Rubric
- Upheaval between working class and ruling class
- Shows the negative impacts the aspirations of the wealthy have on the workers
- Activates change and reconsideration in the exploitation and working conditions of labourers
- Challenges societal values of modernisation and technological advancement
- Represents shifting values of the 20th century that centralises modernisation and change while breaking free of tradition
Characterisation of Freder
- Alludes to Christ as he creates connection between workers (humanity) and Fredersen (God), associates himself with lower ends of society and is their Messiah
- Pure until he sees the workers and is tainted by their anguish
Characterisation of Maria
- Real Maria alludes to Virgin Mary with a motherly role for the workers, and John the Baptist as she preached that saviour would connect humanity (workers) and God (Freder)
- False Maria alludes to Whore of Babylon and is embodiment of sin
- False Maria symbolises the downfall of society due to technology
Characterisation of Rotwang
- Eccentric appearance similar to Einstein and house with many gadgets and Pythagoreanism symbols establishes him as typical ‘mad scientist’
- Plays God by creating machine-man
Characterisation of Joh Freder
- Tyrant with disregard for working class
- Ironic parallel to God as creator of Metropolis
Characterisation of Working Class
- Exploited for the plutocracy’s benefits
- Rebel against their oppression for equality
Context
- Fritz Lang (1927)
- Fritz Lang raised as Catholic which inspired Son’s Club and Eternal Garden, Tower of Babel, flood and allusions to God, Christ, Mary, John the Baptist and Whore of Babylon
- Lang visited New York in 1924 and was inspired by the lights, skyscrapers, industrialisation and capitalism, and his visit to Chicago inspired the hypersexual False Maria
- Weimar Germany had economic and social tensions between the working class and their employers due to hyperinflation, strikes and unrest, and mass industrialisation and exploitation of labour
- German Expressionism featured stylised sets, dramatic camera angles, bold shadows and hyper-expressive performances, and it reflected the troubles of Weimar Republic
Purpose
- Didactically Catholic tale against exploitation of workers and mindless rebellion
- Communicates strife of working class in Weimar Germany
- Shows negative impacts of an increasingly modern and technological society
Form
- German Expressionist with stylised sets, dramatic camera angles, bold shadows and hyper-expressive performances
- Silent film
- Black and white
- Biblical analogy
Audience
- Understand conditions and exploitation of workers during Weimar Germany
- Gain insight into impacts of rapid modernisation and technologisation during the 20th century
- View upheaval between working class and ruling class, and mass advancements of society through Catholic lens
Social Stratification and Classism
Opening scene…
Opening scene of workers behind bars, dressed in black jumpsuits, walking in lockstep with heads bowed, and numbers larger than names
- Wide shot
- Slow non-diegetic music
- Gears turning
- Whistling machinery
Social Stratification and Classism
“Those who toiled …”
“Those who toiled knew nothing of the dreams of those who planned. And the minds that planned the Tower of Babel cared nothing for the workers”
- Biblical allusion
Power
Machinery morphs …
Machinery morphs into Moloch and returns to order after willing human sacrifice
- Chiaroscuro lighting
- Allusion to Canaanite god of child sacrifice
- Metaphor that technology has become new religion
Power
“Down below …”
“Down below … where they belong”
- Connotations of inequality
Resistance
Contrast between …
Contrast between opening scene of workers and rebellion, and their return to primitive Pagan rituals of cheering and dancing around machines
- Antithesis
- Barbaric connotations
- Slow non-diegetic music in opening and rebellion is in same setting but with rushing non-diegetic music and quick shrills of woodwind instruments
Resistance
Workers’ desperation …
Workers’ desperation for children’s safety after flooding
- Biblical allusion
- Negative conditions of rebellion
- Rushing non-diegetic music and quick shrills of woodwind instruments
Symbols of Social Stratification and Classism
- Workers use 10 hour clock whilst rulers use 12 hour clock
- Workers wear black but elite wear white
- Workers live in depths and Fredersen views them from a high rise
Roger Ebert’s quote
“This vision of plutocracy vs labour would have been powerful”
Cristobal Catalan’s quote
“Commentary on civil liberties, caste, fascism, and social revolution”
