A screening of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis with live organ accompaniment sounds like a delightful way to spend a Saturday

This is just too cool to overlook: this month, the folks at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts will screen the dystopian sci-fi silent film classic Metropolis with a live organ accompaniment.

Directed by Fritz Lang and released in 1927, the film was wildly influential in more ways than you can imagine: in the music world, eclectic pop star Janelle Monáe made thematic reference to it on her first two releases. Madonna’s “Express Yourself” video with its various factory settings were a direct homage to the film. Reverberations of Metropolis‘ groundbreaking design can be felt in the fashion as well as other moments in modern cinema, from Blade Runner to Batman. 

It was also progressive in terms of social critique, as our friends at Philebrity point out – it’s very much set in a workers v. factory owners, proletariat v. bourgeois, haves-and-haves-not world, which didn’t sit well with audiences when it was released but has become more and more relevant over time.

On Saturday, February 27th, the Kimmel will screen Metropolis in Verizon Hall with a live organ accompaniment from Peter Richard Conte, who recently sat down with WXPN’s DJ Robert Drake for an interview. Listen to it below, get tickets to the event here. Or, if you’re feeling lucky, try to win a pair from the folks over at Philebs. You have until February 19th to enter their giveaway.