Figure 1.

Metropolis movie poster 1927

Metropolis, directed in 1927 by Fritz Lang is a silent science fiction film set in a futuristic city of super Industry. Roger Ebert states that Lang's film is the summit of German Expressionism, the combination of stylized sets, dramatic camera angles, bold shadows and frankly artificial theatrics. (Ebert, 1998) here Roger Ebert talks about Metropolis being the pinnacle of the silent film era in Germany and the expressionism within it defines it as one of the great films to have influenced modern day film design. Metropolis was the most expensive silent movie ever made costing roughly $1 million at the time ($15 million or 5 million Reichmarks after inflation). Within this mega city the inhabitants are split into two social classes. There are the executives who live in luxury in tall skyscrapers and the workers who labour endlessly underground in the mechanical heart of the city above.

Figure 2. The catacombs

Under further investigation it is clear that Metropolis has quite a lot of religious undertones buried within the facade of its German expressionism. For example, the masses of workers are being oppressed and it is prophesised that a saviour will come and rescue everyone to help them ascend to a better place from the metaphorical hell that they live in, this saviour is the son of the creator (of metropolis). Figure two shows the workers after a sermon in their secret gathering place deep within the catacombs under the workers city. The mechanical, evil version of Maria who preaches ideas of cruelty and violence is also not unlike the whore of Babylon. Nev Peirce furthers this point by stating that With its immense sets and stark lighting, the workers' city is a credible image of hell, while the over ground landscapes were a seminal influence on all subsequent science fiction. To hear fans of "Blade Runner" speak, you'd think Ridley Scott invented dystopian sci-fi. But this is the template.(Peirce, 2003)

Peirce goes on to suggests that, although the film was clearly very heavily inspired by earlier German silent movies such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. From which we can see that both the character and set design has progressed very little but instead Metropolis has reinforced the templates of the science fiction genre. Especially with regards to the look and layout of Frankenstein-esque laboratories of the mad scientists and the cityscapes made of bright lights and hyper-industrial machinery.

Figure 3. The New Tower of Babel Roger Ebert describes the design of the film to be hallucinatory...a nightmare without the reassurance of a steadying story line. Few films have ever been more visually exhilarating. (Ebert, 1998) Here Ebert comments on how the design of Metropolis was way ahead of its time and features some set designs and special effects that are still impressive to modern audiences. This includes the use of mirrors to project actors onto smaller sets which are then spectacularly destroyed in the final scenes of the film. The complete destruction of an entire city on such a massive scale is definitely a trait of a more modern day disaster science fiction blockbuster. The visual impact that the film has is largely the result of the symbolic design of the city which has a contemporary modern feel with some classic German expressionistic undertones (see figure 3.)

List of illustrations

Figure 1: http://impawards.com/1927/metropolis.html Figure 2: http://blackholereviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/metropolis1927-2010-restoration.html Figure 3: http://davidszondy.com/future/city/skyscraper.htm

Bibliography

Ebert, Roger (March 28, 1998) http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980328/R EVIEWS08/401010341/1023 (accessed on 13/11/2011)

Pierce, Nev (07 January 2003) http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/01/06/metropolis_1927_review.shtml (accessed on 13/11/2011)