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Premiered in Berlin, Germany on January 10, 1927
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About director Fritz Lang:
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (often abbreviated as Fritz Lang, September 5, 1890 - August 2, 1976) was a German born in Vienna, well-known screenwriter and director. In the early 1920s, he produced a series of crime-themed films that opened up a new dimension to world cinema. In the 1930s, after the movie entered black and white with sound, he also wrote and directed brilliant plays such as "M". After that, he repeatedly tried new movie genres. If the first robot plot appeared on the movie screen, it was his work "Metropolis" in 1927. After the war, he continued to write and direct many works and engaged in film promotion work. Because of his contributions, he is often ranked among the top 100 filmmakers with Hitchcock, Chaplin and others, and is considered to be one of the most influential directors in film history.
Fritz Lang already had extensive film work experience before he set out on "Metropolis." In the early 1920s, he directed several successful films, so he had the idea and capital to make a sci-fi blockbuster.
According to information, Fritz Lang used more than 36,000 extras, spent two million feet (609,600 meters) of film, pioneered the use of miniature models, and took an 18-month shooting cycle to finally complete a film. An epic 153-minute film.
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Synopsis:
Simple plot description: In the city of Metropolis, there are two levels of people. On the first floor are the poor, mainly workers, living underground, and on the other, the rich, mainly capitalists, living on the ground. One day, the son of the capitalist fell in love with a beautiful woman, but when he was looking for this woman, he discovered the working environment and state of the poor people living underground. living environment. Scientists invented human-looking robot girls to confuse the workers and make them resist to avenge the capitalist who took his lover. Finally, through the tireless efforts of the capitalist's son, the capitalist and the working class shook hands and made peace.
Specific plot description: In the city of Metropolis, the underground is where the poor live. These poor people only have ten hours a day in a world and work every day to death. The ground is where the rich live. The world has all kinds of entertainment and office facilities, and it has everything.
The richest capitalist in this city, he controls all the machines and labor in the entire city. The capitalist has a son who is our hero. When the hero was playing with his girlfriend in the garden, an elevator door opened. The heroine came to the ground with a group of poor children and said loudly, "These people are your brothers." The hero fell in love with the heroine at a glance. After the heroine was driven away by the housekeeper, the hero went over. When I asked the housekeeper, "Who is this girl?", the housekeeper said, "This woman is the teacher of those children."
The male protagonist went to the underground factory to find her in order to find the female protagonist. The male protagonist who had never been underground was taken aback by the underground life. People working underground were like machines that kept working. Time work caused the machine to explode, and the people who were bombed fell to the ground. A group of workers skillfully carried these dead people away from the ground. The male protagonist seemed to see the devil devouring the lives of these workers.
The male protagonist went back to the ground to find his capitalist father and told his father what he had seen. The capitalist father's first reaction after hearing this was to find the little secretary and ask, "Why did this matter come from my son? Did you hear it, not what you told me?" After the capitalist accused the little secretary, another fat foreman came to the door. The foreman showed the capitalist two maps found in the pockets of the workers who were killed today. , the capitalist called the little secretary again and asked, "Why didn't you hear this from your mouth?". The capitalist fired the little secretary angrily, and the little secretary walked out of the door in despair. When he drew a gun at the entrance of the stairs and was about to commit suicide, the male protagonist arrived in time and saved the little secretary's life. The male protagonist and the little secretary said, "Don't commit suicide, and do it with me in the future." The male protagonist asked the little secretary to go home first and wait for him to explore the ground before looking for him.
The capitalist father came to the scientist's house, but he didn't expect that the scientist liked someone but the capitalist's deceased wife. After the two had some quarrels over the capitalist's deceased wife, the scientist showed the capitalist his latest research robot. After a few hours, you can become exactly the same as the real person. The capitalist took out the map and asked the scientist to answer it. After reading it, the scientist said that this was the map of the secret passage of the underground factory, and then both the capitalist and the scientist went to the location on the map.
The male protagonist worked for others for ten hours and was tired and dizzy. After the work was finally finished, the male protagonist went to find the female protagonist. It turned out that the female protagonist gave a speech to the workers in a secret underground passage and told a story about the Tower of Babel , telling the workers to wait for that "the coordinator between the brain and the hands must be the heart!".
The male lead was fascinated. At this time, the capitalists and scientists peeked at the speech of the heroine, and the capitalists asked the scientists to make the robot look like the heroine.
The scientist showed his evil face after the capitalist left, and the scientist said: "I will let you lose everything and your most precious son,".
At this time, the tall secretary found the blonde worker wearing the protagonist's clothes, and obtained the address of the little secretary from him. The tall secretary found the little secretary's house, took out the money and threatened the little secretary to leave the hero.
