Who made ‘Metropolis’: the influences behind Fritz Lang’s science-fiction masterpiece
In the years following the First World War, a new artistic movement began to take shape in Germany. The spectre of military defeat haunted the political and cultural landscape, melding with a revived interest in mysticism and new cinematic technologies to give birth to some of the most enduring films of all time. Here, we’ll be looking at the literary and cinematic influences behind one of the era’s most pioneering films, Metropolis, by Fritz Lang.
Like so many films by German expressionist directors, Metropolis is suffused with the paranoia of a nation ravaged by modernity. Germany would, sadly, see more bloodshed with the rise of nationalism over the next decade, and Lang’s film captures the unease of the Weimar Republic at the time.
The cinematic innovations of pre-war France, which lay the foundations for Lang and his contemporaries, reveal a genuine excitement about the future. However, Lang’s foreboding portrait of a divided and corrupt city suggests a far harsher view of progress.
This hostility to scientific innovation underpins many of the influences behind Metropolis, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Georges Méliès politically scathing A Trip To The Moon. So, let’s get started. These are the books and films that paved the way for Lang’s 1927 masterpiece.
The influences behind Fritz Lang’s Metropolis:
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818)
One of the most memorable scenes from Metropolis is Maria’s transformation into a robot. The scientist charged with this job, Rotwang, is highly evocative of Dr Frankenstein, from Mary Shelley’s proto-science fiction novella Frankenstein, which traces the creation, abandonment and eventual revenge of the “modern Prometheus”.
The scene concludes with a glaring reference to the 1818 novella. When the transformation is complete, the robotic Maria’s eyes slowly open, evoking that haunting final line from Shelley’s own creation sequence, “I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open.” Of course, part of the reason the scene is so effective is that it subverts Shelley’s original text. Unlike Frankenstein’s creature, Maria is beautiful, angelic and highly feminised. Where the monster is outwardly horrifying but inwardly pure, Maria is outwardly pure and inwardly psychopathic.
A Trip To The Moon (Georges Méliès, 1902)
Widely hailed as one of the first science fiction movies, Metropolis makes great use of early special effects, many of which were developed by early French film pioneer George Méliès, director of the whimsical space adventure A Trip to the Moon, released in 1902.
Méliès started out as a stage illusionist, later utilising this skillet to craft over 500 films, many of which were used as a way of testing the disappearing acts, pyrotechnics and overlays that would come to define A Trip To The Moon. Many of those 500 projects were about space travel, but A Trip To The Moon, based on Jules Verne’s novel, De la Terre à la Lune, is by far the most captivating. Indeed, that scene in which the rocket lands in the eye of the moon must be one of the most iconic scenes in all cinema. Metropolis simply wouldn’t have been possible without Méliès.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (John S. Robertson, 1920)
This haunting adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic gothic novella stars John Barrymore in one of his most famous roles. The stage and screen actor delivers a powerful performance, capturing the dual nature of Jekyll with terrifying ease.
Released in 1920, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde features another era-defining transformation sequence. To capture Jekyll’s gradual transmutation into the sinister Hyde, Robertson relied on a combination of slow dissolves and prosthetics. Lang would later adopt slow dissolves for Maria’s transformation scene, allowing the director to depict the character’s shift from a human to an automaton.
Aelita, Queen of Mars (Yakov Protazanov, 1924)
When scientists pick up a cryptic message from outer space on Earth, a young Russian engineer imagines it is the work of Martians, setting the stage for one of the most extravagant Russian films of the 1920s. Boasting outlandish costumes, constructivist set design and much talk of revolution, Aelita, Queen of Mars, uses Los as a vehicle to explore the societies of distant planets.
Through Los, we soon learn that Mars, like Earth, is incredibly unequal. As in Metropolis, wealthy aristocrats lord over regimented columns of lowly slaves. Eventually, Los’s salt-of-the-earth companion, Gussev, leads the Martian underclass in a full-blown revolution which soon spreads across the galaxy. On both a visual and narrative basis, Aelita, Queen of Mars was an essential influence on Lang’s style in Metropolis.
Paris qui dort (René Clair, 1924)
Metropolis saw Fritz Lang turn the modern city into a character in its own right, making great use of wide-angle panorama to portray its crushing expanse. This is also a central feature of René Clair’s directorial debut, Paris qui dort.
Released in 1924, this oddball science fiction film focuses on the effects of a giant ray gun with the power to freeze people where they stand. Clair follows those unaffected by the ray as they explore the silent streets of Paris, which, as the film progresses, becomes an increasingly threatening presence. Clair also makes great use of aerial shots and geometric design, paving the way for Lang’s depiction of the futuristic city of Metropolis.
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