Robot punk, reels, pistons, steam. Unlike the mechanical worship of the Soviet Union, the people here are also similar to machines and are not endowed with feelings. Under the sun, is another world. I thought it would be a story similar to "Brave New World", but it turned out to be an elite religious story under the appearance of science fiction?
"the mediator between hand and brain must be the heart"
The logic of the whole story doesn't agree. For a better world (build the Tower of Babel). The workers seem to work voluntarily. Even when the workers riot, no one stops them, and it seems that the workers' riots are also ordered by the rulers, and the people living on earth, except for a city builder (ruler) and him. His son, there are not many other descriptions, only the panorama of the city on the ground, and a few fragments of entertainment life, the order of the city on the ground is maintained by only one person, the key is that he doesn't seem to have any subordinates, and he does almost everything by himself. The brains and hands that build the city seem to just need to communicate with each other. There is no conflict between interests, and the goal is still the same. And the interesting point is that the workers are dissatisfied with the machines, not the people who make them work. Even the robots who burn to death in the end are the incarnations of the seven deadly sins. This is why. In this way, I remembered that my sister in the book club said that the workers at that time were dissatisfied with their work by burning the machines, instead of going to the capitalists who hired them. More efficient machines, fewer workers, freedom and nothing, no matter how low the wages are, they will be willing to To do it, at least the capitalists give them a job, and the machines are there to compete with them for the job.
Under the surface, there is a fantasy city of the future, and the narrative of the story can feel the impact of the first industrial revolution on people. In Soviet films, the attitude towards machines is positive. Machines represent the liberation of labor and the improvement of productivity. The machines under their lens also seem to have a revolutionary enthusiasm. On the German side, it is more like the fear of machines. Machines make some people only do simple repetitive work, which makes them feel like machines and do not need emotions. The bots here are also not as well-meaning as Frankenstein, but instead spread a message of depravity and destruction. Therefore, seeking religious redemption is the core. Building a city does not rely on machines, but relies on hand-brain cooperation and heart-to-heart.
And I feel that the film has a mockery of the working class, especially in the incited part. The picture switches back and forth between the workers dancing hand in hand around the damaged robot and their children being submerged in water. It is assumed that they are 'hands', but isn't the director's setting very problematic? Instead of seeing them as human beings, they are people who can develop freely and comprehensively. I seriously doubt whether the director has an elitist inclination. Hands, brains, hearts, there is a clear tendency, who is more important, who is indispensable.
The logic of the story may not agree very much, but the composition of the picture is really brilliant. It's classicism when it comes to depicting Marie. When facing the city is Cubism, Structuralism, modernity at that time. The fonts have also been transformed accordingly.
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