"There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator." This is the predominant theme of "Metropolis", and director Fritz Lang finds numerous ways to say and visualize his message during the course of the film. The movie relies on repeated visual imagery to make it's point, and does so effectively even if tedious at times. Particularly effective is the representation of the worker society as an almost single living unit, moving trance like to their appointed time and task. The use of a "ten hour" clock in the workers' chamber constantly draws our attention, as does the hangdog posture of the individual slaves who grind out their workday as if in a daze.
Amid this rabble, worker Maria (Brigitte Helm) is the inspirational voice of the workers, offering hope for a brighter future by a mediator yet to appear. However the Master of Metropolis John Frederson (Alfred Abel) sees in her a way to quell the underlying frustration of the workers, commissioning his scientist Rotwang to create a robot Maria to plant discord among the workers. Rotwang's laboratory would have done Frankenstein proud, and the creation of the robot is a marvel of cinematic imagery. The robot Maria's "belly dance" transforms into a scene of such raw energy and sexual awareness that it awakens the statues of the Seven Deadly Sins, one of the master strokes of this expressionist film.
So much imagery in fact is layered into "Metropolis" that it's safe to say that repeat viewings will lead to even more interpretations of it's vision, and not simply for it's denunciation of a class society. Both timely and timeless, the film captures a dynamism that inspires passion even after nearly eighty years following it's original release.
Amid this rabble, worker Maria (Brigitte Helm) is the inspirational voice of the workers, offering hope for a brighter future by a mediator yet to appear. However the Master of Metropolis John Frederson (Alfred Abel) sees in her a way to quell the underlying frustration of the workers, commissioning his scientist Rotwang to create a robot Maria to plant discord among the workers. Rotwang's laboratory would have done Frankenstein proud, and the creation of the robot is a marvel of cinematic imagery. The robot Maria's "belly dance" transforms into a scene of such raw energy and sexual awareness that it awakens the statues of the Seven Deadly Sins, one of the master strokes of this expressionist film.
So much imagery in fact is layered into "Metropolis" that it's safe to say that repeat viewings will lead to even more interpretations of it's vision, and not simply for it's denunciation of a class society. Both timely and timeless, the film captures a dynamism that inspires passion even after nearly eighty years following it's original release.