Taipei American School • English Literature
Film Study Resources & Viewing Guides
Observe • Analyse • Connect • ReflectFritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) is one of the most ambitious films ever made — a vision of a future city divided between those who think and those who toil. Use the resources below before, during, and after viewing to build your understanding of the film, its context, and the cinematic language it helped invent.
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Fritz Lang • 1927
Metropolis
A city of the future, sharply divided: the privileged classes live and play in gleaming towers above ground while an enslaved workforce keeps the machines running far below. When Freder, the master's son, descends into the depths and discovers the human cost of his world's comfort, a collision between order and revolt becomes inevitable. Metropolis is a landmark of silent cinema, German Expressionism, and science fiction — and a film that still speaks directly to questions of power, labour, and what it means to be human.