Weimar Berlin: Metropolis - film screening | Philharmonia Orchestra

Composer Gottfried Huppertz and film director Fritz Lang were frequent partners in the creation of German cinema of the Weimar period: their most famous collaboration was on Metropolis (1927), Lang's masterpiece of epic expressionist science-fiction storytelling.

Set in a city of the future (in 2026), Metropolis is lauded for its imaginative flair in depicting a nightmarish mechanized-industrial future. Its warning about society, equality and the nature of the city itself reflects the instability and concerns of the Weimar age.

For this live screening of Metropolis, Frank Strobel conducts Huppertz's original score for the film (arranged by Frank Strobel). Huppertz's music draws principally from Wagner and Richard Strauss, with flashes of modernism to represent its futuristic urban dystopia.