Metropolis as a Symbol for the Intricacies of Weimar Civilization - Essay Example

Metropolis, a tale of class great effort with sacred connotations, is set in 2026. The general public has been separated into intellectuals and proprietors, who live in comfort, and manual workers, who reside in its suburbs and whose single function is controlling the equipment that moves the city (Minden & Bachmann, 2002). The movie revolves around two individuals; first, Freder, who was the son of the metropolitan’s chief planner, and second Maria, who is a young female from the working class and thinks that sooner or later an arbitrator will arrive to reconcile differences in the class. After understanding that Freder supports the employees, she believes that he may be the rescuer that she has visualized.

“The most important feature of this movie is that the special effects utilized in this sci-fi classic were pioneering “at the time of the release and still have the power to amaze audiences” (Elsaesser, 2008). Metropolis features exceptional camera work and set designs that still amaze contemporary viewers with their visual impact - the movie has “cinematic and thematic bonds to German Expressionism” (Prestel Art Press, 1999), despite the fact that the structural design, as represented in the movie, emerges founded on present-day modernization as well as ‘Art Deco’. The latter, a new style within Europe at the time, had not arrived at mass production so far and was believed a symbol of the bourgeois group, and in the same way, linked with the ruling class within the movie. The special effects created pioneering visual exhibits highly praised during subsequent years. With the effects, miniatures of the metropolitan are also used, a camera moving forward and backward, and most outstandingly, the “Schüfftan process, within which mirrors are used to place actors inside miniature sets” (Prestel Art Press, 1999).