Weimar Ghosted and Life Represented: Metropolis

Posters of the film, Metropolis. Image Link

Fritz Lang's film, Metropolis, is one of the most influential films from this point in history. What largely makes this film so surprising and very convincing for most people is the subject matter that this film has, and what it was for development of films in general. Beginning with the material that this film focuses on the most part, the film has many distinct themes that it largely focuses on, mainly with revolution in the case of the workers, who were sick of way they were treated during this period of time, mainly with them working long hours with no breaks to keep the city running. Another example is seen through the way both of the workers and the rich are largely portrayed within the context of the film with the latter not having a worry in the world, and the former being a grim place, which in some ways can be seen as to why that these revolution concepts are largely used and implemented.

The Heart Machine, one of many important set pieces in Metropolis.
 Image Link

 The themes that Metropolis portrays alongside the revolution concept is through the overall "instability")¹ that the film largely hints at throughout. For example, a large theme that the film has is the concept of the "hands" and the "head" working together in unison, with the owners such as the main character Freder's father being the head of the operation, and the workers being the hands of the operation and with Freder being the "heart"².
The next main point that Metropolis gets from how successful and why it is regarded as such a classic is how the developments of the film came to be. A lot of this actually comes from the director Fritz Lang himself. One of the quotes that Lang has in regards to film is that it is gives the gift of "rediscovery of the human face" (Lang, p. 623)³ , which in context, applies to the people that really stick out the most the someone would remember from if they went and talked about the fil later on, such as in the case of Metropolis, in famous robot that is used to rile up the workers and lead them down a dark path. Lastly, there is also the scale that this film also had put out, mainly within the scale that it had. One of the more intriguing parts about Metropolis has is the scale of the set pieces, and their futuristic look to them and the overall scope of the film as a whole, in the words of Willy Haas, "Gigantic is hardly the word for it" (Haas, p. 624)⁴ , which explains the overall scale that this film had, especially for 1927.

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1  J.P. Tolette, "German Expressionism", in Traditions in World Cinema. Linda Badley, Palmer, R. Barton, and Schneider, Steven Jay, eds. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), 24. ^↩

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2  Ibid., 25.^↩

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3 Fritz Lang, “The Future of the Feature Film in Germany.” The Weimar Republic Sourcebook (1994), 623.^↩

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4 Willy Haas, “Metropolis", The Weimar Republic Sourcebook (1994), 624.^↩