Metropolis, (1927, directed by Fritz Lang) came into public domain this year.
I’ve loved this movie since I saw it the first time, at some goth industrial club in the late 90’s in Hollywood, the stark-but-somehow-soft brutal retro sci-fi on the screen going perfectly with the music.
Later I watched it for a class, and we pulled apart the meaning of the shape language and symbols and metaphor, and it was very satisfying.
I highly recommend checking it out, in either the giant-stompy-boots or cinematographic-dissection manners.
Let me know if you want a 2.x version, I can do that. 😀