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Fritz Lang's silent film
Metropolis, produced in 1927 in
Germany, paints a picture of a horribly polarized future society in
which the workers toil like cogs in a machine while the rich live a
lavish lifestyle in their towers high above the overpopulated city.
The film itself is steeped in expressionist imagery which emphasizes
the emotional quality of the plot that develops. As a whole, the
film serves to reflect Lang's vision of a technologically dependent
society and in turn comments upon the industrialization of his
homeland.
Many German films produced during the early 20th century were
influenced by expressionism, most notably Robert Wiene's 1920 film
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. While Metropolis may not
carry as much overt expressionistic imagery as early films like
Caligari, its themes are much more similar to the spirit of
expressionism (1). That is not to say that
Metropolis lacks expressionist imagery -- in fact, many
scenes, such as the opening sequence of the film, are heavy in
expressionist imagery.
The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (@ IMDB)
The plot
Fritz Lang's Metropolis takes place in the dystopian
future of the the year 2026 (a distant 100 years after the film's
creation in 1926-7). The city itself has been devided into two parts
-- the upper city, habited by the wealthy ruling class, and the
lower (underground) city, populated by the poor working class. The
lower class spend much of their day toiling on the enormous machines
that keep the city running, living a mostly dismal existance.
One day, a young man named Freder (son of Joh Fredersen, ruler of
the city Metropolis) loses his way chasing after a girl and ends up
in one of the machine rooms of the lower city. He witnesses an
acident at one of the large machines and envisions it as a demonic
beast (at one point, he exclaims "Moloch!" in horror). After
witnessing this accident, he returns to the upper city to tell his
father about what he has seen.
Joh is, of course, pretty much indifferent to his son's emotional
reaction to what has happened. Freder now feels a sense of
obligation to help the workers of the lower city and returns to the
machine rooms. He offers to take the place of one of the laborers at
one of the machines and subsequently struggles to keep up with the
frenetic pace of the machine. Meanwhile, Joh Fredersen has a meeting
with the mad scientist Rotwang. There he sees Rotwang's latest
invention, a robot that will some day replace the workers in the
machine rooms. Later, Rotwang takes Fredersen to observe one of the
workers' secret meetings (unbeknownst to Rotwang and Fredersen,
Freder is also at this meeting) run by Maria, who gives the workers
hope. Rotwang explains that he will capture Maria and create his
first robot in her image so that he can twart their uprising.
Rotwang is successful in capturing Maria and transferring her
appearance to the robot. Freder tries to save Maria, but by the time
he arrives at the laboratory, the procedure has already taken place
and he discovers the robot Maria (who looks just like the real
Maria) conspiring with her father. Thinking Maria has betrayed him,
he leaves. The robot Maria then incites the workers to revolt
prematurely, ensuring their deaths so that they can be replaced by
robots. The workers destroy some of the machines, causing a flood
that will eventually drown them all if they are not saved.
Eventually, the real Maria escapes and she and Freder help save
the workers from the flood. The workers then find the robot Maria
and burn her at the stake, at which point she transforms back into a
metallic robot, giving the workers reassurance that they have done
the right thing. The movie ends with the death of Rotwang and a
change of heart for Fredersen, who now feels compassion for the
workers.
The opening sequence
The opening sequence to Fritz Lang's Metropolis serves to
define the class structure that dominates the film. The film begins
with a short title sequence, then shows some abstract imagery of
machinery at work. We are then shown a few slow-paced shots of one
shift of workers marching out of the elevators and a new shift
marching on to the elevators. In stark contrast to this is the next
scene, in which Freder (the main character and eventual hero of the
story) is shown playfully running around a large, elegant fountain
surrounded by young women, chasing after a particular girl and
finally catching her. These scenes are used to establish the theme
of the upper vs. the lower class that pervades the film.
In Metropolis, there are two well-defined classes -- the
working class and the upper class. Not only are the roles of these
two classes extremely different, but so are their daily routines,
which are both shown in the sequence, are as well. While the working
class spends its days toiling amongst the machines below the city,
the upper class lives an opulent existence high above the city. This
use of two establishing shots with completely different narratives
helps define the stark difference between these two classes. This
theme of class difference was very important to the expressionist
movement.
Perhaps the most obvious expressionist means employed by Lang is
the use of lighting and contrast. When the workers are shown
drudging in and out of the elevators, the lighting is dark and the
contrast is heavy. This darkness reflects the dismal nature of their
lives as laborers. On the other hand, Freder and his female
companions are elegantly lighted and the contrast is in the scene is
soft and light. The image presented is much more visually appealing
than that of the downtrodden workers.
-
The
Downtrodden Workers
-
The Opulent
Garden
As the film progresses, this theme of the dark, downtrodden
workers being juxtaposed against the opulent upper class is
incredibly important to the unfolding of the plot. These
establishing scenes of the two classes are crucial to the narrative
that later unfolds. By defining the classes so objectively, Lang
makes it easy for us to understand how someone like Freder could be
so horrified by them.
The
expressionists
By the time Metropolis was released in 1927, expressionism
was no longer part of the avant-garde (1). An
expressionistic influence can be seen, however, throughout much of
the film. The plot of the film, as outlined earlier, adheres to the
expressionist tradition. Expressionist influences can also be seen
in the acting, imagery and set design of the film.
The exaggerated movements of both Rotwang and Freder owe much to
the expressionist theatre. Freder becomes the moderating heart
between the workers and the upper-class and his exaggerated,
whimsical movements reflect this (2). Rotwang,
on the other hand, plays the role of the archetypal mad scientist.
His movements are jerky and overstated, reflecting his manic state
of mind (3).
Direct parallels can be seen between the expressionist drawings
of Max Beckman and George Grosz, and Lang's portrayal of the
lower-class in Metropolis. Take, for example, Beckman's
Figures and Grosz' The Hero, two exaggerated
depictions of lower-class subjects. These drawings closely resemble
the dirty, downtrodden lower-class workers that toil in the
underground city of Metropolis.
-
The Hero
(George Grosz, undated)
-
Figures
(Max Beckman, 1915)
-
Metropolis
lower-class workers
Another example of where Metropolis mirrors expressionist
art is in the angular, crowded skyline of the city. Expressionists
were concerned with the role of the city in a modern, industrialized
world. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Red Tower in Halle is an
excellent example of the stylized, angular urban view of the
expressionists. The tower in the foreground of this painting
resembles the tower at the center of the city of Metropolis.
-
Red Tower
in Halle (Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1915)
-
Metropolis
skyline
Metropolis also draws influences from early German
expressionist cinema, especially in its lighting. While many of the
scenes that take place in the upper city are lit in a fairly
traditional way, the scenes that take place in the underground city
are full of the shadows and bright, angular lights that filled early
expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This
use of lighting (much like the use of many other expressionist
techniques) serves to further emphasize the expressionist themes
present in the plot of the movie.
-
Screenshot from
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
-
The
underground city in Metropolis
Many film scholars do not consider Metropolis to be an
expressionist film. When it was created, the expressionist movement
was no longer happening. By 1927, the social and political climate
in Germany had changed. In fact, at the time, Metropolis was
the most expensive motion picture ever produced. Although it may not
be a true "expressionist film", the influence that expressionism had
on Metropolis can not be ignored.
From wmbc.umbc.edu
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