,513
around the second catacomb scene
too complicated.

116
00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:54,079
Georgy's martyrdom not only seals
Freder's new role

117
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as a critical perceiver,
but also shows him as a future saviour,

118
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,392
as a new Messiah.

119
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:28,959
The central square of the Workers' City
has become a stage

120
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:32,072
in the theatre of the revolution.

121
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:41,239
The first beats of the Marseillaise.
Not only the music is imbued

122
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with the character of a citation.
The way the false Mary whips the crowd

123
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:49,632
into a frenzy corresponds to her
performance in front of the rich sons.

124
00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:53,673
The gong podium is a tribune for the
performance in which not only she

125
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:56,712
takes part but an ecstatic ensemble.

126
00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:14,952
The elevators. Earlier we saw the night
shift advancing into the elevators

127
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,993
for transportation into the depths...
now they are being stormed

128
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:23,079
by men and women, who use them
to go upwards. In a later scene,

129
00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:29,434
the movement accelerated and reversed,
we will see them - empty - crashing down.

130
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,473
In the beginning only men were
present here, now we see women,

131
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:51,318
the workers' wives, female workers.

132
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:55,553
The face of the repressed masses
"was malei, only with the uprising,"

133
00:24:55,600 --> 00:25:00,390
unleashed, does this face obtain female
traits, does its female base appear,

134
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:04,831
hitherto oppressed by organisation,
control, discipline.

135
00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:09,396
Again the same venues
as in the beginning,

136
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:13,633
in reverse order and viewing direction.
At the start the Workers,

137
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:18,037
silently waiting for the raising
of the grating - now the unleashed mass,

138
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:22,153
men and women,
deliriously determined to blow it up.

139
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:57,269
The children, abandoned by their
biological fathers and mothers,

140
00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:02,678
offered for adoption by Mary,
the maternal, and Freder, the brother.

141
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:42,912
Again two people,

142
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:46,553
two venues, alternating,

143
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:51,151
audio-visually bound by the
video-telephone in Fredersen's office,

144
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,273
control and command tool
of the ruler of Metropolis.

145
00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:04,032
Subordinate and superior.

146
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:47,116
Back to the sounds of the Marseillaise,
the storming of the Heart Machine.

147
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,357
The two Marys, now in parallel action:

148
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:20,437
the true, the white, finally free
to continue her reconciliation work...

149
00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:32,319
and the false, the red, the force
behind uprising and destruction.

150
00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:48,476
Mary on her way
to the City of the Workers,

151
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:53,153
to save the children abandoned
by their fathers and mothers.

152
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:04,119
Like a counter-manoeuvre
to her own creation by Rotwang,

153
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:08,438
as a light show, electric pyrotechnic
sorcery, the false Mary instigates

154
00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:11,597
the destruction of the Heart Machine...

155
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:20,715
before leaving the stage
via a back stairway,

156
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,833
a shadow ascending a staircase,
exit to another theatre,

157
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:27,997
another audience, the sons of the rich.

158
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:44,513
Arm movements as though in parody
of the rotating of the disk,

159
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:49,509
still identifying with the machine
even during its destruction.

160
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:24,555
The elevators now finally descending,
plunging.

161
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:51,236
The water. "lt was said",
records the novel,

162
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,793
"deep under the city there wanders
a stream." Joh Fredersen constructed

163
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:59,958
a path for the stream when he built
the City of the Workers.

164
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:04,118
"lt was also said that the stream
was feeding a large reservoir

165
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:08,358
and that there was a pumping station
there, powerful enough, to fill or empty

166
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:11,358
the reservoir in less than 1 0 hours."

167
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:15,593
The subterranean streams had been
channelled, disciplined,

168
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:19,633
obstructed by Fredersen and coupled
to the machines - as had the people.

169
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:25,277
Now the unleashed waters of the depths
join the uprising of the humans.

170
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,878
We have seen Rotwang working the levers
in his laboratory and the other Mary

171
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,913
working the levers of the Heart Machine.
Now she is moving the levers

172
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:41,192
of the gong machine.
The gong podium, the alarm clock,

173
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:46,440
the tribune hosting the revolt,
is now used to save the children.

174
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:08,954
The square fills with the water
and the children.

175
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:13,079
It is almost as if the children
are involved in the flood,

176
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:17,079
even though their own lives are
in danger, as if they perceive

177
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:21,113
the absence of adults and breaching
of the banks as a liberation.

178
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:35,233
The upper city too has been robbed
of electric light through

179
00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:39,273
the destruction of the Heart Machine,
causing Fredersen to reach for

180
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:42,790
his flashlight...
to receive Slim in its glow.

