Metropolis

<p>Metropolis is a monumental work. On its release in 1925 after sixteen months'<br>filming it was Germany's most expensive feature film a canvas for director<br>Fritz Lang's increasingly extravagant ambitions. Lang inspired by the skyline of<br>New York created a whole new vision of cities. One of the greatest works of<br>science fiction the film also tells human stories about love and family.<br>Thomas Elsaesser explores the cultural phenomenon of Metropolis: its different<br>versions (there is no definitive one) its changing meanings and its role as a<br>database of twentieth-century imagery and ideologies.<br>In his foreword to this special edition published to celebrate the 20th<br>anniversary of the BFI Film Classics series Elsaesser discusses the impact of<br>the 27 minutes of 'lost' footage discovered in Buenos Aires in 2008 and<br>incorporated in a restored edition which premiered in 2010.</p>