Saturday 12 October 2013

Metropolis - Film Review

Metropolis Review - Director: Fritz Lang

From the very early scenes and throughout the film we begin to get a feel for the environment that it is set in. The film was made in 1927 and the high rise, geometric buildings in the busy city environment would have been a very futuristic idea of life at the time of the film’s production. It is scarily similar to today’s urban areas (Figure 1) and a viewer watching the film today would not have much of a reaction / opinion on the setting as this looks like a normal street scene from the 21st century. 

 
                                                                            Figure 1






Figure 2                              





                                                                                                                                                                                                           Figure 3

The Robot-Maria that Rotwang creates has also been very influential in today’s world. A couple of examples are the Cybermen in BBC’s Dr Who series (Figure 2) and pop icon Beyonce, who dressed in a costume almost exactly identical to the robot in Metropolis for one of her performances (Figure 3). Both examples were used to give a sense of power / domination.  
           
                                                                                                                                 

The tall, empowering buildings represent the power and domination of the wealthy inhabitants to the workers below the city. Ruler of the city Joh Frederson “looks out from his office in the Tower of Babel at a modern, highly technicized world.” This shows empowerment and success.








                                                                                             

4 comments:

  1. Sorry Jackie, I really struggled with this :(

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    Replies
    1. Hi Megan - just curious - how much reading up on the film did you do prior to writing your review? Metropolis is such an iconic movie that it has been written about vividly by loads of people - which means there is a lot of content out there to support your review. If you're not reading about the films we're watching - if you're not engaging in research - you will find it more difficult to write an interesting review. You need to get into the 'university habit' of a) reading up on the films before you watch them and then b) read more after you've seen it (as the viewing experience gives you new ideas to pursue). When you write your King Kong review, I want to see more evidence that you've actually done some research before you begin; for an example of how research can enliven this process, check out Ayunie's review for Kong:

      http://ayunie-adiana.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/king-kong-1933-film-review.html

      Trust me, Megan - put in the legwork in terms of research and collecting views/opinions/ideas and the 'writing bit' gets much, much easier! :)

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    2. Yeah, I'll be honest, I didn't do the research which I now realise was a big mistake because I understand how much it can help make the review so much better. So, in hindsight yes, I should've done my reading beforehand as this showed up in my poor quality review :(
      I'll make sure I do the right thing for my future film reviews :)

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  2. Hi Megan,
    Yes, Phil is right (of course!) :)
    You need to read up on the films before you watch them, as well as afterwards... Metropolis has so many different underlying themes and ideas, that it should really be an 'easy' film to write about...

    Anyway, today I will just point you in the direction of the referencing guide, as you have several bits missing from both your bibliography and your illustrations list - see here
    http://community.ucreative.ac.uk/article/27187/Referencing

    Your images are numbered correctly, but then they do not tie in with the order in your list at the end - that's why you need to put the figure number by the reference!

    Looking forward to reading your (researched!) Kong review! :)

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