Metropolis Analysis

Metropolis (1927)

Directed by: Fritz Lang

This film is a testament to what Stanley Kubrick says - 'if it can be written or thought, it can be filmed'. It's a German Expressionist science-fiction film. Films which are shot earlier and were set in the future like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Blade Runner and likes are always interesting to watch because some of the filmmaker's interpretations of the future turn out to be close. This film captures brilliant architecture, as some critics observed - it's a mix of functionalist architecture and art deco. The film has shots with skyscrapers and neon lights, it's apparently inspired by Lang's visit to New York. 

This film conveys a lot visually, because of course they don't have sound to rely upon and frequent cutting to intertitles would only annoy the audience. The scene where the robot is instigation people to revolt and kill, that was a brilliantly shot and edited scene - because the way they superimpose shots, of the people and her, and the way they cut back and forth - it captures the excitement in both sides, as a response to her instigation. The basic plot of this film, has some similarities to Shankar's Robo - the robot turning out to be harmful to the mankind and such themes. 

All the modern horror films root back to the art movement German Expressionism - the way films interpreted this art movement was not very different - they added exaggerated makeup, lighting, costumes, production design and intense music to give a distorted view of the world. The film's production design apparently draws inspiration from Cubist, Futurist designs and more. Films like these which have a strong sense of style create an enticement to explore what influenced them.