"Metropolis" at the Orpheum
"Metropolis" at the Orpheum
METROPOLIS (1927)
Saturday, June 3, 2023, 2 p.m.
Orpheum Theatre, downtown Los Angeles
Black and white / Digital
2 hours 33 minutes
Hosted and accompanied live by renowned silent film organist Clark Wilson. Please note: the Orpheum’s Mighty Wurlitzer organ is currently out for renovation and repair. Clark Wilson will accompany the film live on a substitute electric organ.
A free Q&A session about how to score this film by organist Clark Wilson will follow the movie. Stay in your seat to learn more!
About the Film
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) is one of the most influential science fiction films ever made. From Stanley Kubrick to Blade Runner to Lady Gaga, the stunning visuals in this supreme example of German Expressionism are still seen and felt in popular culture to this very day.
Set in a dystopian future where a massive city depends on complex machinery to function, the wealthy planners live above the machines in skyscrapers while the workers who run the machines--at their own peril--live beneath them. The son of a planner, Freder, falls in love with a working-class woman, Maria, who’s also a prophet predicting the coming of a savior who will close the gulf between the classes. A clear commentary on class, income inequality and the dangers of technology, Metropolis helped define “epic” in both scope and runtime.
While not fully appreciated upon its release in 1927 (it had mixed reviews and H.G. Wells labeled it “silly”) it has since become a sci-fi classic. Its imagery is still influential in cinema, art, and photography, and its awe-inspiring set design even helped popularize the Art Deco movement. Roger Ebert labeled Metropolis “a work so audacious in its vision and so angry in its message that it is, if anything, more powerful today than when it was made.”
Don’t miss your chance to experience this epic sci-fi tale of man vs. machinery the way it was meant to be seen: on the big screen!