After the hero listens to the heroine's speech, the hero and heroine embrace each other. After the hero left, the heroine was targeted by scientists. The scientist followed the heroine and took the heroine back to his laboratory. The passing hero heard the heroine's shout and rushed to the scientist's laboratory, but was exhausted by the scientist's organs and the hero was trapped. In the scientist's basement, the scientist finally made the robot into the appearance of the heroine. The scientist ordered the robot to find the capitalist and destroy everything he had.
At this time, the male protagonist was released by the scientist, and told the male protagonist, "Now your father is with the female protagonist." The male protagonist did not believe it at first, but when he returned home, he saw that his father hugged the robot that looked like the female protagonist. Together, suddenly collapsed to the ground with great sadness.
The robot was arranged by the capitalists to dance in the clubhouse to seduce the men on the ground, and the male protagonist became seriously ill. He seemed to see that the demon on the Seven Deadly Sins looked exactly like the business-hopping robot. The robot seduced many men in the clubhouse, and those men did some very strange things.
The robot will go to the underground factory at night to spread the idea of struggle to the workers. The male protagonist was found by the little secretary and told the male protagonist's current situation. The male protagonist then found the underground factory and saw the robot giving a speech. The male protagonist can see at a glance that the robot is not the real female protagonist, but the workers did not listen to the male protagonist, but went up to beat the male protagonist.
The former blond worker blocked the fatal blow for the men's football and died. The riots finally started. The robot took the workers and rushed to the machine control center of the factory. At this time, the foreman asked the capitalist for help, but the capitalist asked the foreman to open the door and let the workers destroy the machines. Finally, the workers smashed and destroyed all the machines, so Water from the ground began to spurt outwards, factories began to collapse, and the entire metropolitan city lost power.
The workers, feeling triumphant by destroying the machine, started dancing on the square, when Baotou asked them, what will happen to your children if groundwater spews out of your home? The workers were all remorseful and showed sad expressions.
The workers began to resent the robot that inspired them in the first place. They pointed to the robot and said that it was a witch. The workers tied the robot to it or sat on it and burned it to death. The robot exposed the iron coat under the skin.
At this time, after the capitalist heard the news that his son was still deep in the ground, he regretted and regretted it. The capitalist asked the tall secretary, "What should I do with my child?" Individuals come to you and ask where their children are."
Many children slowly came out from the depths of the ground, and the water began to gradually spread under their feet. The hero and heroine rescued the children.
After the scientist met the real heroine, he was about to throw the heroine from a height, but the hero who appeared in time saved the heroine and kicked the scientist off the high wall. The capitalists were very happy when they saw that their sons were not drowned in the flood. At this time, the workers attacked the capitalists and demanded that the capitalists return their children. The little secretary suddenly appeared and told the workers, "Your children are not dead. They were all rescued by us." At this time, the workers were willing to give up.
In the end, the male protagonist held the hands of the capitalist and the male head to make peace, which also proved that "the coordinator between the brain and the hands must be the heart!"
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The social background of this film making:
The First World War (1914-1918) Germany was defeated, not
Have to bear huge indemnities and geographical divisions,
The domestic economy nearly collapsed. And this film was shot in 1925, when the Nazi Party had already taken the opportunity to rise, Hitler continued to launch riots,
Incite the people and openly criticize capitalism under the banner of "nationalism" and "socialism". And wantonly slaughtered the Jews for their service.
However, Fritz Lang's mother is Jewish, and it's not hard to speculate that one of the reasons why "Maria the Robot" in Fritz Lang's film was defeated by "Maria the Good".
The robot Maria is a metaphor for the rule of the Hitler regime and the good Maria is a metaphor for the rule of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat under the religious beliefs.
Therefore, for the workers, choosing the right mediator is the key to victory! In response to Germany's post-war economic paralysis, the country has begun to vigorously build various public facilities, reservoirs, highways, etc., in order to solve the work problem of a large number of unemployed people.
At the beginning of the film, it repeatedly highlights the situation that capitalists ruthlessly squeeze the surplus labor of workers and build infrastructure such as roads without time limit, which makes workers gradually form reactionary consciousness.
The first completed version of the film lasted three and a half hours, and was later shown around the world, but due to factors such as box office revenue and political censorship, a quarter of the content was deleted from the version shown around the world in the past. After World War II, the film has been re-screened many times. However, due to the damage of the original film, it is an incomplete version.
Hitler liked the film so much that he tried years later to persuade the director to work for the Nazis, but was rejected. Director Fritz Lang himself is of Jewish descent, and his wife, Tia von Haber, who was the screenwriter of the film at the time, divorced because of his political stance toward Nazism.
The film was the largest film production of the year, shooting 2 million feet of film and employing 25,000 male actors, 11,000 actresses and 750 child actors
The film was widely ostracized when it first came out, in part because the biggest problem in Depression-era Germany wasn't the lack of work, but the lack of jobs.
