"There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator."
When people today talk about Fritz Lang’s science fiction masterpiece Metropolis, many will mention that the visual effects are amazing for their time period. The qualifier is unnecessary. The visuals of Metropolis would be an amazing achievement in any time period. The images alone are so inspired and beautiful that they need no additional justification. Its vision of a stratified urban society is rich with religious imagery, as well as an overt political allegory. Nevertheless, the most thought-provoking element of the film is the way in which it blends the distinction between the organic and the artificial. The dehumanized workers have become extensions of their instruments. The inventor Rotwag, himself conceived as half mechanical, creates a robotic woman (with a remarkable performance from Brigitte Helm) who behaves sometimes more human than her living prototype. Lang portrays the metropolis itself both as an intricate piece of machinery and as a massive organism. Today, the film still stands tall as a work of art as staggering as the fictional city it portrays.
No comments:
Post a Comment