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Metropolis study guide contains a biography of Fritz Lang, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. More books than SparkNotes.
- Part 1: Metropolis
Metropolis study guide contains a biography of Fritz Lang,...
- Character List
Study Guide for Metropolis. Metropolis study guide contains...
- Part 1: Metropolis
- Overview
- Production notes and credits
- Cast
Metropolis, German silent film, released in 1927, featuring director Fritz Lang’s vision of a grim futuristic society and containing some of the most impressive images in film history.
(Read Lillian Gish’s 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.)
Britannica Quiz
Pop Culture Quiz
The great future city of Metropolis in the film is inhabited by two distinct classes: the industrialists live off the fat of the land, supported by the workers who live under the city and endure a bare-bones existence of backbreaking work. The story concerns a forbidden love between Freder (played by Gustav Fröhlich), a young man from the industrialist class, and Maria (Brigitte Helm), an activist who preaches against the divide between the two classes. The subterfuge and deceit involving a robot duplicate of Maria culminate in a revolution that quickly spells disaster for all involved.
Despite advances in filmmaking technology, no other film has surpassed Metropolis in terms of its impact on production design. Its influence can be seen in many subsequent science fiction films, including Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985). Lang’s eye for magnificent set pieces and special effects resulted in memorable images, notably the immense skyscrapers that dominate the skyline of Metropolis and the scenes in which the robot takes on Maria’s features.
•Studio: Universum Film AG (UFA)
•Director: Fritz Lang
•Producer: Erich Pommer
•Writers: Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou
•Brigitte Helm (Maria/The Robot)
•Gustav Fröhlich (Freder)
•Alfred Abel (Joh Fredersen)
•Rudolf Klein-Rogge (Rotwang)
- Lee Pfeiffer
People also ask
Was Fritz Lang's Metropolis a science fiction movie?
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What is the story behind Metropolis?
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction silent film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang from von Harbou's 1925 novel of the same name (which was intentionally written as a treatment).
- 10 January 1927
- Gottfried Huppertz
- 5.3 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ (estimated) (equivalent to €21 million 2021)
- Erich Pommer
Dec 25, 2022 · The story behind Metropolis actually begins at the end of the First World War. At the time, German society was having to deal with a collapse of the social order, rampant inflation, and the humiliation of having lost the war. This helped create a public mood that reflected a deeply pessimistic outlook on life.
According to Patrick McGilligan's book Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast, the extras were hurled into violent mob scenes, made to stand for hours in cold water and handled more like props than human beings. The heroine was made to jump from high places, and when she was burned at a stake, Lang used real flames.
Feb 10, 2022 · An archetype of the German Expressionist movement, Metropolis was birthed in the travails of Germany’s cataclysmic defeat in the First World War. From the start, Fritz Lang's Metropolis was a controversial, enigmatic, and ultimately incomplete entity. Its director added to the movie’s legend.
A technical masterwork of the Silent Era by Austrian director Fritz Lang, the 1927 picture’s incredible, cutting-edge special effects and futurist imagery have become immeasurably iconographic and made the picture a benchmark of influential science-fiction filmmaking.
