This film is not of today or of the future.
It tells of no place.
It serves no tendency, party or class.
It has a moral that grows on the pillar of understanding:
'The mediator between brain and muscle must be the heart.'
METROPOLIS
From a novel by
Thea von Harbou
Photographed by
KARL FREUND
Directed by
Fritz Lang
Brigitte Helm
as MARIA and THE ROBOT
Gustav Frohlich
as FREDER
Alfred Abel
as JOHN FREDERSON
Rudolph Klein-Rogge
as ROTWANG
Theodor Loos
as JOSAPHAT
Fritz Rasp
as THE FOREMAN
a UFA film
made in 1925
Far away from them.
High in the heavens.
The sun. Life......[1]
METROPOLIS
The day shift.
The workers' city, far below the surface of the earth.
And high above, a pleasure garden for the sons of the masters of Metropolis.
"Freder!"
"Look, these are your brothers."
"Who was that?"
"Just the daughter of a worker."
The great machines, far underground, yet high above the workers' city.
"MOLOCH!"
"To my father."
John Fredersen, the Master of Metropolis.
"Father!"
"Such accidents are unavoidable."
"Why was my son allowed to go into the machine-rooms?"
"Why did you go down there?"
"I wanted to see what my brothers looked like."
"It was their hands that built this city of ours, father."
"But where do the hands belong in your scheme?"
"In their proper place—the depths."
"What will you do if they turn against you some day?"
"The foreman from the central dynamo room is here with an urgent message."
"More of those plans, sir."
"They were found on two of the men who were killed today."
"Joseph, why was it not you who brought me these plans?"
"You are dismissed. Go to the G-Bank for the balance of your wages."
"Father, don't you realize what it means to be dismissed by you?"
"Joseph, I need your help."
"The machine! Someone must stay with the machine."
"I will stay at the machine."
In the middle of the city was an old house.
Here lived Rotwang, the inventor.
"John Fredersen!"
"At last my work is ready."
"I have created a machine in the image of a man, that never tires or makes a mistake."
"Now we have no further use for living workers."
"Isn't it worth the loss of a hand to have created the workers of the future——the machine men?"
"Give me another 24 hours, and I'll bring you a machine which no one will be able to tell from a human being."
"As always, when my experts fail I come to you for advice."
"For months now, we have been finding these plans in the workers' clothing. What do they mean?"
"At two—at the end of this shift. She has called another meeting."
"Father, father—I did not know that ten hours can be torture."
"These are the plans of the ancient catacombs—far below the lowest levels of the workers' city."
"What is down there that interests the workers?"
"Today I will tell you the story of the Tower of Babel."
"Let us build a tower whose summit will touch the skies—"
"—and on it we will inscribe: 'Great is the world and its Creator. And great is Man.'"
"Those who had conceived the idea of this tower could not build it themselves, so they hired thousands of others to build for them."
"But these toilers knew nothing of the dreams of those who planned the tower."
"While those who had conceived the tower did not concern themselves with the workers who built it."
"The hymns of praise of the few became the curses of the many."
BABEL
[...] UND CROSS IST DER MENSCH
"Between the brain that plans and the hands that build there must be a mediator."
"It is the heart that must bring about an understanding between them."
"But where is our mediator, Maria?"
"Be patient, he will surely come."
"We will wait, but not for long."
"Rotwang, make your Robot in the likeness of that girl."
"Hide the girl in your house, I will send the Robot down to the workers, to sow discord among them and destroy their confidence in Maria."
"Leave me here, John Fredersen."
"Until tomorrow—in the cathedral."
The Seven Deadly Sins.
Maria was a prisoner in Rotwang's house.
"Come, I am going to make the Robot look like you."
"Maria!"
"Where is Maria?"
"She is with your father."
"The copy is perfect. Now go down to the workers and undo Maria's teaching; stir them up to criminal acts."
"Maria!"
bittet
Herrn Joh Fredersen
"Now we shall see whether people believe the Robot is a creature of flesh and blood."
"John Fredersen is looking for an excuse to use violence against the workers."
"Maria, you always pleaded for peace—but now the Robot in your likeness has been commanded to incite the workers to violence."
The workers accept the Robot as Maria.
"I have preached patience—"
"But your mediator has not come—and will never come."
"Maria is inciting the workers to revolt."
"She has told them to destroy everything."
"I cannot believe it."
"You have waited patiently too long. The time has come to act!"
"Why should you sweat yourselves to death to benefit the Lord of Metropolis?"
"Who keeps the machines going?"
"Who are the slaves of the machines?"
"Let the machines stop!"
"Destroy the machines!"
"You are not Maria!"
"Maria pleads for peace, not for violence. This is not Maria!"
"John Fredersen's son!"
"Kill him!"
"Let no one remain behind, we're destroying the machines!"
Not one man or woman remained behind.
"To the central power house!"
HM 2
"The workers are destroying the machines."
"What shall I do?"
"If they destroy the power house, the workers' city will be flooded."
"Open the doors."
"Have you gone mad? You are flooding your own homes."
At last Maria managed to escape.
"Yes, you are the real Maria."
"To the airshaft—quickly! The reservoirs have burst."
"Where is my son?"
"Tomorrow thousands will ask in anguish—where is my son?"
"Save the children—I will tell the workers that they are safe."
"Let us take them into the 'Eternal Gardens'."
"Where are your children?"
"The entire workers' city is under water."
"Who told you to destroy the machines, you fools—and thus to destroy yourselves?"
"The witch! She's to blame for all this. Find her! Kill her."
"Let's watch the world going to the devil!"
"Maria!"
"If the mob sees you, they will kill me for having tricked them."
"The witch, the witch!"
"Where are our children?"
"John Fredersen's son has saved your children."
"Save my son!"
"Thank heaven!"
"There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator."
THE
END
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
| Original: |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1927, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929. Copyright law abroad tends to consider the following people authors of a film:
The longest-living of these authors died in 1976, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 47 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
|---|---|
| Translation: |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1927, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929. The longest-living author of this work died in 1976, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 47 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
- ↑ The lines fade in from bottom to top, so are read in the order displayed here. (Wikisource contributor note)