oO On cs Intertextual Perspectives: ge Metropolis Presented by Axel Kruse, University of Sydney n of Independent Schools of New South Wales Limited ee Level 12, 99 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Phone (02) 9299 2845 Fax (02) 9290 2274 Web wwwalsnswiedu.au. Emall als@alsnsw.ecuau [ABN 96.003 509 073,METROPOLIS METROPOLIS (1927), directed by FRITZ LANG Lang was born in Austria in 1890 and grew up in Vienna in a prosperous middle class family. His parents were Catholic although his mother was Jewish born, which later led him to leave Nazi Germany in 1934 for America. As a young adult he rejected business for the theatre and art, He was a follower of the German avant garde and produced an early self portrait in the avant garde manner complete with the tortured hands that became one of the motifs of Metropolis. Lang, was a passionate follower of the avant garde. He served in the army with distinction during the First World War. In 1918 he settled in Berlin and began to work in the film industry. He made his way with popular commercial film at the early stage of the industry, with detective stories, horror and fantasy adventures. In 1920 he met Thea von Harbou, a writer with a talent for popular fiction. They became partners in their film work and Lang’s first wife died mysteriously which freed them to marry. They made a series of increasingly successful films with von Harbou as the writer and Lang as director. They explored Expressionist horror and then immediately before Metropolis made Die Nibelungen, a five hour spectacular epic version of the classic northern legend of Siegtfied, and a cinema appropriation of the tradition of Wagner's epic operas. Their collaboration on Metropolis is a combination of popular horror, epic and an Expressionist exploration of cinema as art Lang became notorious in his later career for inventing myths about his work, including that he and von Harbou were inspired by their trip to New York when in fact they had completed the script before their visit to New York, Lang was notorious for his obsessive and authoritarian approach as a director. He pushed his actors and workers beyond normal limits, He shot scenes many times and with multiple cameras to provide alternative images. He planned Metropolis to be the most expensive and spectacular film made in Germany to that time. It was an epic production of an epic story. For Metropolis he worked with talented collaborators who made it an exploration of the machinery and technology of the cinema as well as a narrative about the machine age. Eugan Schiifian, the cameraman, ‘invented an optical trick shot dubbed the ‘Schiiftan Process’ which ... made possible the composite of live action in the foreground and ‘miniature scenery in the background ... [a] revolutionary illusory effect” (111) For scenes such as the first view of Metropolis and its tower there was a combination of ‘miniature sets and stop motion photography: ‘The toy cars were moved about an inch at a time, then photographed, exposing one frame of film with a stop-motion camera. The toy areoplanes that buzzed overhead were pulled on wires and photographed the same way. Elevated trains on wires were tugged along by someone out of camera angle,” (113). ‘Apart from the principals there were 750 actors ... to play smalll roles, 26,000 male extras, 11,000 female ... and 750 children.” Reference: ‘trick MoGilligan Fritz Lang; The Nature of the Beast (St Martin’s Press, 1997) Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 1Yotertitles: METROPOLIS: OVERVIEW Metropolis was made between May 1925 ~ October 1926. Metropolis is a representation of the future that is a projection of the present and a comment on directions in modern European society, and Germany in particular, in the 1920s. The future is a fantasy about the present. Metropolis and silent cinema: Metropolis is a classic version of silent cinema as entertainment and art in the machine age: It is silent cinema with a musical ‘accompaniment from a period of sophisticated exploration of the elements of cinema as a combination of writer, director, camera, sets, actors and costumes and the mechanical reproduction of images. It is a cinema classic that is an extreme and impressive exploration of this stage of silent cinema, The style part the result of a focus on. silent cinema as a new form of art and entertainment of the machine age. The style ranges across cinema melodrama to German Expressionism with an emphasis on actors and cinematic spectacle. Understanding Metropolis as a text involves interest in the silent cinema form of moving images, intertitles with words that report speectand information, and music. Metropolis was made at a time of sophisticated interest in mise en scene and montage. It involves a highly developed use of sets and special effects. Lang defines himself as a ‘major silent cinema director who defines the idea of the director as auteur, as an artist in control of the film, Lang was based in the avant garde art tradition, It is a mixed kind of form, a hybrid form: Metropolis ranges across science fiction, fantasy, utopian and dystopian, epic adventure and romance, satire and Gothic horror. ‘The writer of the screenplay Thea von Harbou was a writer of popular fiction and the script ranges from pulp fiction to literature and art traditions. Metropolis is cinema as entertainment and art with a focus on ideas: The themes include modernity and the machine age; the politics of capitalism and the workers, and socialism and revolution, in the machine age; a view in terms of the social and political crisis of the Weimar Republic in the mid 1920s after the First World War; a view in terms of the Russian revolution and a rejection of revolution in favour of a reconciliation of capitalists and workers; traditional romance and modern sex in the period of the sexual freedom and decadence of Weimar Berlin; a focus on German identity and the current German preoccupation with heroism, the spirit, apocalyptic ruin and triumph. Metropolis is a representation of modernity and German identity. There is a similar concern with a representation of the future as a representation of the present state of the nation and national identity in Metropolis and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Metropolis is shaped by the preoccupation with Germany and German identity that was part of the period ~ as a preoccupation with German tradition and traditional German identity - and that was reflected in German Expressionism as a concern with inner identity and a contrast between the heroic and dark horror. Metropolis is a movie that aims to be a representation of the current state of mind and world view of Germany as well as its politics: itis a very German exercise in Weltanschauung (world view). imei ta rr Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 2METROPOLIS Nietzsche, THE CONTEXT The First World War: 1914-8: Germany’s loss of the war led to widespread social change and economic erisis. ‘The Russian Revolution, November 1917: Socialist revolutionaries led by Lenin and Trotsky overthrow the imperial order in November 1917. The Tsar and his family executed July 1918, ‘The First World War (1914-18) and its aftermath: Germany was in a state of ruin after the First World War, beginning with widespread civilian starvation in 1918-9. German Revolution: A socialist revolution inspired by the Russian Revolution led to the overthrow of the imperial system of the Kaiser and the rise of the Weimar Republic (1919) ‘The Weimar Republic from 1919 to the mid 1920s: The Weimar Republic included democratic national assembly and a new constitution. But the geographical closeness of Germany and Russia and the social crisis after the war made the possibility of socialist revolution a continuing issue. Capitalism continued under threat of inflation, national debt and divisive extremism that included informal military groups of the right and left. The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party: The Nazi Party was in fact named the Nationalisia Socialist German Worker’s Party. It was anti - Russian and strongly nationalistic and focused on German national identity. 