33. Metropolis (1927), dir. Fritz Lang

[strange_complex]

Another Thing Wot I Sore recently was this, at the Hyde Park Picture House. It was the 2010 147-minute restoration, which I have seen before on the big screen and reviewed here. I've also previously reviewed the 2-hour restored version, which was the best one available before 2010, here. So we can take it as read that all the things I enthused

Comments

[ms_siobhan]

I'd forgotten quite how explicitly religious it is in places - not just the catacombs and the preaching but the seven deadly sins coming to life and how the final scenes take place in front of and on top of a cathedral.

[strange_complex]

*nod* It's absolutely central, isn't it? In the end the whole 'message' of the film is very conservative, in fact.

[ms_siobhan]

Indeed - but then who doesn't love a witch burning? ;-)

But to be serious I do wonder sometimes what has taken the place of big public events like executions.

[strange_complex]

I'd say a combination of reality TV, mass spectator sports like football, and mass outrage on channels like Twitter (especially at the point where they devolve into bombarding women with threats of rape and murder).

[kantti]

The presence of the past is one of the things that makes William Gibson's future compelling, too. After several reading it becomes clear that he's cheating and the future's past is usually ust the current present, but ...

[strange_complex]

Yep, layers of time are always good. I haven't actually read any of Gibson's fiction, alas, though it's always been kind of in my mind to read Neuromancer. But I'm glad to hear it does this, even if it in a slightly cheaty way.