Decades Project: 1/2 of the 20's

"But the hands that built the Tower of Babel knew nothing of the dream of the head that conceived it. The hymns of praise of one man became the curses of others."

Fun fact: Metropolis is actually just Star Wars in disguise. A rebellious young man joins a group of underdogs and learns the ways of a strange religion while on a quest to overthrow his tyrannical father's evil empire by destroying its greatest creation. That's right, Fritz Lang was secretly a no-talent hack using a time machine to steal ideas from the future.

So if that doesn't make it obvious enough, I'll just come right out and say it: I have a new…

Film School Drop Outs Challenge 2017 Week 3 - Movement - German Expressionism (1920-1927)

Ach Mein Gott...!

Metropolis has a whole heck of a lot going on. Class conflict, generational squabbles, unchecked scientific progress, spirituality and romantic notions, demagoguery and popular revolt. All of it melds together into an action packed dystopian melodrama on an epic scale. It apparently took Fritz Lang a whole year to make Metropolis, thousands of people were engaged as extras and it was the most expensive film he ever made.

Hitler must have made good use of this film. It was apparently amongst his favourites and would have been easy to co-opt for his political agenda. Much like Soviet dialectical montage films from this period,…

Fuck this film. Fritz Lang is a really lazy director. One of his films was just called M! Jebuzz Cripes! The guy couldn't be fucking arsed to write a proper title for his bullshit, and all of the characters were talking in a made up language and there was writing all over the screen and I heard a rumour that this guy is a German! I saw the anime version of this Metropolis film and I thought that it wasn't very good. That is an observation that I made and then I wrote it down. I'm now an film critique. This dumb-ass film is shot in the black and the white which is the stupidest shit that the cavemen ever…

Film #14 of Project 20

”There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.”

In a pessimistic depiction of human race’s future Fritz Lang mixes the elements of sci-fi cinema with politics, religion and mythology to create an extremely gripping and utterly compelling piece of cinema which with its dark portrayal of future life and its poetic look at human relationships holds enough power and glory to mesmerize, shock and provoke the viewers , Metropolis is the jewel in the crown of silent cinema and a movie which showcases the matchless charm of storytelling through the marriage of riveting musical pieces with mind-bending images.

One thing about Metropolis which thrills the viewers…

"Who is the living food for the machines of Metropolis?!"

A futuristic retelling of The Tower of Babel. Seeing this much dedication and effort put into science fiction in the twenties is really impressive. I can definitely see its influences in so many other films. Most notably in the designs for C3PO and Doctor Strangelove.

While the pacing of the film was somewhat of an obstacle for someone of my generation, I couldn't help but be amazed at the scale of it all. So many extras, incredibly large sets, and amazing dedication to its science fiction setting.

I absolutely loved all the symbolism and visual rhetoric involving the idea of the Machine Man being the modern Golden Calf and the…

10 Punkte
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Metropolis ist eine spannende Sci-Fi-Dystopie mit fulminanter Optik und toller Musik.
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Das ist es also, das Monumentalwerk von Fritz Lang, von dem ich ich bisher nur den großartigen M gesehen habe und dementsprechend waren meine Erwartungen auch recht hoch. Mein längster Stummfilm war bisher Das Cabinett des Dr. Caligari. Metropolis ist allerdings fast doppelt so lang und ich hatte Sorge, dass der Film sich ziehen könnte.

Die Schauspieler fand ich sehr sympathisch und es fiel mir leicht, mich mit ihnen zu identifizieren. Gustav Fröhlich spielte die Hauptfigur Freder Fredersen und hat das auch gut gemacht. Bei Stummfilmen neigen die Schauspieler, aufgrund der ohne Ton eingeschränkten Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten, oft zu Overacting. Das war hier aber eher weniger der…