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Fritz Lang was a talented film maker early in his career, but not being Talmud-raised Jewish, like Spielberg when he started, limited him. His movies made tons of money; but he was somewhat of a maverick, and had character flaws. So he had to be compromised and controlled (again, like Steven) in order for those who owned movie studios to use his skills, until he could make what they wanted made (think "Schindler's List").

Lang was in the army when he started making short films which eventually got him noticed by Joe May, an Austrian Jew who was considered a pioneer of German cinema. May's influence got Lang hired by Decla Film, owned by one of the most powerful Jews in Germany in the '20's and '30's, Erich Pommer, in 1918. In 1919, Lang married Elisabeth Rosenthal, though it would be brief.

Also in 1919, Lang met Thea von Harbou, a married writer who had come to prominence with her gift for propaganda, and a darling with the Weimars. Not long thereafter, Lang's wife would be found dead in the bathtub of mysterious circumstances involving Lang's WWI revolver. He and von Harbou were actually charged with failure to render aid in Elisabeth's death, charges which were unceremoniously dropped. After von Harbou divorced her husband, actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge, in 1920, she and Lang became a couple, marrying in 1922.

(One would not be out of line if s/he noticed that this same happenstance would come to Steven Spielberg later [in the form of Kate Capshaw]. Cohencidence?)

Thea would stay with Lang during his entire pre-Nazi film output, but in 1933 Fritz divorced her when he caught her in bed with an Indian 17 years her junior. Lang himself was about to leave Germany, as his Jewish cohorts and he knew the bandsaw was near, running to Paris, for a while, and then of course to America, signing with MGM.

Lang would never again have success like his Weimar-era movies. Being partially blind compromised his later films, from eye wounds suffered in WWI. Still, he was not making movies like he did in the '20's for obvious reasons other than losing sight -- a cruel fate for one who displayed his love for the Illuminati so effusively, to be certain.

Fritz Lang was the proto-Kubrick.

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I recently watched Metropolis for the first time and was blown away by its complexity, enormity, strange beauty, and pure insanity. I chaulked it up to the unusual Fritz Lang and what must have been the odd nature of the people of the time of its creation and presentation. (I'm Austrian decent and have many memories - my own as well as memories of those who related them to me - of the life and past times in the city of Vienna.)

Your excellent essay put the movie and its motives, which I hadn't given much thought anymore, into perspective for me. Wow, and thank you!

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I am really looking forward to reading this! Since I’ve been watching a nicely remastered version of “Metropolis” lately, and rather mesmerized (and perplexed) by its weirdness. My question to you, if you don’t mind, is; should I read your piece first and then watch the movie, or the other way around? Either way, I’ll read it. Cheers.

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Thanks! Tough to say, I’d say go in blind. This a film that definitely requires several viewings to take it all in.

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Have to wonder about movies we watched as kids now.

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Very recognizable within the script, scenes, and strategically “ misplaced wording & phrases” within certain ‘ role-plays’.

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Thank you!

Have watched this Movie ever since I was a kid! I remember PBS back in the early 70's in New York (channel 13) would periodically play this movie during the summer months! This was way before cable and "streaming", so your choices as a Kid were limited I first watched it when I was 10, and it was a Jolting experience! Great Way to screw up children while they were taking a break from their summer fun!

Minus all the Esoterica! It's still an outstanding film.

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