Silent films come to life at Dallas Chamber Symphony. The orchestra is beginning its tenth season with a concert screening of Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent science fiction film, on October 11 at the Moody Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District.
In 2015, the orchestra commissioned and premiered a new score for the film from Brian Satterwhite, a professional film composer based in Austin. His music has been featured in over one hundred and seventy-five short and feature films including The Summoned, Match Me If You Can, The Next Kill, The Lone Ranger, Sushi: The Global Catch, Man On A Mission, Artois The Goat, and the award-winning IMAX™ film Ride Around The World.
Satterwhite also composed scores for silent films performed by the Dallas Chamber Symphony, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the Buster Keaton short film The Scarecrow, and the Harold Lloyd feature A Sailor-Made Man, which was a finalist for a Jerry Goldsmith Award in 2013.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
“The real magic of a silent film comes from this personal engagement when you’re in an audience and the music is being performed live,” Satterwhite said. “To be able to duplicate that today is a mission I firmly believe in.”
Metropolis is based on Thea von Harbou’s novel of the same name and was made in Germany during the Weimar period. The film is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city master, and Maria, a saintly figure to the workers, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes in their city and bring the workers together with Joh Fredersen, the city master. Regarded as a pioneering science fiction film, Metropolis was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2001.
Before working on the Dallas Chamber Symphony commission, Satterwhite was familiar with Giorgio Moroder’s 1984 version of Metropolis featuring the music of Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benatar, Adam Ant and Jon Anderson.
The Scene
“It’s kind of cool, but it’s so different that it’s not like watching Metropolis. It’s like watching an 80s music video with Metropolis in it,” Satterwhite said.
Satterwhite studied the original version of the film, noting its emotional depth.
“I think the thing that surprised me the most is how much emotion is woven throughout the entire film. It is very nuanced, and it is very deliberate,” Satterwhite said. “I think Metropolis sets itself apart because it really dives into deep-rooted emotion that not a lot of silent films take the time to explore.”
As a science fiction film, it is forward-thinking and visually powerful.
“That movie was way ahead of its time. I still think by modern eyes today, a lot of it is still ahead of its time,” Satterwhite said. “The scenes of the city and the airplanes flying around, the underground with the machinery, the huge set pieces where all this underground machinery is clanking away, it really lays the blueprint for a lot of modern sci-fi we see in 2022.”
Over six weeks, Satterwhite translated those emotions and visuals into music.
“I actually finished two days early which never ever happens,” Satterwhite said. “I’m extremely proud of it. It’s probably one of the best things I’ve composed in my career.”
Satterwhite attended the Dallas Chamber Symphony’s 2015 premiere of Metropolis, sitting in the audience and gauging patrons’ reactions.
“Magnificent, amazing, spectacular, a highlight of my career. It is the romantic reason I wanted to become a composer to begin with, to have those experiences where you can sit in a theater or sit with an audience in a hall and hear your music performed live or in case of film, on a screen. That’s why I wanted to do this,” Satterwhite said.
After nine decades, the film’s story stands the test of time.
“The themes of love, betrayal, unification and you have the class warfare between the aristocracy who are above ground and the lower, middle working class who are below ground, and they are having battles throughout the film,” Satterwhite said. “That’s a timeless struggle that people can related to today.”
Metropolis is one of 13 silent film scores Dallas Chamber Symphony has commissioned over its decade-long existence, reintroducing the art of the past with a modern twist.
“We presented this 90-year-old film to a packed house and the audience loved it,” Satterwhite said. “That gives me goosebumps.”
Learn more: Dallas Chamber Symphony