1924 Hitler attempted a coup, was tried and imprisoned and gained wide public attention. The period of the making of Metropolis (May 1925 — October 1926) coincided with the rise of Hitler. In 1929 a referendum to introduce a ‘Law Against the Enslavement of the German People’ (to halt all payment of post war reparations) was lost but attracted wider attention and support for Hitler’s party and its nationalism Germany in the 1920s: In the 1920s Germany was in a state of crisis compounded by a tension between poverty and postwar manufacturing renewal, and between revolutionary socialism and the rise of German political nationalism. Berlin: Weimar Republic Berlin in the 1920s was at the centre of the German crisis and its contradictions: as a European centre of the arts and the rise of German cinema; as a European city known for its extremes of sophistication and decadence ~ sexual freedom and prostitution were hallmarks of Berlin in the period; it was a centre for the contradictions between poverty and a renewal of the machine age and capitalism, “Cabaret ’ Modernism: From about the 1870s to 1939 the revolutionary change and crisis in European civilization was accompanied by developments in the arts and society and culture defined as Modernism. In literature and the arts Modernism involved contrasts between realism and new departures in abstraction, and between emphasis on inner, personal experience and formal, abstract design. Modernism included the rise of an avant garde in literature and the arts concerned with extreme exploration of abstraction and inner identity. Consider as a definitive examples of these directions: Picasso and abstract cubism, oat nn nem hemet Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 3METROPOLIS ‘The Machine Age, the metropolis and Modernist art and architecture: The period from the beginning of the new century through the 1920s to the end of the 1930s saw itself in relation to the machine and defined itself as the machine age, the age of the machine. This was the period of the development of the motor car, the aeroplane and its propeller, new building methods with iron and conerete that provided larger and higher buildings, the telephone, mass production, and not least the moving pictures and the new possibilities for commercial cinema and art cinema, © What is essential for understanding Metropolis is that it in this period the idea of the ‘machine age was associated with the idea of the modern city as a metropolis of the ‘machine age, Across Europe the word ‘metropolis’ was associated with the idea of the city of the machine age. Lang’s title is a borrowing of one of the key words and concepts of the period. Metropolis is designed as an iconic product and Tepresentation of the machine age * The modern metropolis was associated with a new architecture based on iron and concrete and the abstraction of Modernism, The machine age accompanies and is part of Modernism, © The idea of the machine age was part of the development of Modernism: Modernist art appropriated the idea of the machine, The new architecture was inspired by the machine and abstraction, * The machine age metropolis was seen in relation to the present and the future and utopianism about the future, Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 4METROPOLIS Some knowledge of the following ideas and background is useful for understanding Metropolis: Futurism: Futurism was a movement that developed in Italy immediately before and during the First World War. It was widely influential. It was inspired by the motor car, the plane, speed and the future and it defined much of modem architecture. It was broadly revolutionary in polities. Consider the following utopian definition of the future modern metropolis by the poet Marinetti in his futurist Manifesto (1909): We will sing of ... great crowds ... as revolution sweeps through a modem metropolis shipyards blazing with with electric moons ... factories hung from the clouds . bridges flashing like knives (Reyner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (104).) [See illustrations in Resources booklet.] Antonio Sant’Blia: In the same period the Italian architect Antonio Sant’Elia set directions for modern architecture: see La Citté Nuova, 1914, a utopian future city project that foreshadows Utopia. The focus on the machine, abstraction and the utopian metropolis continued in arts and architecture in_northern Europe up to the making of Metropolis: In Holland, De Stijl, another major avant garde movement: Consider Van Doesburg from this group: “The machine is... a phenomenon of spiritual discipline ... The new spiritual artistic sensibility of the twentieth century has not only felt the beauty of the machine . machine [promises] social liberation’, Mondrian, an abstract painter of the group: genuinely modern artist sees the metropolis as Abstract Living converted into form: it is nearer to him than nature, and it is more likely to stir in him the sense of beauty ... that is why the metropolis is where is the place where the coming mathematical artistic temperament is being developed’ (Banham 151-2) Expressionism, architecture and Lang: The German art movement Expressionism continued these themes and Lang was part of the Expressionist movement. Expressionism influenced the development of a major German architecture movement focussed on abstraction, iron and conerete and glass, and the modem metropolis. In Germany the machine age architecture movement led to iconic buildings as well as plans for the utopian future city. And similar variations on architecture involved defining plans and buildings in Paris and across Europe: Sce illustrations: Erie Mendelsohn The Einstein Tower, Potsdam, 1919-21; Van der Rohe, Berlin 1919 plan; Le Corbusier. Villa Schwob, Switzerland 1916,METROPOLIS ots Eric Mendelsohn The Einstein Tower, Potsdam, 1919-21 ; me Notes © Axel Kruse, University of SydneyMETROPOLIS New York, Lang and the tradition: New York was seen throughout the 1920s as a model for this kind of development (Banham 125). The documentary on the second Metropolis DVD text includes comment on the fact that Lang claimed to have been influenced by his visit to New York immediately before the making of Metropolis. New York was certainly part of the inspiration and the documentary includes film of New York taken at the time that is a major reference for study of Metropolis. But the documentary also stresses that the script and plans for Metropolis were already in place at the time of the New York visit of Lang and Thea von Harbou. The evidence here is that Lang and Harbou and the designers drew on a major contemporary tradition. ym the context of the machine age in art and architecture: There was enthusiasm for