WATCH METROPOLIS (restored version) for lecture and discussion. (Movie can be found on Netflix Instant Play.)
ASSIGNMENT: (2 parts)
(NOTE: Each response should be formal. Include your full name. Remember - you are not texting me. Capitalize appropriate letters. Use punctuation, spell check, etc. The assignment is DUE ON THURSDAY by 8 P.M. Any late entries will not be counted - you will receive a zero for the assignment. You can either post your assignment or you can print out a hard copy for me and hand it to me at lecture on Tuesday. I will not accept any hard copies at discussion on Friday.
PART ONE: (200 words)
Using 2 TERMS discussed in last week's section (pages - 3 -69) explain how "Metropolis" director, Fritz Lang uses one of the following methods - lighting, editing or cinematography - to draw the viewer into his futuristic city. For instance - if you think his use of lighting successfully conveys a futuristic city, a term that you could use would be backlighting.
PART TWO: (100 words)
"Metropolis" is heavily stylized. It features artificial aesthetics, abstract and disproportionate dimensions. Lang’s cinematic vision, clearly expressed throughout "Metropolis," is said to have influenced many well-known filmmakers including George Lucas, Ridely Scott, Francis Ford Coppola, the Wachowski brothers and Stanley Kubrick. In 100 words describe how a film of your choosing was influenced by "Metropolis" in terms of cinematic style (lighting, set design, camera angles, etc.).
Metropolis
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Fritz Lang uses various methods in order to draw viewers into his futuristic city but what caught my attention in particular were the specific choices that Lang made within the film. The choices that Fritz Lang made between types of shot, the actual movement of the camera and the lighting really allows the viewer not only engage with his futuristic city but get a proper glimpse into what it consists of. For example when you are first introduced to the workers city you get a small glimpse of the buildings while the workers are standing in the elevator. At first it’s a medium long shot and you only view the workers and small portions of the city and there is very low key lighting. Eventually this cut to a long shot where you see the workers march and you get a more panoramic view of the city yet the lighting is still low key and there still tends to be this shadow overlaying the city. Not only does the lighting add on to the dreariness of the city but the transition from a medium long shot to a long shot allows the viewers to see the city the same way the workers view the city. This is also noticeable when you first find Freder in the Club of Sons. First there is an establishing shot of the Club it is the complete opposite of the worker’s city, the lighting isn’t low key, you even get a key light on Freder. This give a more playful and happy feeling to the scene as oppose to the previous one; showing a dramatic contrast between the head or in Freder’s case the heart, and the hand.
Part 2:
As I was watching Metropolis I could not help but to draw comparisons between Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and the film. It is extremely evident that Stanley Kubrick was influenced by Fritz Lang not only through style but by the theme. Like Metropolis it expresses the danger behind mechanization and it demonstrates the relationship between man and machine. They both show machines in a way becoming more human and the lack of control actual human beings have over machines. Surely within Stanley Kubrick’s film you see the evolution of man and how it slowly progresses and integrates with machinery but that integration is also viewed in Metropolis. Hal 9000 (Space Odyssey) and Hel are both machines but with elements of human beings. Stylistically Stanley uses elaborate sets and musical score throughout the film much like Lang. He also creates a completely unknown world with a large futuristic element.
Part 1: One technique Lang uses in Metropolis to draw us into a futuristic world is crosscutting or parallel editing. One scene where the crosscutting intrigued me was when the camera cut between the real Maria lying unconscious in a chamber in Rotwang’s lab and the robot sitting in a chair being given the likeness of Maria/turning into what we might call the false Maria (starting around 1:23:18). The scene seems rather futuristic when the robot makes the full transformation to the false Maria at 1:25:59. The reason the scene is alluring is because even though the camera is just cutting between scenes involving the same actress in different places around the lab it looks like there actually are two Marias, real and fake, as there actually are in the narrative. Another technique that strengthens the futuristic effect of this scene is when Lang does a close-up of the false Maria. We are shown first an image of the robot, then the robot undergoing the bizarre transformation, and finally the false Maria. By filming robot Maria up close the audience can see that it looks exactly like Maria, thus giving more weight to our belief in the narrative and also our belief in Rotwang’s invention.
ReplyDeletePart 2: One film that seems to be influenced by Metropolis is Apocalypse Now. Both films use distortion of images and sometimes layering multiple images on top of one another to distort the picture on screen. More importantly the distorted image(s) are a metaphor for distorted concepts. For instance in Metropolis, Freder is having a disturbing dream about Maria dancing at a nightclub. The camera cuts between images of Maria and the men watching her dance. Some of these images become distorted when there is an image of the men watching Maria, but on top of that is a close up of many individual eyes. In the beginning of Apocalypse Now there are images of a napalming in the jungle layers of a close up of Willard’s face. This scene seems reminiscent of Metropolis in both its technique and effect.
