From the very opening scene and throughout, Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis
feels years ahead of its time. From montage's to cutaways,
sophisticated special effects and vast set pieces paint establishing shots in a
much broader light than that of which you would expect scenes to appear in
within this era. These overwhelming shots effectively create a framework for
the viewer, giving early hints that the events of Metropolis will be
overlooked by huge structures and mannerism's that unarguably mirror todays
culture, “the image of a futuristic
city as a hell of scientific progress and human despair” (Egbert, 1998) . We meet the futuristic city at the peak of its
production, high class civilians parade on the ground floor whilst workers
continue to attend to monstrous machines in silent hordes under the
surface, seemingly to allow the higher levels to continue as they are. Freder
(Gustav Frohlich), son of the wealthy leader figure Jon Frederson (Alfred
Abel), becomes aware of the drastic divide in his culture when
he witness' a group of lower class workers carrying out there duties to maintain
the city from its lowest and most mechanical level. Freder, horrified by the
events he witnessed underground, immediately confronts his father over the
wellbeing and injustice of the working class inhabitants. Disgruntled by his
fathers lack of sympathy for the lower class, Freder takes it into his own
hands to combat the divide in society and begin to bridge the gap in the
different qualities of living, whilst his father only continues to broaden the
horizons of his empire by enrolling the help of inventor Rotwang
(Rudolf Klein-Rogge). Frederson and Rotwang continue to modernise their city by
pursuing one of Rotwang's plans to create a robot inhabitant
that will effortlessly fit in amongst the upper class citizens. Meanwhile
in the lower levels of the city, Freder is witnessing the lengths the
workers are going to in order to keep faith in their routine existence, when he
bares witness to the god like figure of Maria (Brigitte Helm) who is helping
the workers to continue with their lives and keep faith. Frederson soon becomes
aware of the presence of Maria amongst his workers and with the help of Rotwang
abducts her, and uses her likeness to apply the finishing touches to their
project. Freder heroically rescues Maria and they set out to close the growing
divide in their city together.
Fig 1: Metropolis
Throughout Metropolis the theme of
the head needing the hands and the hands needing the head continues to present
itself through the characters of the workers and Freerson. It would seem that
Lang is trying to express the way man’s dependency on technology is only going
to grow as the level of innovation in our world increases, but also that
technology will forever be dependent on man to improve and upgrade its quality, encasing us in a vicious cycle. The character of Maria
beautifully illustrates this point by being herself a technological marvel
created by Rotwang, “The "Maschinenmensch" robot based on Maria is a
brilliant eroticisation and fetishisation of modern technology” (Bradshaw,
2010). Although the premise of Maria’s character is completely inspired by
impossible future technology her actions show that even the most brilliant
inventions can cause chaos in the hands of the wrong people.
Fig 2: Metropolis It feels as if Metropolis bares a slight resemblance to the movies of today, in that both often tackle the idea of civilisation being its own downfall. When the workers rise in Metropolis and begin to revolt and the upper class continue to upgrade their city it begins to feel as if this idea that Lang has conjured has left a permanent mark on directors of modern cinema today. When you compare Metropolis to movies such as 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow, themes begin to spill over, as Phillip French has pointed out here, “It influenced generations of film-makers and musicians, providing iconic images of oppression and liberation.” (French, 2015). In both movies you become an audience for disasters and tragedy to take place whilst society can only sit back and endure the nightmares they have had a hand in creating. In Metropolis the robot Maria, created by Rotwang, causes chaos amongst the city whilst in The Day After Tomorrow the human race feels the force of nature they have provoked due to the effects of global warming. This point not only supports the idea of Lang’s theme running through the years of film making, but also that Metropolis resembles aspects of civilisation in the real world today. Hardly a day passes without groups in society objecting to standards and ideas that world leaders have pressed upon them and it becomes impossible to not see this portrayed cinematically when the workers of Metropolis begin to rise up.
However that is not to say that Lang
hasn’t taken influence from filmmakers of his own time. The character of Dr
Caligari from Robert Weines 1920 film The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has made a lasting impression on Lang through his
own form of the character Rotwang. Both characters seem to thrive off the idea
of creating a being in which they can control and manipulate, this is true in
the case of the characters ‘Ceaser’ and ‘Robot Maria’. Whilst the character of
Dr Caligari uses Ceaser to carry out his crimes, Rotwang uses his Robot to
influence the workers of Metropolis and
encourage them to take action in his own style. There is also an extremely
mimicked scene in both movies, when Rotwang bounds across rooftops with Maria
captive you cannot help but see Ceaser stalking across the skyline with his
prisoner. This idea of a damsel being taken by a villain or monster seems to
have engraved its place in cinema throughout the years, as iconic scenes of
King Kong taking Jane in his grasp climbing the empire state building flood
back to you in the closing scenes of Metropolis.
Fig 3: Metropolis
Fritz Langs’s Metropolis can go
down as nothing short of a classic. When you consider the scaffolding it has
created for modern day epic’s to shape themselves in and compare too , it
becomes evident that Lang’s work has and will continue to inspire generations
of timeless stories.
Bibliography
Bradshaw, P, (2010), Metropolis,, http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/09/metropolis-restored-film-review
Accessed on: 30/9/2015
Egbert, R, (1998), Metroplois, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-1927
Accessed on: 30/9/2015
French, P, (2015) Metropolis Review-
Phillip French on Fritz Lang’s Visionary Epic, http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/15/metropolis-fritz-lang-philip-french-classic-dvd Accessed
on: 30/9/2015
Illustration List
Poster, Metropolis, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/ Accessed on: 30/9/15
Screenshot, Metropolis, http://www.chrismrogers.net/#/blog/4555515884/'Metropolis'/8971437 Accessed on: 30/9/15
Screenshot, Metropolis, http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=13888 Accessed on: 30/9/15
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Good content, and it's very satisfying seeing you connecting up references and building/proving your arguments. There's an authenticity to your writing - a review written, not simply to satisfy your brief, but to satisfy your curiosity. Just a few observations: in terms of presentation, avoid the 'centralised text' layout and remember to italicise your quotes. I'd suggest you might consider upping the size of your images too.
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil, will do in the future!
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