the moder metropolis as a triumph of the machine and abstraction, a direction to utopianism, a focus on the architecture of the metropolis, and the development of the kind of style seen in Metropolis. See also: Wolfgang Pehnt Expressionist Architecture (Praeger Publishers, 1973) Expressionism and German identity Painting and Sculpture: Expression developed in Germany from the decade before the First World War to the nineteen twenties. Critical commentaries on German Expressionism admit that itis difficult to define and varied. For the present purpose it is understandable as a German variation on the Modemist concern with both abstraction and inner experience, and as an exploration of extremes that reflects the extreme crisis and contradictions in German identity in the period. Expressionist art explores abstraction and extremes of bright and dark colour. It includes extreme abstraction, and images that evoke suffering and horror. It includes an emphasis on design and figures seen as distorted designs and caricatures. It reflected German contradictions about modern utopianism and despair about the situation of Germany. It was concerned with a vision of German identity. It presented a view of identity in terms of preoccupation with the idea of the individual in relation to the Weltanschauung (the world view of the times), and with a direction to aesthetic and spiritual intensity and dark suffering, horror and apocalypse. Significantly in relation to Metropolis, Expressionism included a direction to caricature and satire and satiric irony, most obviously in the work of Grosz. ‘iew and discuss the following images: Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 7METROPOLIS: Kirchner Self portrait as a sick person (1918) Kirchner Two Women on the Street 1914 Notes © Axel Kruse,METROPOLIS Mare Tiershicksale (Fate of the animals) 1913 Franz, Georg Grosz Suicide (1916) Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney - Page?METROPOLIS Critical comment includes speculation about Expressionism as a renewal of traditional German identity; ‘Mysticism and magic, the dark forces [the war nourished these interests] ... A new stimulus was thus given towards ... the kind of brooding speculative reflection called Gritbelei which culminated in the apocalyptic doctrine of Expressionism. ... The Expressionists ... liked to call themselves ‘apocalyptic adolescents’ (Lotte H. Eisner The Haunted Screen (9 15). References: There are many studies of Expressionism, For a short illustrated guide see, Shulamith Behr Expressionism: Movements in Modern Art (Tate Gallery). German Cinema and Expressionism: ‘The German cinema developed in the nineteen twenties as a distinctive combination of commercial entertainment driven by capitalist business and investors and the German art tradition. It involved a strong bias to commercial horror and adventure with a production pattern that gave power to the production group of the writer, the director, set designer and cameraman and connections with the German art tradition, In that context the nineteen twenties became a period of Expressionism in the German cinema with a series of films that are a combination of commercial entertainment and the Expressionist movement. One of the main directions was towards a version of Expressionism in the cinema with a focus on stories of fantasy and Gothic and psychological horror ~ a cinema of horror, dreams, madness, monsters, magicians and epic dystopian adventure, Metropolis builds on a 1920s tradition of Expression in German cinema that begins with The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919). Viewing of a few scenes provides an introduction to variations on silent film that continue in German Expression cinema from Dr Caligari to Metropolis: * _ Emphasis on the sets as a continuation of Expressionist art — in fact, the sets of Dr Caligari are painted canvas Expressionist images. * _Stylization in the acting, makeup and costumes with a focus on extremes of melodrama and melodramatic use of face, gestures and posture for the acting technique. Stylized hands were part of the tradition of Expressionist art and cinema and become a main feature of Metropolis, * _Asstory that combines madness, magic and science, hallucination and fantasy, monsters and madness. * _Accinematic narrative presented in short scenes with accompanying music and divided by print for speech and explanation Notes © Axel Kru: Page 10,METROPOLIS: For comment on Lang and Expressionist Cinema: Lotte H. Eisner The Haunted Screen (University of California Press 1969) Paul Coates The Gorgon's Gaze: German cinema, Expressionism and the image of horror (Cambridge University Press, 1991) ‘Surrealism Surrealism developed in relation to Dadaism as a continuation of abstractionism into revolutionary assaults on reason and imitation of Freudian texts. This was the other main direction of art in the 1920s that influenced Metropolis. Surrealism was a revolutionary appropriation of the Freudian account of dreams and the unconscious, (1900) Machine age assemblages an imitations: Dada and surrealism made art from the objects and machines of the machine age. The idea of machine-like humans and human-like machines was fashionable along with fantastic anatomical variations. Art like dream texts: strange combinations of things, and distorted versions of bodies, objects and landscapes as in dreams were fashionable, Motifs similar to Freudian dream texts — hands and eyes: Images of bodies and distortions of features such as hands and eyes were part of the visual language of surrealism. Freud, Sex and Surrealism: As with Freud, surrealism stressed the importance of sex for understanding modern identity. Surrealism links the machine age and sexuality. The sexual emphasis and radicalism is relevant to both Metropolis and Nineteen Fighty- Four. These directions were already well established in the first stage of Dada and Surrealism in the nineteen twenties and preceded Metropolis. Surrealism, film and Metropolis: The emphasis on dreams and hallucinations in Metropolis as Freder responds to the Machine Woman foreshadows the classic surrealist film of Luis Bufiuel and Salvador Dali, Un Chien Andalou (1929). The eyes of Freder’s visions are paralleled in the famous and horrific beginning of The Andalusian Dog. (A full version of the Bufiuel/ Dali film is available on YouTube). shwitte ruction ), Magritt Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 11METROPOLIS Hausmann Mechanical Head (Spirit of the Age) (c.1920) Schwitter Construction for Noble Ladies (1919) Notes © Axel Kruse, Univer ity of Sydney Page 12METROPOLIS NS Picasso Two Women Running on the beach (1922) Magritte The Meaning of Night (1927) Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney "Page 13METROPOLIS METROPOLIS: AN APPROACH THROUGH SELECTED SC All that survive of the original "Metropol Pounce ener eure copies of shortened and re-edited release prints, Caer eaea yin has to be considered lost. DCS ee Racor To SSO AUognORTcane crn ECU ences ai een Cee ep cuts Piicmncnsc Con EEG ecin crt SRS ar eeu inca CLI different typeface (like this one) PEO CCRC Rt TACs RiGee CR ree tieChe BET Sr SUL C coe Ear EROS UTC HC Oc (oa iotes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 14METROPOLIS coat SO Nass ccc ee The Thin Man ........ Fritz Rasp ied id CULe ence ET eae Nu UN abet! N Notes © Axel KruMETROPOLIS: The epigram: The title is preceded by an epigram: ‘Sinnspruch: Mittler zwischen Hin and Handen muss das Herz sein.’ Some versions show the following translation: eae THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART! Itis the solution provided at the end: the mediator between head [mind, brain] and hands must be the heart. Note that the German word ‘Hirn’ carries more stress on brains and the mind than the word ‘Head’, And note that the epigram introduces the statement as ‘Sinnspruch’, as a traditional motto or saying. The epigram should alert students to the importance of Lang’s use of intertitles (the formal printed reports of speech) as one of the clements of silent cinema A FUTURE DYSTOPIAN VERSION OF THE MACHINE AGE (i) The introductory scenes: the machines, the workers and the shift change: ‘The challenge of a dystopian version of the machine age and its utopian metropolis: the initial images of machines: The images of the machines at the beginning are iconic images that evoke the idea of the machine age and the tradition of celebration of the power of machines and their promise of a utopian metropolis. In the context of the idea of the machine age from Futurism to the architecture of the 1920s, and the title, these machines are a challenge to the audience. The challenge is that fashionable utopianism about machines and the future has been reversed into a dystopian representation of a future machine age: the machines are ambiguously threatening as well as powerful ‘The workers and the shift change: The challenge continues with the spectacular procession of the workers as uniform slaves of the machine and the industrialism of the machine age. This is doubly effective as a display of cinema image as machine age spectacle to create dystopia, There is a tension between cinematic spectacle as a product Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 16Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney c Page 17METROPOLIS — : ————————S ‘Cinematic style and meaning: cinema as narrative in the manner of a future, science fiction fantasy, fable and art: The initial motto adds a direction to the audience to ‘understand in terms of meaning like a motto (workers are like slaves of the machine) and the cinematic style is slow and spectacular in a way that lends itself to that Kind of ‘meaning. The film is already developing as a combination of narrative and fable, with a direction similar to the traditional mix of story and ideas like a moral or motto in a fable, The spectacle of the workers is maintained at extreme length with the effect that it is art, cinema as an aesthetic experience like a painting or sculpture. And it is designed for close inspection: for example, the workers are all alike and they are alike in a way that makes them seem like walking skulls and even subhuman and animal-like, but they also remain mystery as their heads are turned away. Cinema here is poetic in the way that it deals in evocative images and ambiguity. Note how the intertitle underlines the direction to image and meaning in the manner of a fable: for example; ‘Deep under the arth lay the city of the workers? ‘The workers enter their city: This involves similar reversal that it at once ironic and complicated — to a later audience it might seem obvious, but only at the risk of missing subtlety. The first images of the workers’ city is a puzzle about utopian conventions, it looks like the monumental utopian architecture of iron and concrete of the time but itis uniform and ‘faceless’, like the workers, and a threatening reversal. (For a later audience the complication is that it looks in part like a slum block of apartments or factory). Faces and facelessness, the face of the machine human and the stolen face and ven faceless architecture is a motif of the film developed in narrative and images. Lang’s design is impressive for the fact that the motif is introduced early and developed through complicated variations. Freder enters the City of the Workers As Freder leaves his father’s office he makes the gesture of hands on his chest that signal his love for Maria and link with the preliminary and final lesson about hands, head and heart, Cinematic spectacle and meaning: Freder’s entry into the city of the workers continues Lang’s aesthetic development of silent film as a medium where cinematic spectacle (combined with accompanying music) works for complicated meaning, The dystopian view of the machine age is elaborated: The full introduction to the City of the Workers is a further development of the challenge of a dystopian subversion of conventional machine age utopianism. Cinematic spectacle and image work as complicated meaning: The workplace is an architectural puzzle that adds complications to the challenge: the city is a sinister machine: Joh Fredersen later refers to this area as ‘the Machine-Halls’. The view here seems to be of a machine, and the machine seems to be one of the main controls of the machinery of production, In the next scene Grot refers to it as the M-Machine. It is a combination of machine and a modernist building; and itis a combination of the front ofa building and a factory; it is monumental in a way that combines the aesthetic abstraction of Modernism but it is also like a pagan temple even before Fredet’s vision; and the jets of steam underline the impression of a factory (and recall the steam engine and steam railway engines) and add to the implication that this is an unde Id like Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 18,METROPOLIS hell — and the intertitles have stressed that this is deep under the earth, like a deep mine, ora journey to a mythical underworld. ‘* Cinematic spectacle and cinematic design as multiple point of interest: Lang is impressive here for his understanding of the potential of the cinematic image to be used for a number of frames within the frame. The factory machine wall is series of sub frames each with similar or related action, Lang has already seen the potential for windows within the cinematic window that Hitehcock developed much later in Rear Window (and Hitchcock is said to have visited the set). © Explore the details of machine controls and subsections within the series of frames. © This episode is evidence that Lang’s set and his imagery are created in excess for close viewing and the kind of close study that is only available to the general viewer now with the advantage of computer technology. ‘The workers of the machine age: The machine age is represented as a vision of repetition and uniformity that is a condition of subjugation and slavery for workers like machines. That the majority of the workers are seen from behind repeats their facelessness from the beginning and that they are like vulnerable victims of their conditions (and the gaze of the camera and the audience). The music adds to the vision of repetition. It also adds to the increasing experience of wild and dangerous intensity. * The worker who loses power of the controls is at once realistic and an Expressionist figure with stylized, balletic movements, exaggerated makeup, hands like claws, and. a face like a skull that registers horror and involves the viewer in a sense of horror, ‘The dystopian machine and dystopian sexuality: Does the machinery have an ambiguously anatomical aspect that adds a sexual dimension and recalls the sexuality of Freder and the Garden of the Sons? Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 19METROPOLIS ‘eder and his vision of Moloch: When the machine explodes Freder has a vision of loloch, A ‘The explosion and the vision of Moloch as a god of ruin and violence are the first main statements of the theme of apocalyptic danger and ruin, Moloch: from the old Testament, a pagan god associated with idolatry and human sacrifices. The illustration here is an eighteenth-century German version of Moloch, Lang repeats the theme of human sacrifice as well as idolatry. Freder is an Expressionist hero in a film that combines Expressionism and early twentieth-century melodrama; He is seen in terms of his expression of a range of intense feeling, and the expression of intense feeling in terms of conventional Expressionist style. He is seen in different terms to the workers, with extravagant, stylized expression of face, arms and hands that is mannered, theatrical and sculptural, Lang has a sophisticated awareness of the translation of Expressionism into cinema Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 20METROPOLIS ES performance through variations on melodrama performance conventions that were current through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. ‘* Note the emphasis on repetitive editing of views of Freder and the machine and the strong differences between them, * Freder is an extravagant model for the audience as viewers. Freder increases awareness of the cinematic experience as entertainment and art: increases the audience’s awareness of a sophisticated aesthetic version of cinema: his ‘gaze and reactions stress Lang’s creation of sophisticated awareness of the cinema as a gaze and the characters and audience involved in seeing, This is the level of the film that links with later understanding of the film director as an auteur. Freder_adds further ‘emphasis that Lang is involved in an exploration of cinema as art. Freder is an epic hero in a cinematic version of traditional mythology and Wagnerian opera; Freder is similar to Siegfried in Lang’s previous film Die Nibelungen about the epic quest of the mythological hero Siegfried. Siegfried is one of the great heroes in northern mythology. Freder’s confrontation with the machine as Moloch registers that he is like a modern version of Siegfried. Freder is a modem hero who goes on an epic quest and conffonts strange monsters and trials, as in one of the epics of northem, mythology. The film here declares its claim to be understood as a cinema adaptation of the epic narrative, mythology and visions of heroic and tragic German identity in ‘Wagner's operas — the modem classical music adds to the operatic dimension. sion of. is the beginning on h and strange visions within a fable with a modem mythological fable with a Biblical dimension: This is the beginning of a series of hallucinations and visions within a movie that is itself like a dream, a strange vision and a tormented hallucination. In addition, it stresses the theatricality of the spectacle: this is cinema spectacle that is like astage spectacle, It is also the beginning of an exploration of extreme narrative fantasy in the direction of surrealism. Clearly it also begins the variations on biblical references, And here the complication is that the workers become slaves and sacrificial offerings to a pagan god. The Moloch ambiguity is developed with Freder’s departing reference to his father’s city as the Old Testament Tower of Babel, that biblical tragic demonstration of human pride and the dream to be like a god. © Note that Moloch is another variation on a face and eyes. © The march of the slave workers into the mouth of Moloch increases the effect that the movie is a ritualistic experience for the viewer. Ci ema as political fable: Freder’s vision of the workers’ city and his vision of it as. Moloch increase awareness of the film as a cinematic fable. The episode increases the focus on a method that combines extended spectacle and ideas in the manner of a fable with a moral, Here the message is that the capitalist machine age can be like a false god that tums workers into slaves. —_—_————— Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 21METROPOLIS: ————————————————— Exereise: View the scenes in which Freder enters the city of the workers and discuss the style and meaning with reference to the analysis above, Students should also view the early scene in Die Nibelungen when Siegfried meets and kills the dragon, It is entertaining, the dragon is an interesting exercise in cinema special effects, and the comparison helps to make the point that Freder is a modern Expressionist hero who does not kill the monster. MACHINE AGE UTOPIA AND THE TRIUMPH OF CAPITALISM (i) The view of the metropolis after Freder leaves the city of the workers inematic style: Extreme changes in narrative setting and characters are a method that is complemented by an emphasis on cutting between different characters and images within episodes. The first view: The image echoes the motifs of the machines of the city of the workers. There is a brief view of figures like workers marching along a road, and there are jets of steam that recall the jets of steam in the underworld. ‘The message of the previous section is recalled but it is not as strong, A second stage: The second stage is a crowded cityscape with aeroplanes as well as, fantastic roadways in the sky (like later overpasses). The image and the music need to be understood as an exercise in contrast, The music is less menacing, still somewhat ‘menacing but grand. The image without the music is a celebration of the tradition of the machine age metropolis. Notes © Axel Kruse, Us of Sydney Page 22METROPOLIS monster: The third stage introduces the great tower. The music moves finally to grandly lyrical celebration. From one point of view the tower is a culmination of celebration of the utopian machine age metropolis: for example, itis similar to Mendelsohn’s Einstein Tower, Potsdam, 1919-21. But Freder has said that he is on his way to the Tower of Babel and the tower recalls the Moloch image in the previous sequence - it is a tower that looks like a machine monster with ears or homs at the top, and a central section that is like an eye or mouth (as an echo of the mouth of the Moloch vision). Close study reveals that it foreshadows many later figures: for example, it looks as if it might turn into a Dr Who darlek, or a Japanese film monster. Seeing the later parallels stresses that it stands over the city as if it is an idol, place of worship, or a science fiction about to walk. In that way it foreshadows the monster complications later in the film. Again, close study reveals the sophistication and complexity of Lang’s film, A visionary cinematic spectacle of the machine age created with the cinema machine: The achievement here as throughout the movie is that Lang is aware of the cinema as a machine age machine and he explores its technical possibilities for the purpose of a representation of the machine age. Note the combination of architectural design and architectural drawing with animation, What is the lesson? It is ambiguous and problematic? A balancing of opposites that recalls the original moral about mediation? ‘The emphasis has changed to celebration of machine age utopianism about the modem metropolis and continuing dystopian ambiguity that combines the mythologizing of modemity with a political fable that combines revolutionary warnings about capitalism with celebration. The emphasis on strong contrasts between each episode and again even within this episode