Film Review • Metropolis (1927)

Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) was a pretty slow film by todays standards, the fast action and low attention spans of people today makes Metropolis a difficult film to sit and watch in silence.

The silent film features the tropes of Mistaken Identity, Angry mobs and a Mad Doctor.

The one most present is that of the False Maria, the tutor had mentioned this and explained that the False Maria is like the love interests evil doppelganger, as the robot takes on the appearance of Maria, the character the protagonist has a thing for.

Leaving the Love interest trapped and the False Maria to cause chaos, the actress did a good job in portraying the difference between the real and the fake.

A part that sticks out now more than ever is the role of women, the robot is in the ‘Mad Doctors’ possession and when it is destroyed he believes the real woman is his creation, which leads to a scene where the protagonist fights the doctor, a now overused trope the man heroically saving the damsel in distress.

Effects used were interesting for the time, possibly simple but interesting.
It was possible to project film onto film and get a faded effect, an effect like the eyes
These gifs were most likely created like a matte paining would have been, multiple exposure to the film.

Bibliography

The Complete Metropolis, 1927, Silent Movie, German, Public Domain Movie [Film Streamed online] Fritz Lang, Public Domain Movies TV series (1920) 2.5 hours At:  https://youtu.be/-I9FD21k7Cs (Accessed on 14 October 2019)

Gifs were taken from the movie and found online at https://giphy.com/explore/metropolis-1927

Thomas Delapa (2010) Deep into Movies [online blog] At: http://deepintomovies.blogspot.com/2010/07/film-review-metropolis-1927.html (Accessed on 14 October 2019)

Industrial Light & Magic - Traditional Matte Paintings (rare footage) [documentary clip] At: https://youtu.be/lQTdOcYK9Ds (Accessed on 14 October 2019)