Fritz Lang

Dystopian texts subvert ethical standards, extrapolating on contextual fears to present inter-textual perspectives on harrowing political landscapes. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) value freedom and self-determination by positioning responders to invest emotionally in the plight of individuals. Metropolis represents an industrial cityscape to convey the division of labour in the Weimar Republic and the need for the “heart,” characterised through…

open society. Through the comparative study of George Orwell’s prose fiction Novel “1984” and Fritz Lang’s German expressionist film “Metropolis” it is demonstrated that the reign of Totalitarian governments and technology has the power to over-run and remove civil liberties. These two composers similarly share the ethics for which society has the freedoms of individuality and free will. In context, Lang reflects the anxieties of the Weimar Republic of Germany, under the stresses following the…

RESULTS: 1. BEHAVIORAL DATA CATEGORY A CATEGORY B (6a) (6b) Fig.6a: SAM Scale for positive valence low arousal Fig.6b: SAM Scale for positive valence high arousal The valence, arousal and dominance was plotted using SAM SCALE. For low arousal (Fig.6a), the valence ratings are: mean=7.24 and S.D=…

fatalism. Orwell’s entirely pessimistic approach to human potential has been shaped by his own contextual issues, and questions our ability to maintain functioning society without a descent into the kind of oligarchy that he represents. Conversely, Fritz Lang’s iconic 1927 sci-fi film Metropolis, adopts an approach…

The understanding of control stems from a rise in power that can corrupt individuals and societies who maintain upon it. This is evident through Fritz Lang’s Film “Metropolis” as he gathers understanding from events within his context. These events mainly include the German loss of World War I and the rise of the Weimar Republic and its values. These events are captured to depict a rising society who uses its workers to benefit from their suffering. In a similar fashion, this is also depicted…

Back in Lesson Two, we discussed how film noir evolved from the Romance genre, and focused on obsessive love and femme fatales. The term “film noir”, however, is considered a cinematic term to encompass a whole genre of Hollywood crime dramas. There has been debate over the years about whether film noir is it’s own genre, or whether it’s simply a “style” of film, but I personally prefer to think of it as it’s own genre. The main reason for this is that there are so many different types of…

M (Fritz Lang, 1931) is a cinematic German piece that aided in introducing the psychological thriller genre to a wide audience across the globe. When compared to American cinema at the same time, M is distinguishable by its’ dark theme and clear opposition toward the Nazi regime in a time of censorship, American cinema during the time was experiencing the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood, producing very star-studded films that were transitioning from the family friendly to adult oriented and thus, also…

In the opening sequence of the 1979 film, Apocalypse Now, the technique of double exposing film is used repeatedly. The origins of the technique date back to early photographers in the late 1800’s and the technique was translated into filmmaking very soon after the birth of cinema. The first use of the double exposure in film was in The Great Train Robbery, which was released in 1903, but the technique exploded in the 1920’s when cinema became a more well-known art form. The double exposure…

Dystopian texts are often depicted by representations of real life problems such as dehumanisation as a result of technological advancement and governmental control. Although composed 20 years apart, both Fritz Lang’s futuristic dystopian silent film Metropolis and George Orwell’s prose fiction novel 1984 present simular prophetic warnings about the dystopian future of humanity. Both texts are a response to their own contextual concerns, as they respond to the vindictiveness and brutality that…

novel Ninety Eighty-Four and Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis. However, in comparing these texts, it can be seen that the way in which this concept is approached varies due to the different circumstances and time in which it was written. These differences, however, work to highlight the unique characteristics of each text. The portrayal of social manipulation in these text is greatly influenced by the context in which it was written. Due to the different concerns Orwell and Lang held, their…