seems intended to recall the initial moral lesson about “Mittler zwischen Hin and Hiinden’, that the opposites need to be seen and in some way reconciled. ereise: View this section that provides a vie volis. Di ent on it in the light of the comment above, N rticular th created by the imagery and the einer ut how the spectacle has been iow has the elevate traffic been made to d the planes (that re falling bodi omment on. and the ext helps tc () The first meeting with Joh Fredersen This long sequence advances the narrative and develops the contradictory views of the city and its politics and the characters. Fredersen is shown at work, Freder arrives and tells him about the explosion, Josaphat is sacked. Freder and his father debate the nature of the city and the situation of the workers. Josaphat is sent to work in the depths. Grot the Chief Foreman of the workers reports that he has found more of the problematic plans on two of the workers injured in the explosion, Joh Fredersen: The first view is impressive and threatening. Lang stresses similarities between his workers and the workers in the depths. Josaphat is overcome with work like i Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 23 8METROPOLIS ees the workers in the depths. Fredersen is a figure of power who commands through science fiction technology and foreshadows Big Brother and he isa father figure like BB: But note that at the first climax before Freder enters he is seen positively as a man of feeling as well as the mind. Lang continues to use stylized mime and gesture to define character in relation to his themes, Note the introductory view of Fredersen as the thinker, walking up and down in thought, raising his head and eyes and hand, and Freder: Freder enters as the Expressionist hero in a state of extreme feeling and extreme feeling —he is already an emblematic figure of ‘the heart” and his, gestures and mime stress that view. Fredersen is to begin with a dignified, powerful and loving father — his concern for his son is stressed ~ that he has feelings Eredersen and Josaphat: Eyes: Fredersen stares at Josaphat and his eyes are stressed and link him with the Moloch vision, although not without some sympathy for him, der: Fredersen is a commanding but loving father, but this es a climax with him in a commanding stance and Freder as a suppliant, in a way that makes Fredersen problematically like a father/ god figure. The specch pages as a cinematic device combined with the visual images: Here they add precision to the development of the main themes: Freder says he has visited the depth because he wants to look into the faces of the people whose children are his little brothers and sisters. Consider also: "Your magnificent city, father, and you the brain of this city — and all of us within the light of this city’ accompanied by a celebratory image of classic utopian architectural design and celebratory, triumphant music ~ and the image includes a positive view of the tower from above. Followed by the question ‘And where are people, Father, whose hands built this city?’ Then Freder asks the rhetorical question about where these people are and Fredersen affirms that they belong in the depths. Freder then adds a key question about revolution. Lang makes sophisticated and powerful use ofa combination of intertitles in the manner of a fable and images. The scene ends as a development of the combination of epic adventure, science fiction fantasy, fable and political questions. Ereder ends the scene as a visionary Expressionist hero on a tormented quest about the threat of revolution: Note that his gestures and his facial expression suggest extreme ‘mental suffering, This first accompanies the title about his vision of revolution. This vision now combines the threat of revolution with his love quest. Freder’s vision of revolution and his running from the room and exit from the door are a climax of stylized Expressionist performance, some of the most memorable scenes in the film. ‘The political fable develops: This episode returns to the initial terms of the political fable about the head and the heart. It adds a visionary threat of revolution along with affirmation of the utopian view of the modem metropolis. The two views are set in place as a matter for debate and exploration. Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 24METROPOLIS EXPRESSIONIST HORROR AND CELEBRATION: THE PROMISE OF POLITICAL RECONCILIATION IN THE FUTURE ‘The narrative develops as a combination of romance, Gothic horror, science fiction and fantasy epic with a biblical dimension, One way to describe it is a pulp fiction as art Fredersen learns about the maps the workers are carrying. Freder renters the underworld, takes the place of a worker at the clock machine and finds his way to the meetings Maria is holding in the two thousand year old catacombs in the depths of the underworld - ironically, as her name suggests, she is like a Madonna and preaches the coming of a leader who will end the problems of the workers. Interwoven with the story of Freder and Maria there is the dark romance and sex story of Rotwang, Fredersen, Hel and the Machine-Human, Fredersen visits Rotwang the inventor, a demented genius scientist who is like a magician, Fredersen mourns Hel who died giving birth to Freder. Rotwang also loved Hel, He reveals that he has lost his right hand in recreating Hel and that she will be his. When he reveals his ereation he describes it as the Machine-Human, although it is a naked machine woman. The Machine Human walks and opens its eyes. Rotwang says it will be fully human in 24 hours. () Horror and celebration of the machine age he first view of the Machin fuman whe He ariations on Frank: Machine-Human is a climax of the variations on the machine age as dystopian horror. It is a traditional monster as a living robot or android. It seems to be a version of Hel. As a variation on Frankenstein’s monster it raises questions about whether it is created from the dead body of Hel. It is potentially satanic. Note Rotwang’s raised arm with gloved hand, directing the Machine- Human to stand. Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 25METROPOLIS ‘The Machine-Human is a figure of contrasts: In that way it is a climax of the conflicting views of the machine age. It is in part a naked woman with a body, face and eyes of extraordinary human and alien beauty. It raises the question developed later in Blade ‘Runner whether humans can create androids who will be superhuman, © The first introduction to the Machine-Human as she rises from her chair and walks towards Fredersen and her body and face and eyes are exposed is a grand parallel to other figures in the history of art who are representations of the Christian creation. ‘The Machine-Human is a variation on Adam and Eve. Her beauty demands comparison to other representations of the magnificence of humanity from the Renaissance. How does Rotwang/ Lang compare to Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinei and Durer with Adam and Eve? Lang sets up that comparison. ‘The Machine- Human from this scene is at least an icon of modern cinema. © Inthe German context the Machine-Human is even more strongly contradictory as sinister and a superhuman figure of alien beauty for the reason that the Nietzschean superman was one of the great points of debate at the time — the question whether ‘modern man could remake himself to overcome the abyss of modemity. (ii) Romance