When the film was first released in 1927, it was about two and a half hours long. At that time, the audience could not accept such a long and complicated film to share, and the praise and praise were mixed. Therefore, the film was released in the United States in the same year, and it was often reduced to about an hour and 55 minutes. . Later, due to the religious elements of the film, it was cut again, with only 91 minutes left, and many plots have been cut for no reason. In the long journey of film restoration, the film people found were all deleted versions. In 2008, the full version of the film was found in the Buenos Aires Film Museum in Argentina. Unfortunately, the film was damaged. Seriously, a small part of it is completely irreparable.
The film took 2 million feet of film and about 37,000 ensembles to shoot, and nearly bankrupted the production company. Since Germany was in a recession at the time, the production team could easily gather 500 malnourished children. The weather was very cold during the filming, but the scene of the flooded dungeon was still filmed for three full weeks. Soak in cold water. And when the workers were topless, and when they were filming scenes such as being swallowed, they almost rioted like the workers in the film because it was too cold.
3. Film development angle.
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Film achievements:
Metropolis is the world's first science fiction feature film.
Many of the films we see today, when it comes to the future, class contradictions, people and machines, can be classified as a product of the post-metropolitan era, where the metropolis defines the way people see the future and how movies show it.
The film cost five million Reichsmarks to make, making it the most expensive silent film ever made.
This film is a brand-new filming method, which has opened up the space magic of sci-fi movies and has become an epoch-making movie blockbuster.
Listed by UNESCO as a World Documentary Heritage, it has left a famous film history as a representative work of the German expressionist film genre.
As early as 1902, George Méliès used "Journey to the Moon" to let the world see the wonders of unreal elements. Twenty-five years later, Fritz Lang formally defined science fiction with a single "Metropolis."
The future city with high-rise buildings, the use of artificial intelligence and robots, the devouring of human beings by industrial civilization, and all kinds of advanced ideas, even in the 21st century, will not be outdated.
This film is a classic of late silent sci-fi films, with a very high artistic value and is still highly respected to this day. The film's sharp ideology (starting with Marxism and ending with Christian spirit) and spectacular expressionist set design (based on the director's impression of New York) and special effects, as well as geometric figures made of human bodies, made the film German cinema gold. representative of the era.
In 2001, the restored edition of "Metropolis" was selected as one of the World Documentary Heritage by UNESCO.
To a certain extent, the "Metropolis" we have seen is not just a movie, but a cultural relic.
"Metropolis" is a foundational work that established the artistic level of the silent film era and the genre of science fiction films. .
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Impact:
This film can be said to be the originator of the genre of science fiction films, including famous modern science fiction films such as "Star Wars", which have many scenes borrowed from the film's creativity. The 2001 Japanese animated film "Metropolis" was also inspired by this film
German expressionism, that is, using absurd and bizarre methods, accurately reflected the extreme panic that World War I brought to the German people, and presented on the screen a highly exaggerated, intuitive and subjectively created world. Paying attention to the contrast of light and dark, exaggerated modeling, often excavating people's hearts from the closed and distorted world, mostly focusing on the psychological abnormality in the deformed society with crime, surreal themes, and extreme spiritual world.
To say that it is ahead of its time is not just in the concept of being ahead of its time. The large steam engine running day and night in the shooting scene gave the film a mechanical sense of steampunk, and even brought some "cyberpunk" prototypes and "dystopian" colors because of the creation of the evil Nazi-like female robot Maria.
The concept of "anti-utopia" (Cacotopia or anti-utopia) is easily misunderstood as "opposition to utopia". In fact, it should be understood as "the opposite of utopia". ideal social state.
Whether it's the mad Frankenstein of the 1930s, or the visions of future cityscapes in Blade Runner, Brazil, The Fifth Element, Star Wars, and C-3PO's image design, Luke Skywalker's prosthetic hand and The prosthetic hand of the female general in "Nausicaa", the underground city of Lucas' "TH1138" and the number 1138 itself, all have the shadow of "Metropolis". Even Madonna and "Queen"'s rock music video references clips from "Metropolis." Its legacy is visual style rather than story and depth of thought.
Now that we look back at Metropolis, we will inevitably feel that the plot is something that has been seen thousands of times. The film is ultimately the influence of the film, and it is indeed not the narrative itself. But this does not mean that the film has nothing to watch in the story. The metropolis shows extremely rich elements, the contrast between the future city and the Gothic architecture, the contrast between science fiction and mythology, and religious elements.
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I was shocked after watching the movie. I didn't expect such an excellent film to be made a hundred years ago. In addition to the various sets, ideas, and shapes of this film that have a profound influence on later generations. It is also in its profound thoughtfulness. This is the key to enduring and becoming a classic.
After more than 90 years, video telephony seems to be without any sense of disobedience. The use of fake robots or androids is a common theme in later sci-fi movies. Many classic films were inspired by this film, and these classic films became the inspiration for many more films.
