Jeff Mills © Jacob Khrist
Close Jeff Mills © Jacob Khrist
Film screening
April 18

Jeff Mills presents Metropolis

Tickets go on sale Thursday, 13 April at 5:00 p.m. 

The Bourse de Commerce and Axis Records present a Cinemix event: a projection of Fritz Lang’s 1927 dystopian film Metropolis accompanied by an original soundtrack composed and performed live by American producer Jeff Mills to coincide with the release of his album Metropolis Metropolis by Axis Records in March 2023.

"It’s not just a movie — it’s more about lessons about the human spirit that every one of us should be reminded of.” - Jeff Mills

Metropolis in 2026 is a futurist megalopolis divided into a lower city where the workers live and toil to maintain the happiness of the inhabitants of the upper city, an elite living a decadent life. One day, a robot leads the workers in a revolt. 

A commercial failure upon its release, Metropolis saw a number of its scenes cut in 1927, and ultimately the disappearance of the original version. Over the years, though, people have come to regard the film as a masterpiece of cinema and the very embodiment of modernity. It has inspired many directors and composers to propose new edits of the film and their own versions of its original soundtrack, a symphonic composition by German composer Gottfried Huppertz. 

In 2000, Jeff Mills, an American DJ from Detroit and a pioneer of techno, released his initial interpretation of the original soundtrack of Metropolis, praising its timeless message of solidarity, which he sought to convey to young people everywhere at the dawn of the new millennium. In 2010 he proposed a new composition inspired by the points of view of the film’s characters.

And in 2023, Mills presented a third version of the original soundtrack of Metropolis, an electronic symphonic work that explores the vision of the machines.

“The last two previous versions were made back in 1999 and in 2010. I thought it was time to revisit the film since so much had changed in the world and with people (in general). This new soundtrack is more emotional and deeper." - Jeff Mills 

With the permission of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation in Wiesbaden, Germany. 

Metropolis is screened in its original version, a copy of which was miraculously discovered in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2008 and restored in 2010. 

Running time: 150 minutes. German with French subtitles.

Centrée
Album Jeff Mills
Close Album Jeff Mills