Space Oddities Film Reviews: Metropolis

This film review examines Fitz Langs 1927 film, Metropolis, a German expressionist sci-fi film set in the year 2000 with a grand scale set heavily influenced by Art Deco to create a futuristic, complex city in which the story takes place. Langs film is still considered pioneer of the genre and his work can still be seen clearly influencing films and TV shows, not just in the set and character design but in the structure of the story as well, as Hannah Halfpenny writes in The Influence of Metropolis (2013) for Offscreen Magazine, Metropolis is arguably the most famous science fiction film ever made, influencing subsequent science fiction cinema as well as our cultural perceptions of the future. the impact can be seen in modern sci-fi films such as Star Wars, with character design a direct influence and the set design influenced set designs for films such as the new Batman trilogy taking place in a fictional densely populated city.

Fig. 1. Metropolis Poster (1927)

The film starts with the workers walking along in unison with a narrow shot and one point perspective to give the sense that these are the people who live below and have less freedom and less space than the people who live in the city above. Brick archways enclose the ceiling of this scene, which can be seen in Fig. 1. above, add to the imprisoned feel of these workers. When the film comes to the main character, Freder for the first time, extreme perspective is used to show the size of the grounds and gardens he has to roam and the size of the city, symbolizing his freedom in comparison to the workers, David Bordwell states in an essay titled Observations on Film Art (2010), Langs freedom of camera position is typical of late silent cinema, but he deploys his angles with characteristic precision. this is how Lang used the perspective to add to narrative, developing upon the characters personas.

Fig. 2. Metropolis (1927)

Further on into the film the workers become moving parts of the set as they are forced to do repetitive tasks to work the machines, they merge into the sets and become one with the machines, with the camera looking on as if the people are just gears, as an essay titled The Occult Symbolism of Movie Metropolis and its Importance in Pop Culture (2010) on The Vigilant Citizen says The tasks assumed by the workers are purely mechanical, needing absolutely no brain power, making them nothing more than an extension of the machine. which can be clearly seen in Fig. 2. above, the symbolism for the machine as a worshipped god becomes clear when it is compared to the deity Moloch in a vision Freder has and is fed human sacrifices, reinforcing the idea that the workers are just an extension of the machine, this also turns the set into part of the narrative by creating a character out of the machine.

Fig. 3. Metropolis (1927)

Bibliography List of Illustrations Fig. 1. Metropolis Poster (1927)[Poster] At: Available at: http://uk.movieposter.com/poster/b704724/Metropolis.html [Accessed 03 October 13]. Fig. 2. Metropolis. (1927) From: Metropolis. Directed by: Fitz Lang. [Film Still] Germany: UFA Fig. 3. Metropolis. (1927) From: Metropolis. Directed by: Fitz Lang. [Film Still] Germany: UFA Text Bordwell, D. 2010. Observations on film art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2010/04/05/metropolis-unbound/. [Accessed 03 October 13]. Halfpenny, H. 2013. The Influence of Metropolis. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.offscreenmagazine.co.uk/storyboard/the-influence-of-metropolis/. [Accessed 03 October 13]. The Vigilant Citizen. 2010. The Occult Symbolism of Movie Metropolis and its Importance in Pop Culture. [ONLINE] Available at: http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/the-occult-symbolism-ofmovie-metropolis-and-its-importance-in-pop-culture/. [Accessed 03 October 13].