German director Fritz Lang and producer Erich Pommer
told tales that it was their first view of the New York skyline, seen from the
deck of a trans-Atlantic traveling ship, that inspired their idea to make a film
centered on a city of the future. The ... moreelaborately imagined and constructed
picture pretty much ruined UFA studios in 1927, and was condemned by British
literary sci-fi master H.G. Wells as "the silliest film." A recently restored
version is, in fact, even sillier than the shorter version that's been
circulating for many years, because the fact is, Wells wasn't wrong: The story
line, of futuristic labor relations, a nice young lady who tells the lumpen
proles Bible stories, and her robot double who spreads insurrection, is a whole
lot of hogwash leading up to the meaningless bromide about how the mediator
between the head and hands has to be the heart. Sure, thing, whatever. The point
is that the whole thing still looks startlingly cool from stem to stern, and the
kooky dances performed by evil-robot-lady Brigitte Helm are entirely accurately
predictive of ... Lady Gaga videos. Who says silent
black-and-white movies aren't relevant to today!?
