StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Scenes from Metropolis - Book Report/Review Example

Cite this document
Summary
  This paper "Scenes from Metropolis" seeks to analyze language, tone, and mood evoked by passages in Huyssen’s article. The movie has several underlying meanings, which implies that a viewer has to be particularly keen to avoid missing its essence…
Download free paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97.6% of users find it useful
Scenes from Metropolis
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Scenes from Metropolis"

Scenes from MetropolisFritz Lang's Metropolis has remained one of the most controversial movies in history. The movie has several underlying meanings, which implies that a viewer has to be particularly keen to avoid missing its essence. Although the movie is difficult to follow, Andreas Huyssen’s analytical work "The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang's Metropolis" provides many useful brainstorms that aid in better comprehension of the movie. Even though some of Huyssen's suggestions seem extreme, passages in it are informative and insightful.

This paper seeks to analyze language, tone, and mood evoked by passages in Huyssen’s article. The first passage of interest is that which examines the background of Fritz Lang’s famous but controversial film. This passage examines the stylistic aspects of Metropolis, drawing one’s attention to the phrase Neue Sachlichkeit. On further research, I discovered that it is a German phrase meaning New Objectivity, which characterizes the public state of Weimar Germany in the early 19th century including music, literature, architecture and art in general.

From the onset, this passage makes one think of Metropolis as a film that depicts other worldly features, not conventional to the prevailing societal conditions. The author also indicates that the film embraced elements of expressionism (Huyssen 201). As a result, one cannot help but think of images that take on a life of their own and exaggerate reality with which we are all familiar. These stylistic techniques seem to contradict each other since Neue Sachlichkeit embraces emerging technology, however radical it might seem, whereas expressionism places emphasis on the distinctive spirit of human culture.

This instigates a feeling of curiosity and confusion, at the same time, because it is hard to imagine how one can reconcile both sides of the film. The theme emerging from this passage is that, of the potent impact of unregulated technology on humans. The other passage that draws one’s interest is the one titled virgin and vamp: displacing the double threat. The author uses the term “otherness” of woman, to describe the distinctive images associated with females in society. Apparently, Metropolis adopts the images of a woman as a virgin and a vamp.

The latter refers to a seductive woman, who uses her appeal to exploit men. These images that Metropolis associates with women are clearly based on sexuality. This immediately prompts one to think about the theme of sexual portrayal of women in film. The author connotes that even though the images are ideological, they can be connected to real “sociological, physiological and psychological” (210) perceptions of men about domination over nature. This further implies that Metropolis seeks to show that it is only when men overcome or manipulate their visual pleasures or desires that they achieve productive technological advances.

There is also an implication that alluring elements of technology must be examined keenly before being adopted for mainstream use. Even though the passage has significant hidden meanings on technology, the aspect that stands out is the sexual objectification of women. This brings out a mood of annoyance and irritation to some point, since it feels wrong to view women in such a state, and also deal with the implication that men cannot think rationally in presence of women. The portrayal of women as a threat is also evident from the author’s statement that “the mob scenes thus take on connotations of a raging femininity which represents the major threat not only to great machines, but to male domination in general” (210).

Why would women be portrayed as a sexual objects and a threat, yet they make significant contributions to society? This is just one among many concerns that emerge from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Work CitedHuyssen, Andreas. “The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis” In Fritz Lang's Metropolis: Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) by Michael Minden and Holger Bachmann.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Scenes from Metropolis Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Scenes from Metropolis Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/literature/1630743-please-write-500-words-as-a-close-reading-of-one-or-two-scenes-from-metropolis
(Scenes from Metropolis Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
Scenes from Metropolis Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words. https://studentshare.org/literature/1630743-please-write-500-words-as-a-close-reading-of-one-or-two-scenes-from-metropolis.
“Scenes from Metropolis Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/literature/1630743-please-write-500-words-as-a-close-reading-of-one-or-two-scenes-from-metropolis.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Scenes from Metropolis

Metropolis Movie and the Industrial Revolution

Date metropolis (1927) and the Industrial Revolution The movie, “metropolis” released on 1927 in United States by Firtz Von Lang remains as one of the most renowned silent melodramatic movie set in a dystopian backdrop.... hellip; The industrial revolution inspired the cold, mechanical, industrial metropolis of Fritz Lang's expressionistic movie where machines controlled the repressed, impoverished masses.... The story of ‘metropolis' was co- written with Lang's wife Thea Von Harbou....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Metropolis Movie Critique

metropolis Date Introduction The movie metropolis by Fritz Lang is a revolutionary entity in the world of cinemas.... metropolis is a still sci-fi movie that was released by Fitz Lang in 1927.... There is no denying that acquisition of the provisions that facilitated production of metropolis at that time was an expensive endeavor.... There has been progress in the budgeting of movies of the same kind such as metropolis....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Metropolis Critical Analysis

metropolis, a movie taking place in the future, is set in a massive city populated and run by a wealthy elite.... hellip; This movie has 2 science fiction aspects, the underground factories, the underground workers' housing; and the robot/android, Hel. An evil scientist by the name of Rotwang invented Hel, robot that will take place of the human workers in metropolis.... The Film "metropolis" Synopsis metropolis, a movie taking place in the future, is set in a massive city populated and run by a wealthy elite....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Metropolis by Fritz Langs

The author of metropolis, Thea Gabriele von Harbou (1888 –1954), was the wife of film director and script writer, Fritz Lang (1890-1976), from 1922 till 1933.... om), the scene is the futuristic sixty million strong megacity of metropolis (www.... The villainous father does the opposite and seeks help from the modern-day Merlin, the mad scientist Rotwang, who creates a robotic double of the girl, devoid of empathy, who incites the oppressed to rebel and decimate the city (ibid), thereby forcing a reconciliation of each individual's true worth....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Critical Analysis of Metropolis

Conceivably, metropolis, a Fritz Lang's production, consumed astronomical resources that would have produced upwards of twenty traditional features.... In the… t futurist tradition, the city metropolis, which is accentuated by huge towers and vast wealth, is a concourse to a ruling elite living lavish lifestyles and decadence.... They and metropolis are taken care of by a much bigger populace of workers who labor as essential slaves in These slaves are depicted against the backdrop of the miserable life they lead which include tenement like homes; they work for over ten back-breaking hours nonstop....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Approaches to Cinema - German Expressionism

it may be particularly important to engage metropolis.... To begin with, it may be particularly important to engage metropolis in the discussion.... The movie metropolis takes the division between the two classes to a new extreme: on the one hand it, shows people living in paradise who know little about what lays under their city– the true hell on earth.... metropolis highlights this theme very distinctly: it is shown that a man can invent a machine and cover it with human form and no one will be able to tell the difference....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Relations between the Sexes

In addition, Fritz Lang also depicted the relationship between different sexes in the movie titled metropolis.... from the confusion exhibited by Mr....  This paper focuses on describing how James Joyce depicts the relationship between sexes in two different stories in Dubliners....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Terrorism Emergency Plan for Metropolis

This paper “Terrorism Emergency Plan for metropolis” examines four areas of each of two aspects a terrorism emergency plan, namely the reactionary and resiliency plans, in relation to the city of metropolis in Florida.... hellip; The author explains that metropolis is the largest urban center in the state of Florida, with a population of 1,523,908.... In this regard, there are several features of metropolis that would make the city a prime target of terrorist acts....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us