I am a preacher of logic and rationality. Metropolis defies all logic. This Fritz Lanz film is the definition of absurdity, a quality I usually dislike. It fritzbox kaufen offers a half-hearted take on the maxim “The heart is the mediator between mind and hand” and works it lopsided, like a science student project using quanta and shit to make cotton candy for extra grades (Science students, forgive my ignorance here, since I have no idea about quantum physics, but I keep hearing this one word on the internet!).
The “experiment” eventually ends in disappointment because the process is unnecessarily and inexplicably complicated. It ends up looking absurd, a trait I usually denounce. The main complaint I had about Fritz Lanz’s 1927 sci-fi epic Metropolis, regarded by contemporary critics as one of the most important films of all time, is quite similar to sci-fi author HG Wells’ own reservations about it Movie. I agree with HG Wells when he attacks the film for preferring message to logic, although I wouldn’t be as vehemently hostile as he is (his review basically tears the film to pieces, and not just through some shredder, but one that shreds it into nanobits). There are two things I don’t understand:
1) The film tells about workers who live in the underworld and are created for ten hours in a factory controlled by magnates named Joh Fredersen. A whistle from a tube-like machine marks the end of their shift. The only sign of their oppression is their gait, a rhyming march with a slightly arched back. An elevator takes the workers to their houses, which aren’t all that shabby. They looked to me like cardboard boxes with window cutouts, but they seemed quite roomy, at least from the outside.
One day there is an accident at work.
Quite a few are killed and the film’s protagonist, Fred, son of Joh Fredersen, witnesses the unfortunate sight. He informs his father, who until then had no idea of the mishap. There is nothing suspicious about this accident. Accidents happen, shit happens. To be honest, I wanted to ask these workers: ‘What are you fighting for?!’ for there seemed to be no strong motive behind their rebellion. Also weird is that we know absolutely “nothing” about what these machines produce? Because, you know, they’re supposed to “rule the whole damn place,” and that’s why Joh is a monopolist turned autocrat. You run a city full of cars and planes, so you make these machines cars and planes?
When something goes wrong later in the film, the whole city stands still. There is no electricity, so are we to assume that these machines generate electricity? And what are the civilians doing who earn their living between the working-class underworld and the “sons’ club” (where the rich, including Joh and Fred, reside)? And why is it a compulsion that when a person is fired by Joh they go straight to the underworld as shown in the film.
2) Fred is in love with Maria, the ambassador of peace and equality among the workers of the underworld, and touched by the plight of the poor working class children, whom she one day takes to the sons’ club to dam (albeit) the rich tactful) for the excesses and negligence. Following her into the underworld, he is pursued by the plight of the workers and decides to support Maria’s cause to improve her standard of living. He himself becomes the worker and the mediator between the two worlds.
When Fred’s father hears word about Maria’s secret meeting with the workers, he plans with a mad scientist named Rotwang to create a robotic clone of Maria, using the robot invented by Rowtang, the hat originally built, to protect his lost love Hel, the dead woman of Joh, to replace . Maria is kidnapped, tied up in Rowtang’s lab to clone her face onto the robot’s, and then held captive in Rowtang’s secluded home. The clone Maria is assigned to incite workers to riot. With her seductive performances, she also makes tongues wag in the upper world. During dance, she pops out of an oval object, which I assume was a source of inspiration for Lady Gaga’s bizarre performance at the 2011 Grammy Awards. Also for Madonna’s performance at the Super Bowl, where her headgear was definitely inspired by Maria’s. I wonder which diva was inspired by good Maria? Maybe Janelle Monae, but she was also channeled as a robot in her wonderful ArchAndroid album. Okay, I digress too much.
The working class, egged on by the evil Maria, rebels against Joh’s regime and dismantles the heart machine, leading to a deluge in the underworld. The machines are also massively damaged. Now, why in the name of Metropolis would Joh, the creator of Metropolis, destroy his own city? Of course he intended to eventually subdue these workers by force, but maybe he was too late. Way too late. Sergei Eisenstein quickly deployed an entire army against insurgent civilians on the battleship Potemkin. Herr Joh just waits.
The score by Gottfried Huppertz has not been copied welche fritzbox kaufen either. I bet some of Janelle Monae’s Metropolis-inspired musical compositions, especially Suite iii Overture, had mesmerized some scenes in this film. The score by Gottfried Huppertz and the running time of 119 minutes indicate that I have the 2002 DVD edition of Metropolis. There is a restored version from 2010 with 25 minutes of additional footage. Would I buy it as a movie lover? Possibly. And as a preacher of reason? Never.
