Metropolis

Lang’s futuristic superproduction is an anxiety dream of urban dystopia expressed as science fiction. Set in the year 2026, Metropolis envisions a repressive techno-oligarchy in which soaring Art Deco towers and overhead freeways mock an underclass of techno slaves ruled by a “supertrustee” (Alfred Abel), who lives with his collaborators in the paradisiacal nightclub of Yoshiwara. Lang even posits a virtual woman, an evil doppelgänger cloned from the people’s hero and spokeswoman Maria (Brigitte Helm), as another principal force in this exquisite ballet of machines and men.