181
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:46,034
No more doubt:

182
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:55,432
A couple of lovers...

183
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,877
but more like a couple of parents,

184
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:12,391
without act of procreation,
through adoption, by saving the children,

185
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:15,477
abandoned by their biological parents.

186
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:28,152
Not just a couple, but three, a trinity,

187
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:32,990
of which there soon will be more,
with interchanging members.

188
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:42,393
They take care of the children,
the innocent offspring of the Workers,

189
00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:45,477
who have refused to be rescued by them.

190
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:39,156
A last climb through the airshaft
from the depths of the Workers' City

191
00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:42,192
to the Club of the Sons.

192
00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:53,879
The flying camera simulates
the pressure of the explosion

193
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:57,117
which rocks the city to its foundations.

194
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,110
Finale with Mary's theme...

195
00:37:42,240 --> 00:37:44,993
general pause...

196
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:50,756
then again the Theme of the Uprising,
men and women dancing in two

197
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:57,353
concentric circles, as though still under
the spell of the machines they destroyed.

198
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:05,433
Four, actually five venues and actions
with various characters

199
00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:08,472
are now interconnected:

200
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:16,831
Fredersen's office...

201
00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:26,151
Fredersen, Slim...

202
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:33,631
then the machine hall
with the destroyed Moloch machine...

203
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:37,837
This question is musically answered...

204
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:45,913
by a motif from the
Mechanical Woman's Theme.

205
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:55,518
Thirdly, the Yoshiwara,
where - to a foxtrot - the false Mary

206
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:59,553
Ieads the sons of the rich
to dance on the volcano.

207
00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:30,317
The Workers abandon the scene of action.

208
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:50,275
Fourthly, the entrance
of the Club of the Sons,

209
00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:58,480
with Freder. Here, a shot with Mary
has been cut by the adaptors.

210
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,079
And the children.

211
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:06,990
A square beneath this one,
which the Workers,

212
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:10,715
ascending from the machine halls,
have reached.

213
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:23,469
And finally, fifthly,
Rotwang's attic room,

214
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:27,354
where Fredersen's down and out
opponent recovers.

215
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:29,598
This plot of interwoven strands again
proved too complicated for the adaptors,

216
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:32,632
they rearranged, they condensed.

217
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:56,793
They edited the film, giving the
impression that the false Mary

218
00:42:56,840 --> 00:43:02,119
is the only victim of the witch-hunt
and that the true Mary is in no danger.

219
00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:06,631
By readjusting this shot
the true Mary becomes the other.

220
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:24,235
Only when you carefully look,
you see - here! -

221
00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:29,111
Mary running across the screen
escaping from her pursuers,

222
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:32,517
who manage to couple her double.

223
00:43:55,760 --> 00:44:01,039
Fittingly, the Workers construct
a stake in front of the cathedral.

224
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:08,954
The stake is made from metal,
the wrecks of cars,

225
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:12,317
partly with their headlights
illuminated.

226
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:27,511
The false Mary tied to the stake.

227
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:32,390
She who was created by electrical sparks,
totally in her element,

228
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:35,557
in a display of masochistic lust.

229
00:44:54,720 --> 00:44:57,712
Josaphat and Freder separated.

230
00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:37,196
Rotwang had awakened,
it says in the novel,

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"but he knew he had died.
And this realisation filled him

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with the deepest satisfaction.
He only wanted his Hel.

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Upon finding Hel he would no longer
have reason to quarrel

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with anything on earth."

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00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:59,035
"Hel", he says in the novel.
"l am not a ghost,

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although I have died,
I had to die to come to you."

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Mary, the virgin, and her double,
both in mortal danger,

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a mirror image in one scene.

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00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:24,439
The red Mary at the stake,
the white in the cathedral,

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00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:27,472
pursued by Rotwang.

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00:46:44,720 --> 00:46:48,235
The bells of the cathedral
come to her aid...

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beckoning the saviour,

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Iike the gong before
in the Workers' City.

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00:47:12,240 --> 00:47:16,631
As Freder watches, the fire burns away
the flesh of the false Mary

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revealing her mechanical core,

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00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:24,112
musically triumphant, accompanied by
one of the Mechanical Woman motifs

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in vibrant major.

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00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:40,313
The scene on the cathedral roof
is reminiscent of Victor Hugo's

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"Hunchback of Notre Dame". The novel had
recently been filmed with Lon Chaney.

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00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:50,597
An unmistakable reference:
the gargoyles.

