Week 5

Metropolis

Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, is a gem of the German Expressionist movement in film. The German expressionist movement focused more on the abstract, such as finding ways to cause violent emotions in the viewer, such as fear, anger, and sadness. Filmmakers of the German Expressionist movement, such as Fritz Lang, achieved this goal through various cinematic techniques, such as using color to make the viewer feel a certain emotion, extreme use of chiaroscuro, and masterful implementation of the mis en scene. Metropolis is a highly regarded science fiction film that uses dystopic themes to portray how technology can take over human society and drain society of all emotion leaving only despair. The film takes on technology as if it were an enemy of human emotion, which corresponds to the nature of romantics who also focus on the expression of human emotions. Lang was an absolute master of the techniques of the German Expressionist movement. Throughout Metropolis the use of dramatic camera angles that create a disposition across the screen and the use of dark shadows to create an amazing chiaroscuro effect can be seen very heavily. Lang beautifully implements the mise en scene throughout Metropolis. The mise en scene is a very abstract concept and can not be easily defined in a concise definition but in a general view, the mise en scene is how the filmmaker can transform a scene in a film into a beautifully composed piece of art. Filmmakers use the same techniques as artists to create a visually stunning composition, except the media the filmmaker works with is the scene and the actors. Lang creates visually mesmerizing compositions in the scenes of metropolis perfectly capturing the idea of mise en scene.