Metropolis

 


















This film is Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang and another black and white silent movie. The theme centred around the rich and working class a typical factory situation of that time period. The working class had to slave away like 'machines' to keep the town functioning. The music described the tone and emotion of the film because it was dramatic to give an impact of evil and typical science fiction, there is also a much a softer tune in comparrison to symbolise hope. A person from http://www.film4.com/reviews/1926/metropolis explains "Visually, thematically and in terms of tone and technique, this ranks among the most significant and visually spectacular films in the history of cinema."

The robot was a good design and inspired later science fiction movies and television including C3PO from Star Wars and the Cybermen from Doctor Who. When the robot becomes Maria, I felt she performed well because she changed her character completely through body movement and twitching to capture the robot's machine personality. Lighting was dramatic throughout the movie, a lot of flashing and fading in the corners gave a cosmic feel so fitted well in the film. Tom Long from http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1013775-metropolis/ talks about the director's views "There's no denying either the influence of Lang's vision -- so much of what he did in this film lives on that we take it as cultural assumption -- or the still valid energy of his storytelling. "

The sets was the important part of the theme because they were the inspiration to the big directors of the great science fiction movies that came later. The town of Metropolis looked really futuristic and ahead of it's time with giant organic - like sky scrappers. The sets inside the factory looked like an internal machine like our internal system keeping the whole town fuctioning. I liked the steam coming out of the factory because it made the building appear life - like which supports the organic idea. Nev pierce from http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/01/06/metropolis_1927_review.shtml says about the levels of inspiration came from this early film "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."