and the utopian politics of reconciliation The episode when Freder finds Maria preaching in the catacombs is one of the key sections of the film. Lang combines romance and benevolent political passion as his message. Freder’s love for Maria is combined with his revelation of the existence of the workers and their claims. Maria’s sermon about the Tower of Babel provides a restatement of the original motto with the addition of religious passion and a political context about the threat of revolution. © The Tower of Babel is rewritten as a fable about utopianism and with political optimism. The challenge of Maria’s sermon is that it is a political parable about tutopianism that restates Babel in an optimistic way about learning the same ‘language’ of political reconciliation, © Freder is presented as the Mediator and represents the need for a future leader or leaders who will overcome the problems of capitalism and revolutionary socialism. ‘The fable works as a translation of traditional religion into twentieth-century politics of an optimistic kind, into a version of political salvation. © The variations about the epic hero and the political leader of a politics of salvation now raise questions about where Lang’s film stands in relation to Nineteen Highty- Four and the figure of Big Brother. Lang sees virtue in the rise of a strong leader? Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 26METROPOLIS (ii) Expressionist horror: Rotwang chases Maria just before the end of the first part Metropolis turns from optimism to an exploration of pessimism and horror: When Fredersen and Rotwang spy on Freder and Maria in the catacombs Fredersen sees that his son is love with Maria and commands Rotwang to put the face of Maria on the Machine Human/ Machine-Man in order to sow dischord between Freder and Maria, and and between the workers and Freder and Maria. Rotwang then pursues Maria in an extended chase. Rotwang’s hands: Earlier when he is first introduced Rotwang is first seen with emphasis on his right hand like a mechanical claw with a black glove and a left hand like a claw. He is the extreme case of the motif of hands like claws that separate the characters of the film from ordinary reality and work as signs of their special status as characters in an Expressionist fantasy. His gestures about the Machine-Human elaborate the image of clawed horror. Ambiguity about humans and fantasy creatures: compare to Nineteen Eighty-Four: Rotwang’s hands link with the Machine-Human and other characters such as the Thin Man to create an impression of a world where humans are also strange fantasy creatures and interact with monsters. Rotwang is human and a clawed monster like an animal: that view of the characters of Metropolis is comparable to the double view of the characters as animals in a monstrous fable in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Rotwangs” pursuit of Maria is a definitive cinema as extended aesthetic fable: example of Lang’s version of Expressionist * This is a long and repetitive sequence that involves the audience in the narrative as, Expressionist art cinema. © It is ritualistic, mannered Expressionist performance with a focus on extreme performance mannerisms that provide stylized cinema images with an emphasis on mise en scene and montage. The viewer is aware of virtuoso performance and virtuoso cinema spectacle. * As throughout the film the viewer is strongly aware of Brigitte Helm (who plays Maria) as both actress and character. Much of the interest is in her performance, face and body and the fact that is creating a role that makes her a star of the modern cinema, © There is a strong use of chiaroscuro throughout the film, as a technique that is appropriate for both black and white film and horror. © The emphasis is on extended Gothic horror. * As throughout the film there is an emphasis on gender stereotypes and in this case the sexuality of the presentation of Maria as victim that continues the emphasis on sexuality. The viewer is a voyeur of sexuality as well as Gothic horror, The chase is a violent sexual event (and remember that Rotwang has been presented as a sinister Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 27METROPOLIS EES ‘madman/ inventor with an obsession about Hel whose Machine-Human is to receive Maria’s face. ‘Exercise: View Rotwang chasing Maria through the catacombs. Study it in relation to the comments above and extend the comment on this episode and its themes and style. Include consideration of the relevance of this section to the earlier sections of the movie. ‘THE MACHINE AS UTOPIAN MARVEL AND GOTHIC MONSTER Rotwang brings the Machine-Human to life with Maria’s face and as a double of Maria te nt se smn ruse, University of Sydney Page 28,Rotwang and the creation of a new form of life that is a monster is a reference to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and understanding of the intertextual reference adds to understanding, There are differences that are essential to Metropolis: the new creature is beautiful whereas Shelley’s creature is horrifically ugly; Shelley's creature is a male created by a male scientist whereas this a female created by a mad genius as a substitute for Hel who he loves passionately. * The music adds to the meaning. The music is in part lyrical and romantic, even at times like a popular love song? It is not sinister, more like @ lyrical celebration of strange and alien wonder. © The music adds to the view that this is a revision of a traditional Gothic horror story as a double view of the machine age and its passionate dreams of utopia, as a marvel and as a threat of Gothic horror in the future. * The science fiction effects are a marvel of science and sereen special effects for the time (and there has been continuing speculation about how it was done) © There is a combination of science and magical effects that makes Rotwang like a magician interested in alchemy. The magical dimension works in part as a celebration of the event as a scientific marvel, and in part as a reminder of Satanism and the demonic, But the emphasis is mainly in the direction of wonder and a sense of marvels that was associated with science at this time in popular culture and in the development of pulp science fiction that led to later figures such as Superman (who was created in 1933) and the later Marvel comic super heroes. The rise of Superman belongs to the same period as Metropolis. * Critical study of this scene would gain from some reading in the history of popular ice fiction in the 1920s and 1930s. Seeing Metropolis as popular science fiction underlines its essential balance of celebration and pessimism about the machine age. © The episode is strongly romantic and sexual, as throughout Metropolis sex and utopian science fiction go together. That is also true of other different examples of the popular science fiction movement of the late 1920s. For example, students might Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 29,METROPOLIS ES research Buck Rogers who first appeared in America in the pulp fiction magazine Amazing Stories in 1928, Bxereise: View this episode and comment on it in relation to the comments above. Note points where you might disagree or that demand more discussion, What would you ad SEX AND ROMANCE AS THE MEDIUM FOR UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA The false Maria performs at Rotwang’s party for the men of Metropolis Metropolis develops