PART ONE: Applying Terms
ReplyDeleteFritz Lang's Metropolis is full of cinematic methods that are still used today. It is a very stylized film that is successful in bringing the viewer into this futuristic world that would have been almost unimaginable in 1927. One way that he does this is the types of shots that he uses to draw attention to these futuristic and mechanical elements of the city. The opening of the movie, after the introduction and the epigram, is a series of close up, and even some choker shots, of the machines at work. You are already being thrown into this industrialized world where the machines are hard at work. There are no shots of humans, just the machines. As the film continues these close-ups grow into larger long shots where you are able to put the machines into the context of the city as a whole. There is the famous establishing shot of the city as a whole with all the planes flying over head and the cars underneath with the tower of Babel looming in the background. In addition to these shots, the flow, or lack of it, in the workers city that helps to create this sense of the mechanical. There are many cuts making it feel very choppy and almost choreographed, just like the workers movements.
PART TWO: Influence
There are many filmmakers and films that come to mind when watching this film, but I feel that someone who is highly influenced by this and many other films of the times would be Tim Burton. I feel that Tim Burton has taken some cues from this in the cases of mainly the set design and the lighting. One of his films, Edward Scissorhands (1990), seems to be influenced a lot through the lighting. It is a very dark movie where everything seems sort of black and white, though it isn't. There is this whole aspect of the mechanical and material being important, not to mention,the main character is a human and mechanical hybrid. Even the more recent, Alice in Wonderland (2010), seems to have possibly been influenced by Metropolis. The Eternal Garden that Joh Frederson gives to his “sons” seems to have influenced Tim Burton's sets of Wonderland, especially the oversized plants and the strange and otherworldly designs of the external world of Wonderland.
1) In the film Metropolis, director Fritz Lang uses the spotlight and close-up methods consistently in order to draw us into his futuristic city. Although the film is in black and white Lang does a very good job at utilizing lighting techniques, specifically the spotlight to emphasis the characters emotions and role. This helped the viewer connect to the character on a deeper level and support the silent aspect of the film. 51 minutes into the film Maria is preaching to the workers in a spotlight, which implies that she is a positive character, the workers remain in the dark. We see the spotlight effect come into play again on Freder when Maria is describing “the chosen one”. The spotlight switches over to Freder and we are led to believe he is the missing link, the heart of metropolis. The close-up shots tend to zero in on a characters emotional state and allow us to deeply relate to them. I believe this was a great effect that made up for the lack of dialogue. We see a lot of close-ups with John Freder and his son to emphasis their sadness as they face many realizations regarding Metropolis.
ReplyDelete2) The movie Eraser Head directed by David Lynch reminded my in many ways of Metropolis. Each film can and have been accredited for their aesthetical appeal that makes up for the lack of dialogue. The films are predominately silent and filmed in black and white. They both have few characters and take place in a somewhat surrealist setting. Since the films are black and white it appeared that both directors utilized similar lighting techniques such as backlighting, which creates a mysterious effect and spotlighting, which enhances mood of a character. There is also the idea of non-human creatures such as the robot in Metropolis and the deformed baby in Eraser head which appears to take on a somewhat in-humane presence.
Name: Hillary Palmer (My AIM account has hey has my name so I am putting it at the top for you. SO sorry).
ReplyDeletePart 1) In the film Metropolis, director Fritz Lang has truly made a great film by using different techniques in editing, visual shots, and lighting. The visual shots are what stood out to me the most throughout the movie. About half way through when Joh Frederson is trying to find his way back, he runs into the girl and you see a little later on a close up of her. The close up is well done because we see the reaction on her face, which is scared, and obviously we know exactly what Lang wants our focus and attention to be on. Another technique that I saw was a medium two shot when Frederson is telling Josaphat that he wants to be with the girl. We see the waists and the two people in the shot. I saw this as a very common technique now, in modern day but also very well done here in the movie. We see a great amount of other close ups and medium two shots in the movie, but these two really stood out to me the most. I think that is because Lang did very well when it came to camera shots and camera angles as well.
Part 2) While watching this movie a few movies that I have seen did actually come into mind at times. One movie that stood out the most to me was Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner with Harrison Ford. I think one of the most obvious reasons is that plot is definitely something they have in common. Both are in the future about modern day workers. But also many of the shots and stills in Metropolis looked very familiar to me. Then after some thought I realized that they are either the exact same or very similar to the ones that are in the movie Blade Runner.
Elle Brosh
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In his mega film, Metropolis Restored, director Fritz Lang intricately manipulates editing to convey an immensely powerful, futuristic city in which the audience is exceptionally allured by. Most obviously, Lang utilizes the common establishing shot, providing an overview of the immensely vast megacity he has generated. With this establishing shot the viewer gets a good idea of where all the upcoming actions will take place, which is in a grotesque industrial metropolis. Though what the audience sees is not too far off from the current urban city of the 21st century, the present- day viewer still ogles at the panorama of what is on- screen, because the establishing shot, which reveals giant edifices intertwining with flying planes and towering over small cars, portrays a sense of magnificence.