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00:47:56,280 --> 00:48:00,239
After the demise of the evil
half of the female double pair,

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00:48:00,280 --> 00:48:03,272
the final battle between
the two male rivals

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00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:06,517
is enacted on the roof of the cathedral.

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00:48:14,720 --> 00:48:19,077
Freder, the naive fool, has learnt
through his passion to differentiate

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00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:23,477
between truth and lies. Then in the face
of the needs of the children

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00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:27,513
he has ripened to an active person,
now he is capable of dealing

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00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:30,552
with his antagonist.

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00:48:37,320 --> 00:48:41,711
Fredersen kneeling...
he too maturing through suffering.

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00:48:43,120 --> 00:48:46,795
Slim and Josaphat
- another antagonistic pair -

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00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:50,510
unite to offer him assistance.

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00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:10,353
And finally Grot, the foreman,
less class-conscious

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00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:13,432
than loyal to his rulers.

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00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:47,590
In Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow",
P�kler remembers how Rotwang carried Mary

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00:49:47,640 --> 00:49:51,633
onto the roof of the cathedral.
He was "taken by Klein-Rogge

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00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:56,549
playing the mad inventor,
who he himself and his fellow students

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00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:59,592
would have loved to be.

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00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:05,513
Indispensable to those who ran
the Metropolis, yet at the end

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00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:10,270
the untameable lion who could let it
all crash, girl, State,

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00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:12,754
masses, himself,

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00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:17,794
asserting his reality against them all
in one last roaring plunge

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00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:21,355
from rooftop to street",
so remembers P�kler.

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00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:40,035
In Harbou's novel the chastened Fredersen
finds comfort with his mother,

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who does not appear in the film,
she gives him a letter from his dead wife

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00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:48,275
who pledges her love
throughout all eternity.

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00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:51,118
A female trinity has the last word:

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00:50:51,360 --> 00:50:54,477
Mary, Fredersen's mother, Hel.

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00:50:55,200 --> 00:51:00,035
In Harbou's screenplay, Mary - acting
on an appeal from the Workers' wives -

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00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:04,949
calls on Freder to be a mediator.
In the film as shot by Lang,

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00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:06,760
the women retreat totally into
the underground and background.

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00:51:06,760 --> 00:51:10,230
the women retreat totally into
the underground and background.

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00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:26,511
For the finale: the Mediator Theme.

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00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:39,193
The Workers, as at the beginning
of the film, disciplined,

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00:51:39,240 --> 00:51:44,872
darkly clothed and uniformed, marching
in unison in triangular formation,

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00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:49,471
the loyal foreman at the vanguard,
ascend the steps at the cathedral

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00:51:49,520 --> 00:51:53,593
to meet the triumvirate
awaiting them in the portal.

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00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:01,715
The Mediator Theme culminates
in a combination

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00:52:02,120 --> 00:52:05,157
of the Mary and the Metropolis Themes.

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00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:11,548
The rest is dealt with by the chiefs,
the representatives of State and People,

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00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:14,592
of Capital and Labour.

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00:52:18,640 --> 00:52:22,315
The social partners still require
mutual trust.

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00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:34,351
They need a mediator,
removed from the parties' interests.

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00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:47,433
Mary, as a woman is permitted
to deliver the cue,

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00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:00,952
thus completing her task.

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00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:05,275
A male trinity analogous to the Father,
the Son

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00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:08,717
and the Holy Spirit has been formed.

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00:53:53,400 --> 00:53:58,155
Metropolis is a film of superlatives
also insofar as no other film

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00:53:58,200 --> 00:54:02,159
provoked as much criticism,
analysis and interpretation,

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00:54:02,200 --> 00:54:06,557
at least not since the nineteen-eighties,
simultaneously and in conjunction

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00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:10,559
with new versions, new recordings,
reconstruction attempts,

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00:54:10,600 --> 00:54:13,273
and allusions to this film in new ones.

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00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:18,110
The film, its metaphors,
its allegory require interpretation.

302
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:23,551
The interpretation is part of the
film's story, even if contradictory,

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00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:28,799
bizarre and excessive. There is no need
to believe or accept any of them,

304
00:54:28,840 --> 00:54:33,470
but they should be acknowledged as this
is one of the pleasures the film offers,

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00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:37,877
which are unthinkable without a certain
degree of light-hearted detachment.

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00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:41,879
The commentary you have heard
was compiled by Enno Patalas,

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00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:46,710
read by David Cooke, notes on the music
have been provided by Rainer Fabich.

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00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:51,629
Subtitles: VlCOMEDlA 1 0/2002