as a romance and as a study of modern sex that echoes the Fall. Part of the effect is that Freder’s story has connections with the cabaret and pleasure world of Weimar Berlin. The Garden of the Sons" Club at the beginning is an ironic version of the Garden of Eden turned into a utopian brothel that recalls the pleasure world of Weimar Berlin. (Consider the difference between the outrageous and censored decadence of the Sons’ Club and the term used here). Freder’s love for Maria when she appears in the false Garden of Eden is like a religious conversion and that high view of romance is developed in the rest of the film. Freder’s vision of the Machine Woman as the Whore of Babylon from the Book of Revelations adds a complicated representation of modern German and Berlin sexuality. It is presented with a double view that is one of the defining features of the film. Freder has seen the false Maria with his father and believes that Maria has betrayed him with his father. In fact, Fredersen has commanded the false Maria to return to the deep and ruin the work of the true Maria, Freder’s reaction to seeing what he believes is an ultimate betrayal is a fall into mental illness. His immediate hallucination is another high point of Expressionist horror and special effects. It is the preliminary for the film to explore extremes of pessimism and modem nihilism, first as a vision of decadent sexuality, Rotwang’s party for the men of Metropolis is intercut with Freder’s illness. ‘The false Maria dances for the men of Metropolis: ‘© The performance is intersected with Freder sick in bed with an effect that defines it as a negative representation of modem sexuality © But the performance is a study in ambiguity and contradictory perspectives In the German context the double view is enhanced by the tradition of the Doppelgiinger, 19 nae A ‘Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 30METROPOLIS the belief that each person has a magical double, a ghostly look alike, at times associated with omens of death. ‘© This Maria is a sexual icon, a flamboyant representation of modern sexual freedom. and celebration of sex. She is an extraordinary modem sex goddess. The music in part repeats the themes and lyricism of the music at her creation. © She is also a Freudian event and the men’s responses are animalistic, wild and demented. The mode of representation shifis to surrealism, * Surrealism reaches a climax in the pastiche of eyes that has inspired later films. Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 31METROPOLIS: * The dance becomes an orgasmic sexual frenzy that ends with the false Maria as the Whore of Babylon from the Book of Revelations and the Thin Man’s prophecy of the Apocalypse. This is a representation and explicit statement of apocalyptic vision. ‘The Biblical parallels are about the Second Coming of Christ. The meaning here is, an appropriation of the Christian tradition, © The challenge for the audience at this point is that episode combines apocalyptic excitement as well as horror. It isa political warning and a sexual adventure? Lang explores the limits of cinema as an experience of twentieth-century voyeurism. ‘* For comparison students might watch the cabaret scenes in The Blue Angel (1930). REVOLUTION, APOCALYPSE AND RECONCILIATION Metropolis ends with a staging of apocalyptic ruin and revolution like the end the city and the end of the world. Freder and Maria rescue the children as if another Biblical flood, The workers explode in revolution. The burning of the false Maria as a witch is a representation of revolution as a response to satanic deception that ends in end of the world horror. It is another classic episode, another classic example of sensational Expressionist cinema, It is followed by the final reconciliation that repeats the motto staged at the beginning, Freder has completed his epic quest. The reconciliation is between the worker and the capitalist with Freder as the leader of true heart. It is a triumphantly optimistic statement that retums to the promise of utopia. The utopian city has been threatened with total ruin, The ending does not return to the images of the utopian city of the machine age. The emphasis is on a human resolution and a human ritual and tableaux. But the promise is that the machine age will be able to overcome its problems and continue with progress towards utopia. The music is triumphant. * Socialist revolution is overcome and denied at the end of Metropolis. I is an anti- revolutionary film, © The ending has been seen as a problem. The final motto can seem simplistic. But it has been set in place from the beginning and the audience’s response is the result of the long journey through the film. ‘© There is also the question of the final status of Freder as a political emblem. In retrospect there is the irony that he prefigures twentieth-century leaders or power and promised benevolence such as Hitler and Stalin. The ambiguity and optimism of ‘Metropolis allow it to fit into its context in Weimar Germany, including the rise of ‘Nazi and the idea of the leader associated with Hitler? In that way the positive image of the Mediator leader at the end makes Metropolis makes an interesting contrast to the distrust of leaders and totalitarianism in Nineteen Eighty-Four. © The ending is not a true resolution of the contradictions of the film. It is theatrical and the motto is limited as an intellectual statement, On the other hand, Metropolis is an essentially contradictory and ambiguous adventure and formal resolution that leaves the contradictions in place is the best possible solution? Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 32METROPOLIS: cise: View th false Maria as a witch and the end, Cor balance of end of the world d optimism. Discuss the effectiven ‘ending in terms of narrative and politics, RECENT CRITICAL COMMENT FOR DISCUSSION From Tom Gunning The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity (BEL Publishing, 2000) its naive romanticism about solving the problems of technology; its harbouring of — if not Nazi sympathies ~ at least a susceptibility to Nazi ideologies ; .. its blatant gender stereotyping (52) ‘Metropolis is the allegory of the future as the triumph of the machine. And the machine in a ‘variety of manifestations becomes the central allegorical figure of the film ... The image of the robot dominates Metropolis not only in the false Maria ... but also in the performance styles of the workers. (55) Maria tells the tale of the Tower of Babel to the workers ... It functions primarily as a political parable about class and power relations. (57) Although on one level the film can be seen as a reactionary, cautionary tale about the destructive power of the workers" revolt, the film actually displaces its political discussion of power into a nihilistic denunciation of the world. (77). From Paul Coates The Gorgon’s Gace: German Cinema, Expressionism and the Image of Horror (Cambridge University Press, 1991) ‘The demonic fun far is a central motif in Expressionist cinema. (28) Silent cinema more closely approximates the language of dream and desire than does sound cinema. (43) Sentimental and ideologically confused though [Metropolis] may be, it can hardly be seen as proto-Nazi (46) ... [in Metropolis] Sexuality is denied by its separation from humanity (51). Metropolis both unmasks the paternal order and consolidates it. (52). eT Notes © Axel Kruse, University of Sydney Page 33