The film adds its own dark allure, and 1989's Batman pays homage to the church and bell tower. The prototype of Mechanical Maria is also created by the goddess of the underworld in Norse mythology. When the mechanical Maria appears, the big pentagram behind her usually represents the victory of evil matter over spirit and so on.
Needless to say the name of Mary, everyone knows that it is the Virgin Mary, and when the mechanical Mary deceives people, the film does not casually compare it to any devil, but specifically refers to the Babylonian whore. Like the great harlot described in the book of Revelation in the New Testament, the Mechanic Mary swears and manipulates people's hearts. The Virgin and the Prostitute, a kind, weak, pure, and an evil indulgent and coquettish, so there have been people who have interpreted sexy, wild, uncontrolled women, which will make men feel fear and dehumanize, and may even eliminate human machinery. Frightening. In this film, these two fears are combined into the role of Mechanical Maria who burns him alive, so most of it will tell a very patriarchal patriarchal story. It's also an interesting point of view.
Although the story of Metropolis is a dystopian setting, it is actually a rather idealistic one. The chapter about the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament Genesis originally wrote that people on earth would build a tower that reached the sky. A golden people, with such concerted efforts, isn't there anything that can't be done? As a result, people became language barrier, unable to communicate with each other, and scattered things he did not build.
The story of the Tower of Babel told by Maria in the film emphasizes that the designer's brain and the worker's hand cannot coordinate, so they need to become a new coordinator. Although the capitalist is the creator of the metropolis and in absolute power, he is not a god-like role, and his flood has taught himself a lesson. The capitalists thought that their sons might also drown in the ground, and then thought of the pain of the workers losing their children, and their mentality changed.
In the end, not only the workers' children were all rescued. The workers who killed the red eye also caught the mechanical Maria in the chaos and killed the real Maria by mistake, which turned into a tragedy. An old scientist who worships machinery and believes that machinery can replace humans. In the end, he lost his mind and fell to his death. The male protagonist successfully mediates the contradiction between the two classes.
Apart from the innocent death of the blond worker, the ending of this story is very happy, and even the minor characters in the film are of good character. After the little assistant was ruthlessly fired by the capitalists, he was still willing to help the male protagonist all the time. The foreman seemed at first to be just a whistleblower to inform the capitalists. But this was all because he knew very well that if the workers rebelled, they would only suffer.
But at the climax of the story, the workers have become the most unreasonable images. When their minds are hot, they forget about the children, and then they have almost zero reflection, just thinking about putting the mechanical Maria to death.
"The Crowd" writes that individuals who have been involved in group action for a long time will enter a special state similar to being hypnotized. There are a variety of factors that stimulate groups. Crowds, in turn, always succumb to the stimulus immediately. So you can go from the bloodiest frenzy to the most extreme magnanimity and heroism in the blink of an eye.
Few people in a group have strong personalities enough to resist suggestion. Sometimes all it takes is a pleasant word, an instantly awakened image, to stop the bloodiest atrocities of the group.
The workers in the metropolis perfectly demonstrate the group psychology and behavior of the mob. And the foreman is the angel who wakes up people to burn the great whore in the "New Testament", and is also described in the mob, who can awaken all rational people. Therefore, at the end of the story, he also acts as a representative to make peace with the capitalists.
German capitalism at that time was relatively stable on the surface, but in reality it was fraught with crisis, and rapid industrialization had exacerbated social polarization. The contradiction between the hand and the brain, the contradiction between the human and the machine, the contradiction between the capitalist and the worker can be reconciled as long as there is a will. A very positive ending. Then again, in the end, is there really any other option besides reconciliation?
The sci-fi shell in the film actually shows the contradiction between classes. It is proposed that the fundamental contradiction is the difference in the thinking mode and division of labor between the working class and the capitalist, and the key to solving the contradiction lies in mediation, not revenge.
The director tells this story from the perspective of capitalist society. Classes certainly exist at all times. As long as the social division of labor is different, there will still be class differentiation, and classes cannot be eliminated. Riots under the guise of eliminating classes actually bring about at most the replacement of members of different classes.
It's nothing more than a game where you go down and I go up. But behind the mix is likely to be personal ambition and greed. Contradictions between classes are also inevitable. A single contradiction is not irreconcilable. Because from the perspective of the whole social development, only mutual cooperation between different classes is most conducive to promoting social progress.
Although the solution given by the director in the film is not completely convincing, it just puts forward the essential solution to this social problem. This is the greatness of this movie. For film and television works, the director stands at the height Different, the scenery you see is not the same.
Metropolis is a shocking film, and a great one. The film is always haunted by a sense of absurdity, and the abrupt reversal is also very dramatic. It can be seen that the screenwriter has put a lot of effort into arranging the plot.
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