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Space Oddities Film Reviews: Metropolis

Metropolis is a 1927 German silent science fiction film considered one of the greatest and most influential of its genre. It depicts a dystopian futuristic city divided between the wealthy elite and working class, with the workers living underground in poor conditions. The film follows the son of the city's master who falls for a woman trying to help the workers and is shown their harsh lives, sparking him to try and create change. It was renowned for its massive futuristic sets, visual effects like its robot transformation scene, and themes of social division that continue inspiring science fiction works today.

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243 views

Space Oddities Film Reviews: Metropolis

Metropolis is a 1927 German silent science fiction film considered one of the greatest and most influential of its genre. It depicts a dystopian futuristic city divided between the wealthy elite and working class, with the workers living underground in poor conditions. The film follows the son of the city's master who falls for a woman trying to help the workers and is shown their harsh lives, sparking him to try and create change. It was renowned for its massive futuristic sets, visual effects like its robot transformation scene, and themes of social division that continue inspiring science fiction works today.

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AlexEdmonds
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Space Oddities Film Reviews: Metropolis

Figure 1

Metropolis is a black and white German silent movie that was written by Thea Von Harbou and Fritz Lang who also directed the film in 1927. At a running time of 123 minutes the 19th century classic is considered the first and still one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. Within the film there is a huge outburst of Art Deco and German Expressionism within the architecture and overall look. Plot: The world of Metropolis is divided into two parts, the upper class and the working class. The upper class is quite literally above the working class as this is the glorious city of Metropolis in all its prime above ground. However there is a deeper secret to this futuristic city; underground there are thousands of workers living and breathing in poor conditions powering the machines below that essentially power the city itself. At the head of all this is Joh Fredersen, the master of Metropolis. His son, Freder Fredersen, who knows nothing about this madness down below soon finds out by following a beautiful woman known as Maria who he first sees in the Eternal Gardens with a group of what seemed like school children but are in fact the children of the poor workers down below. After learning of this horror, Freder tries to convince his father to stop all this and change his ways whilst Maria keeps the workers in high spirit predicting that they will be saved and a man will stand up to be their mediator. Although once Joh hears about Marias plans and that his son is joining her, he seeks help from a mad scientist named Rotwang who is an old colleague of his but soon turns on him for his own plans; Rotwang kidnaps and uses Maria to power a robot he has invented (Figure 1). Once the robot is activated it takes on the appearance of Maria and starts to follow orders from the inventor and creates more problems for the workers down below. Maria and Freder stop the inventor and his mischievous robot in order to bring back the city of Metropolis to peace and harmony once more.

The set and everything seen in the film was designed by concept artist Erich Kettlehut and it is truly unique as there is literally nothing quite like it and this is what brought the German masterpiece to its fame and glory. Within the set you can see vast amounts of Art Deco stylised within the futuristic architecture of the city scape and the huge Tower of Babel that stands tall over the rest of the city to really help create the mood and express the fact of the upper and lower class (Figure 2). Straight away the image of the workers city strikes as a place of hell with workers exhausted from doing twenty-four hour jobs with very little breaks in very humid and horrible conditions (Figure 3). Langs vision of this fractured place divided by social status set in the year 2000 has been inspiring to many feature films that are seen today and will continue to influence the science fiction genre.
- With its immense sets and stark lighting, the workers' city is a credible image of hell, while the overground landscapes were a seminal influence on all subsequent science fiction. - N. Pierce, 2003

Figure 2

Figure 3

The visual effects used were the work of German, Eugene Schfftan who invented the Schfftan process. Metropolis was one of the first films to use this process which involved mirrors to create a trick on inserting actors into smaller, miniature sets. The technique became very popular and widely used until the days of the bluescreen took over. Within Metropolis there are other effects used such as the energy rings that surround the robot in the scene of Rotwangs lab when using Maria for his mad invention and of course the overall transformation which was a real shocker in the 1920s and is the most iconic and famous scene of the whole film (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Some parts of the film are almost like it belongs on another planet such as the gaping mouth of the fantastical machine monster down below that the workers seem to be fed into. It could be described as both alien and monster but whatever it is it will always stay in the minds of the audience as it is truly unique in its design and shows a sense of culture perhaps relating to something that influenced Lang greatly (Figure 5).
- At times its almost surreal, and its iconic images - the workers toiling at giant dials, their every move dictated by the machine that controls them instead of the other way around; the machine itself, transforming into a hungry monster that devours the slaves fed into its gaping mouth; the rings of electricity circling Rotwangs weirdly futuristic robot - once witnessed will, like a particularly vivid dream, remain with you forever. - Anonymous, 2012?

Figure 5

For years Metropolis has remained one of the biggest art inspirations and will continue to inspire and set the foundations for science fiction films across the globe as well as other art forms aside from movies and theatre just as Lang had hoped for.
- The influence of Metropolis has spread well beyond the film world and into pop music, with just this year references to the film popping up in Lady Gaga videos and the title of Janelle Monae's album. -R. Barry, 2009?

Bibliography: Quotes Pierce, 2003, Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/movies/ Review: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/01/06/metropolis_1927_review.shtml [Accessed online on 16th October 2012] Anonymous, 2012? Available at: http://www.afulltankofgas.com/index.html Review: http://www.afulltankofgas.com/metropolis.html [Accessed online on 19th October 2012] R. Barry, 2009? Available at: http://www.close-upfilm.com/reviews/index.html Review: http://www.close-upfilm.com/reviews/m/metropolis.html [Accessed online on 20th October 2012] Illustrations Figure 1: http://www.posterframedepot.com/blog/the-most-expensive-movie-poster-in-the-world/ Figure 2: http://www.rowthree.com/2010/05/06/tcm-film-festival-the-complete-metropolis-1927/ Figure 3: http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/dystopia/patterson/social_dys topia_1.html Figure 4: http://www.rowthree.com/2010/05/06/tcm-film-festival-the-complete-metropolis-1927/ Figure 5: http://www.rowthree.com/2010/05/06/tcm-film-festival-the-complete-metropolis-1927/

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