Film Review - Metropolis

Directed by Fritz Lang and co-wrote by his wife Thea Von Harbou the Film 'Metropolis' Made in 1927 is an iconic and incredibly influential film, if you've never seen it then it is a sure bet you have seen something referencing or relating directly to this film in modern film, imagery, architecture and indeed the entire science-fiction genre. 

Metropolis is set in a fantastic and futuristic city divided into a utopia filled with reading halls, universities, libraries, skyscrapers, an entertainment district, a pleasure garden and even an Olympic stadium which which we see at the beginning of the film. The inhabitants are free, happy and completely unaware there is a dystopian underbelly to the city. Below the ground there is another city of grey block buildings to house the poor, huge metal stilts and miles upon miles of machine halls, the bowels of the monstrous city. 

There is a huge biblical reference "The language of Metropolis -- the themes, the images, the characters -- are all rooted firmly in the language of Judeo-Christian theology." (D M Wharton. 2003) mainly in the scene construction as the city is depicted as The Tower of Babel, this was a tower built by man from earth to god. Lang's parents were married with ties strongly in Catholicism, as a child this heavily influenced his ideas and perception of life, there is a very strong possibility this could have lead to the techniques and construction of the set and the film in general.    

The film was made in 1927 after the first world war, and when the second world war was looming, you can see it is influenced by German expressionism in its architecture and set design. "The sense of horror conveyed during the introductory scenes (and especially that of Freder’s first time witnessing the machine which caused a hallucination of Moloch) was indeed representative of Expressionism." (Ci. 2016). 

Tall, towering and imposing structures, an theme of Art Deco which was seen as futuristic at the time is prominent throughout all give rise to the autocratic feel of this film."The film-with-a-message exhibits the influence of historical events occurring during its time frame of the burgeoning Industrial Revolution, including a time of economic misery and the rise of fascism in a pre-Hitler Weimar Republic Germany following the war, the rise of the American labor movement and unions during the 1920s due to oppressive working conditions," (Dirks. 2017). I would agree with this because we are all influenced firstly what we experience in our lives and this gives fuel to creativity, it is only natural that the films set design came out in this way due to the current architectural themes, the ideation of futurism and the threat of another war with a rising fascist world super power.  

        

Bibliography

Wharton, D. (2017). Crucified to the Machine: Religious Imagery in Fritz Lang's Metropolis. [online] Strange Horizons. Available at: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/crucified-to-the-machine-religious-imagery-in-fritz-langs-metropolis/ [Accessed 3 Oct. 2017].

 Ci, S. (2017). German Expressionism – Fritz Lang and Metropolis – cc. [online] Oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg. Available at: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/sohc0014/germanexpress/ [Accessed 3 Oct. 2017].

Dirks, T. (2017). Metropolis (1927). [online] Filmsite.org. Available at: http://www.filmsite.org/metr.html [Accessed 3 Oct. 2017].