Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film produced by Fritz Lang. It tells the story of Freder as he discovers the lives of the workers that keep the city running for Joh Frederson, his father and owner of the city. Metropolis shows a city that depicts two sides of a city with only one side benefitting from the other, "...a future where an exploited underclass works in subterranean machine halls to support a small, pampered aristocracy living in palatial skyscrapers..." (French, 2015).
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| Figure 1: Metropolis Poster |
Metropolis shows a city in two halves, the upper city in which the richer population live and the lower city where the workers live. The upper City having the more pleasant aspects of life (see fig 2), "...it has spire and towers, elevated highways, an Olympian Stadium and Pleasure Gardens." (Ebert, 2010). The Lower City shows a starkly different perspective however as it is made of tall bare building placed close together which adds to the feeling of being trapped. The worker's city holds none of the opulence the upper city has and is a lot darker in colour and tone (see fig 3).
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| Figure 2: Upper City |
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| Figure 3: Lower/Workers City |
The divide between both halves is furthered in the way they work. The people in the upper city spend their days at the stadiums and in more office based work whereas those in the worker city are stuck doing menial thoughtless tasks such as moving dials and shifting the hands of a clock (see fig 4). The workers lives are split into two, with them working until their shift change, "...where the clocks show 10 hours to squeeze out more work time, the workers live in tenement housing and work consists of unrelenting service to a machine." (Ebert, 2010).
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| Figure 4: Worker's Work |
Bibliography:
Ebert, R. (2010) Metropolis Review. At:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-2010-restoration-1927
(Accessed on: 5th October 2016)
French, P. (2015) Metropolis review. At:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/15/metropolis-fritz-lang-philip-french-classic-dvd (Accessed on: 5th October 2016)
Images:
Figure 1:
http://scifimoviefilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Metropolis-movie-poster.jpg
Figure 2:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/28/Metropolis-new-tower-of-babel.png
Figure 3:
http://www.tboake.com/dystopia/patterson/images/METROPOLIS_USA_NTSC-45.jpg
Figure 4:
http://photos.bravenet.com/272/478/925/3/50E8303817.jpg
Hey Alex, I'm just dropping by to give you a few pointers re. the presentation of your blog before we get to the content of your review. I think your text is too large and too 'shouty' - when I arrive at your blog it's like walking into a very loud conversation! Can I suggest that you reduce your text size, so it feels more like we're reading the side of text we might find in a magazine or newspaper article. I also think you might want to take a look at your blog design more completely - right now you've got a fragment of 'floorboards' some swirly typeface and then nothing but blackness and some big white words. The overall effect is rather 'all over the place'... take a look at these examples for some pointers:
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Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteYes, I second what Phil has said :)
Regarding the content - this is much better now that you are using the quotes to support your own ideas. When you write your next review, try and include some background context...for example, what was going on in the world at the time the film was made, that might have had some influence on the themes within the film, or how it looks...
You should also think about if and how the film has gone to influence others; the robot in Metropolis, for example, could have been an influence for C-3PO etc.