A look at some of the creative quirks of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis

One of my main sources of inspiration is the highly stylised work of German expressionist artists. The geometric shapes and hallucinatory set designs are fascinating since I believe that this is the moment when filmmaking finally became a legitimate art form instead of being relegated to the ranks of lowbrow entertainment. While there are plenty of hidden gems to be found from this insanely creative period in the history of film, the heavy hitters have been praised for some very good reasons and I would like to use the space of this article to pay tribute to one of the best productions ever put to screen, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The story is ostensibly a science fiction tale that touches on ideas of class and uses Biblical allusions to make its points. However, like all iconic movies, it embraces a kind transcendental mishmash of styles that surpasses its genre bounds. Its rooting in the wider expressionist movement, which emerged as a collective pushback against the scars of World War I, is clear. The oppressive skylines and mechanical implements that litter the sets, as well as the strong themes of division between the working class, intellectuals and business owners, are all directly influenced by the social landscape of Germany during the Weimar Republic. One of the most impressive techniques used in the production is the Schufftan process, which was a very crude form of inserting actors into artificial sets. Essentially, miniature replicas of buildings would be constructed and the actors made to appear as if actually occupying the space through a complicated mirror set up. It is essentially the pioneer of the green screen effect. However, I find that a more apt comparison can be found in some of the tricks used by the crew working on The Lord of the Rings, where interior sets that would feature the hobbits alongside their normal sized companions would often use a distorted scale in order to trick the eye into seeing a size discrepancy. The musical score used during key scenes of the movie is also one of the reasons why its atmosphere is so widely praised. There are several recognisable compositions mixed in with original work and, once again, one of the way they used music anticipates work carried out for a more modern work. The 2012 adaptation of Les Miserables, directed by Tom Hooper, was notable because it broke traditional musical filming conventions and had the actors sing live on set, while also playing the backing track at the same time in order to help them get in the proper headspace. Lang, who was noted for his perfectionism, did a similar thing during his work on Metropolis. Other concessions to realism were made during the pyre scene, where real (but controlled) fire was used for fake Maria’s death scene.