Beautifully put by Jon over at Birmingham: It’s Not Shit:
Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis is set in “the extraordinary Gothic skyscrapers of a corporate city-state, the Metropolis of the title. Society has been divided into two rigid groups: one of planners or thinkers, who live high above the earth in luxury, and another of workers who live underground toiling to sustain the lives of the privileged.”
Birmingham 2008 has parallels according to this clip on the ol’ YouTubes:
Vid made by vjdelsyd.
3 Comments
It’s a nice vid, and I’m partial to the odd bit of silent German cinema - but i must admit cribbing the description from IMDB.
John
As you’re partial to silent German ciema, and of course to the ‘meisterwerk’ that is METROPOLIS, look out in future for a re versioning of Lang’s classic tale of urban dystopia. They recently found in Argentina extra minutage from the movie, long since forgotten about, which apparently challenge long held perceptions of the film.
Roger Shannon
PS to the above.
It’d make for a fascinating series if a number of iconic urban movies were re imagined in a Birmingham setting, picking up the cue from ‘Metropolis Birmingham’.
‘Betaville’ anyone, in a Godard sci fi style ?
Roger Shannon