Metropolis

[Dave Monroe]

>From Jonathan Rosenbaum, "Unified Theory," Chicago
Reader, August 16th, 2002, Sec. 1, pp. 31-2 ...

"Jacques Rivette clearly included Metropolis's Tower
of Babel sequence in his first feature, Paris Belongs
to Us -- the first serious film quotation in a New
Wave film -- as a comment on his theme of paranoia,
also a staple of Lang's universe. The dream of a
universal language is in some disturbing way a
conspiracy scheme, a fascist fantasy -- because it
assumes that everything in the world can be subsumed
in a single meaning and social structure. And the
breakdown of that dream and that meaning into chaos,
which occurs so hauntingly in Rivette's film and in
Thomas Pynchon's first three novels, is an allegory
telling us something important about what it means to
be alive in the 21st century, the century in which
Metropolis is set. Fear of sexuality may play as
important a role in this gloomy report as fear of
science and fear of the past, but a euphoric love of
order in all three spheres is what produces Lang's
exciting art and our dangerous idealism."

http://www.chireader.com/movies/archives/2002/0802/020816_1.html

Made the pilgrimage down Monday night to see it, Time,
and it was worth the time, effort, money, et al.  A
beautiful, near flawless print, in better shape than
many current films I've seen.  Thanks for reminding me
and spurring me on about it ...


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