movie link: https://iu.app.box.com/v/Metropolis
- Discussion Analysis Post:
Start a new thread for this post. In your post, engage with the film and the readings in a thoughtful and meaningful way. Please write your Discussion Analysis Post in paragraph form. Think of it as a short film analysis essay and try to use some of the terms from the film terms lecture and handout in your analysis when they are helpful. You should be organized in your thoughts and ideas and provide evidence of critical, university-level thinking making connections to our course materials and other relevant experiences. Please try your best to contribute to the learning community by being creative in your approaches to the film and readings and by making an effort to motivate the discussion. Avoid summarizing the film or the readings as all members of the learning community have seen the movie and read the assigned chapters in the book. If you quote from our textbook or other sources, please use MLA style. Be aware of spelling, grammar, and sentence mechanics and use proper etiquette. Remember that being respectful is critical. Your Discussion Analysis Post has to be at least 200 words long.
The following ten questions offer possible topics that you might want to discuss in your Discussion Analysis Post. The questions are there to help you to critically reflect on the film and readings for this week. Please feel free to engage with as many or as few of them as you see fit in your post. Rather than a number of individual answers to the questions in the prompt, present your post as a short coherent film analysis essay, i.e. do not write separate answers to the questions but use them to launch your own coherent analysis and interpretation of the film. This also means that you should not copy and paste the questions into your post. The questions are only there to help you get started and to show you possible topics that you might want to explore in your analysis. Please do not think that you need to answer all questions in your Discussion Analysis Post. In fact, it would be very hard to do these questions justice if you tried to answer all of them in one short, coherent film analysis post.
It is important that your post offers an academic analysis of the film rather than a summary or a mere statement of what you liked and disliked. Make sure to analyze and interpret the film and to support your argument with evidence. Try to be original and avoid repeating what others have already noted before you in their posts. At the end of your post, please include any additional questions that you bring to the movie to spark further discussion.
Above is a screen shot from Metropolis. Describe the Metropolis city landscape. What means do you think did it take to create it? What are the cinematographic special features of this film? What does the setting look like? Important aspects that you might want to focus on are the use of architecture styles and light sources.
Metropolis is a science fiction film. Stephen Brockmann even calls it “one of the most influential science fiction movies of all times” (81). Define what this means for you and give examples of relevant scenes and features in the film that clearly fall into the scifi genre. Which famous movies have been influenced by Metropolis? How did Metropolis influence these films in particular and film history in general?
How is the world in this film structured in an upper and lower realm? Who lives where and what do the two spheres stand for? How does the architecture support the idea of class structure and how are different architectural styles used to represent varying levels of authority or power? What is the significance of vertical movement in the film?
In what year is the film set? What points to the future and what to the past? Are there any specific props that are particularly representative of the future or past? What techniques are used in the film to illustrate the passing of time? How do you think the film felt for people when it came out and how does it feel for us today?
Can you explain the paradoxical role of the female in this film that is associated with both new technology and with a new approach to humanity? Maria has a “Doppelgänger,” a double in form of a look-alike robot. What is the function and meaning of the artificial replica of the human Maria? Why is the replica a threat and why is it threatened? How does this film speak to current debates about robots and artificial intelligence? Is it still relevant?
How does the nature of the mad inventor in Metropolis feed into feelings of the uncanny in the film? How is the workspace of the mad scientist depicted and how does this reflect his character?
What socio-political issues are depicted in the film and how? In your opinion, does the film successfully explore these issues and does it have a clear socio-political message? If it does in your opinion, do you agree with this message?
What is the function of the generational conflict in the film? Can it be convincingly harmonized in the end? Did you like the ending? Why or why not?
How are human qualities such as empathy and love depicted in the film? What is the relationship between human beings and machines? This question is becoming increasingly relevant due to our technological advances. What are your personal experiences with machines and technology and how do these experiences relate to the movie?
What are the dark sides of the film and what could the movie foreshadow? Metropolis has been interpreted not only as utopian, i.e. as an optimistic movie that provides a vision for a better world, but also as the diagnosis of the dangers of technology. What utopian and dystopian ideas are expressed in the film in your opinion? How does the film speak to class struggles, gender inequalities, and perhaps even fascism?
Sample Solution
