Surviving as one of the most celebrated and analyzed films in Hollywood, Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis continues to offer film nerds and silent movie lovers alike much food for thought. The visuals and plot devices that the film introduced were, at the time, groundbreaking, and are often credited as having largely shaped the following film culture we know today. Despite how celebrated Metropolis is today and the film's reputation, it turns out that making the film was a brutal and complicated process, one that precedes the film's own storyline. Accounts from actors and members of the crew, alongside articles written at the time, all point towards the trials and tribulations that went on behind the screen, and identify Lang as a source of significant cruelty and psychological pressure. Further, technological difficulties and restrictions made the production a nightmare, with shoots and sequences that would, in today's world, normally take a few days having required months' worth of painstaking work. So, with all the insider gossip, here's why Metropolis was more harrowing behind the camera than in front of it.
Life as an Actor on ‘Metropolis’ Wasn’t Easy
Metropolis, while on a surface level being the story of a young elite named Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) discovering injustice and fighting for the greater good, is a cinematic exploration of a return to traditionalist values. Simply put, the film was made during a time of modernity, excess and change, and Lang together with his wife Thea Von Harbou, who wrote the script, aimed to create a film that critiqued this. Eventually, actress Brigitte Helm was cast to play Maria, a young woman who brings up workers' children to witness the luxury of the upper world. Maria goes on to become the focus of Lang's interpretation of modernity and its curses, and Helm was tasked with a role that underwent rapid change and exertion. Helm gave an account of her experiences on set in a 1927 article which was documented by writer Lawrence French for the film website Cinefantasique. Helm recalled the laborious experience of working on the set of Metropolis alongside Lang, who had become known for his demanding perfectionism.
The film features a lengthy water sequence in which powerful jets were used to simulate rushing water in the underground city, and Helm reveals that the three intensive weeks spent shooting in the water ""were unbelievably hard on my health." Lang often insisted on using real and dangerous visual effects and methods to get the perfect shot, something that Helm explains was an uncomfortable experience for her "It wasn't all fun when Grot drags me by the hair, to have me burned at the stake." This scene Helm references when her character was burned at the stake actually resulted in Helm's costume catching fire due to Lang's insistence that the fire be as authentic as possible, putting his actress in serious danger. Lang's disregard for his crew's health is further documented by Helm as she recalls the time she fainted inside the body chamber her character lies in while being transformed into a robot "because the shot took so long I didn't get enough air." The director's constant and overbearing management of time meant that grueling shots for the actors such as this one took hours or even days, meaning Helm had to lay inside a poorly ventilated chamber until Lang decided it was good enough. However, Helm's recollection of her experiences of difficulties on set is just the tip of the Metropolis iceberg, as Lang's behavior and style are further exposed by others.
Was Fritz Lang the Real Monster?
Much of the struggles behind the scenes are, by crew members and onlookers alike, linked back to the same character, Lang. His directorial style driven by his need for perfection makes him the kind of professional who would have faced serious backlash and online cancelation if he were working today. Lang became notorious on and off set for his demanding expectations and work requirements, which is arguably the reason the film took a whopping 17 months to film. As production time went on and Lang began adding more and more special effects to the film, and continued to demand days worth of reshooting, the film's producer Erich Pommer was fired due to how extravagant the film's budget had become. Turner Classic Movies features an article by Frank Miller that explores Lang's presence as a director on the set, with Miller emulating the same sentiments that Helm and other crew members had alluded to in their own commentary, writing: "whether it was just perfectionism or a sadistic streak... Lang drove cast and crew relentlessly, with little regard for their health and safety."
The author highlights that Lang, despite his talents and extreme work practices, was largely removed from the idea that his actors and crew members were human, and often pushed those around him to breaking points. Miller recounts a two-day period on set whereby Lang insisted that actor Gustav Fröhlich, who played Freder, repeat the scene where Freder falls to his knees in front of Maria, and by the end of it, Fröhlich could barely walk. Or another instance, where Fröhlich dislocated his thumb while shooting and Lang gave the actor a mere half an hour to recover before expecting him back in front of the camera. Lang's "legendary cruelty," as Miller puts it, was often the driving force behind physical and emotional strain for his crew, and his desire for perfection meant Metropolis became a special effects nightmare.
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We have to remember that filmmaking in the 1920s was vastly different from what it is today, and the lengths that workers had to go to for a single elaborate shot is labor that modern filmmakers have the luxury of not doing. Lang's vision of a bold and futuristic film would come at a price (besides the already established price of his actors' sanities), and that price was time and execution. While the first reason for the film's extensive shooting time was Lang's perfectionism and insistence on shooting a simple scene for days at a time, the second and possibly more complicated reason was the difficulties it took to create the film's special effects. Miller points out that while Metropolis greatly benefited from the work of Eugene Shufftan, a special effects pioneer who went on to work in cinematography, problems seemed to arise surrounding the stunts and logistical work required to create some of the best known scenes and stills from the film. The special effects team for the film used a miniature set of a cityscape to create the backdrop of Metropolis that would be used across the film, and in order to create this miniature buildings, cars and trains were made.
For A Film About Modernity, Technology Was A Challenge
A team of people worked painstakingly to build these effects, but like most things behind this film, it didn't go smoothly as Miller explains that "the brief shot took months to prepare and several days to shoot. Then the lab ruined the footage, and they had to do it all over again." Whether this setback was more due to limited technology or Lang's overbearing demands, it was a small fish in a big ocean, or simply put, one of Metropolis's many technical setbacks. Thea Von Harbou, the writer of the original story for the film and also Lang's wife at the time, made commentary on the production process in a program that was published for the London premiere of the film in 1927. Harbou wrote a page for the booklet titled "The Children of Metropolis," in which she details the strenuous process of filming several of the city scenes using children from shelters across Berlin. While the writer gushes that the children were great extras and that the film set provided the children with food and a place to sleep, she conceded that the dangers of the stunts and the number of children present were issues on their own, describing the "enormous technical difficulties" it took to complete these scenes. Lang's insistence on using powerful water jets for certain scenes, and his use of hundreds of children and extras for these scenes, made filming difficult to coordinate and left the crew uncertain whether these shots could be usable. All in all, Metropolis was a demanding film that required technology at the time to deliver modern results, and despite doing so, the road to the finish line was a dreary one for all those involved.
Today, audiences find themselves watching Metropolis for many reasons. Whether they study it for school, stumble upon it while browsing old movies or because they're researching the birthplace of sci-fi. No matter the reason, Lang's 1927 masterpiece will live on as one of the great silent films, and as a piece of film and human history. However, the intensity of the film on-screen matches that of what it was like to make the movie, and the difficult and dangerous experiences of those who lived it are also immortalized through their accounts. Life on Metropolis was not easy, and it took the blood, sweat and tears of actors, writers, untimely fired producers, starving extras and anxiety-ridden special effects experts to bring this beloved world to life. The next time you watch Metropolis, remember, people did get set on fire for it!