I think of this blog primarily as a “countercultural” clearing house. It’s hard to define what “counterculture” even means in a world where sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll won the war a long time ago. My movie posts are always counter cultural in their way and today’s post is no different. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis debuted on February 10, 1927. This film stands outside of culture in the sense that all pioneering works of art are necessarily outside the culture in that they represent a newly won front — a temporary autonomous zone where whimsy and beauty and chance and chaos dance before the wicked stepparents of commodity and class kick over the punch bowl. Lang’s pioneering vision was so intense that even descendants like Blade Runner are considered pioneering in their own right — those are some long-ass cybernetic coattails. I also consider Lang and all of the artists forced to flee from Europe following the rise of Hitler to be – obviously – countercultural artists.

With all that in mind here’s Fritz Lang’s Metropolis synched to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here…

Stay Awake!

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