Metropolis

After 'Dr Mabuse: The Gambler' Lang went on in 1926/7 to make what is regarded as one of the defining achievements of silent cinema, the first and perhaps best sci-fi movie, now with a recovered forty minutes and a restored whole. It is a delirious masterpiece; what can be as great as 'Dr Mabuse?', but this film was no embarrasement as a follow up (and is widely cited more often now, for various reasons).
This piece is shot-wise maybe not quite so interesting as a 'Dr Mabuse', slightly less expressionistic in its sets. Yet in the art it is stunning, one of the great films, due to the incredible sets of the futuristic city, the heart-machine, the robot. Lang as usual lights it all up well, the flat faces of all and the robot inside us. Also noticeable is the deep sexualisation of the Maria character and her robot double.
The story is completely off its head, clinging on to making any kind of sense. It gets a bit hokey at times (Thea von Harbou, Nazi sympathiser), and the ending is an absolutely absurd, delirious, Deus Ex Machina. In fact the whole thing is, the plot is set to 'insantiy' then cranked up.
Lang simply creates beautiful images and puts them in an incredibly well executed plot. He keeps the excitment going and going, the epic quality much deserved due to the stunning images and crowd scenes (no characters among the proles of course) that truly evoke a sense of shared excitment, smart use of camera tricks, quick cuts, and speeded up film.
A monster of a film, with the smae Lang tropes as 'Dr Mabuse'. Lacking the gritty realities, and perhaps some of the compromised humanism of that film, 'Metropolis' is itself a bit like the heart-machine; huge, overpowering, perfectly slick and running through all of us. Sublime.