Another editing technique that Lang employs is point of view. One specific point of view shot that he often applies is when the character looks off screen. Lang frequently implements the notion of off- screen action to enhance the complexity of composition or intensify the idea of “the future.” In these shots, Lang creates off- screen space to, “activate the viewer’s awareness of the space beyond the frame” (63 Nichols). In the beginning of the film, when Freder first goes down into the depths of the workers’ underworld there are several examples of this specific type of shot. Following the off- screen shot, there is a second shot that reveals what he sees called a medium shot. When the audience sees Freder looking off screen, the viewer strongly anticipates what it is he is looking at. The notion of suspense and anticipation is key to the film because these shots force the audience to examine the concept of time and lure the viewer into Lang’s futuristic world and its happenings. There are several other instances where Lang implements the relationship between what is off- screen. For example, when Joh Fredersen is gaping at C. A. Rotwang, the scientist’s creation of the “machine man”, and when the men glare at Maria’s robotic double, dancing erotically at Yoshiwara.
Part Two:
In my opinion, one film that was inspired by Fritz Lang’s mega film, Metropolis, is Don Siegel’s 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. There are several parallels between the two films, involving lighting, set design, editing and cinematography. Both Metropolis and Invasion of the Body Snatchers implement a huge amount of special effects to convey fictitious ideas: For Invasion of the Body Snatchers the notion of an extraterrestrial invasion in a small town in California, and in Metropolis, an industrial, futuristic city. Siegel’s film also portrays the creation of inhuman characters. Similar to the mad scientist creates a robotic “machine man” in Metropolis, sci- fi characteristics are also seen in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, like the giant pods that duplicate perfect physical copies of the townspeople. Other than the implementation of special effects, director Don Siegel also employs similar editing in his film. Because Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a science fiction horror film, suspense is a major aspect of the film. Siegel implements off screen space in order for the audience to build anticipation. This technique is also used in Metropolis for the same reason. Both directors manipulate lighting in their films to reflect a clear contrast between humanity and technology, in Lang’s case, or between society the “subversive” in Siegel’s case. In both films, this notion of dramatic contrast is illustrated through the use of spot- lights and low- key lighting.
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ReplyDeleteMetropolis
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Fritz Lang employs a well rounded use of editing, cinematography, and lighting to draw his audience in. The first scene in the film shows his thoughtful use of editing, in which there is a montage sequence of close-up shots of different machines at work. He makes use of quick-cuts so as to shy away from the repetition of a single machine and focus on another busy one. This sets off our observance of the machine and its constant function throughout the film. His use of lighting is also very effective in contrasting the workers domain and the world of the privileged above. During the “Club of Sons” scene Lang employs high key lighting to emphasize the sense of joy and freedom throughout the race that Freder competes in. An establishing shot, which is also a long shot, shows the large scale of the stadium setting and how it reflects light off of its expansive walls, demonstrating the open and sunny atmosphere. This is as opposed to the world beneath which is given low key lighting in all of its shots to stress the dingy and oppressive conditions with which the laborers must work and live.
Part 2:
The film "The Matrix" certainly draws a great deal of inspiration from a movie such as Lang’s "Metropolis." One main similarity, besides the opposition of man and machine, between the two is the use of oppressive scenery to portray to the audience just how dreary a certain reality is. The Wachowski Brother’s made good use of low key lighting in most scenes which took place inside of the matrix itself. It is also easy to note the profuse amount of downtrodden set design. Many times it is as if the members of the resistance against the machines are wandering a network of back alleyways and vacant basements in order to stay off the machine’s radar.
Shanthal Caba
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Lang always presented the city in long shots to show its greatness, the high skyscrapers, the enormous tower of Babel and how small humans were compared to all this modern infrastructure. In terms of lightning, Lang uses different artificial techniques throughout the film in order to convey different emotions. In the workers’ underground city it was dark, there were a lot of shadows while in the Club of Sons everything was very illuminated and there were practically no shadows. The characters usually had a direct light to their face so all their facial expressions and gestures were visible. During the scene where the workers are in the cave, Lang used backlighting on Maria to make her stand out from her surroundings and give emphasis and importance to what she says. Another thing that caught my attention immediately was the mis en scene or “put in the scene”, which was spectacular. As we got know on Tuesday, the production values required were immensely high. It was all filmed indoors and lot of thought and detail were put into decoration, costumes and props. I think that with the help of these various methods and a few others, Fritz Lang successfully conveyed in the screen a futuristic city.
PART TWO:
I think Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, 1982, is definitely one of the movies that were heavily influenced by Metropolis, aesthetically and thematically. In both movies the city is presented in big long shots as to show the modern infrastructure and the bright lights of a futuristic city, and the humans as small in comparison. The whole idea of a men creating machines with human qualities is one of the main themes thoroughly explored in both films. In Blade Runner is one of the most known examples of modern film noir and, as in the workers’ city in Metropolis, there is low lighting, it’s very dark and there are a lot of shadows.