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PSYCHEDELIA-METAMORPHOSIS #0605/ 2005
(  Satoshi Kinoshita )
| Series: | Paintings: Landscape | | Medium: | Acrylic on stretched canvas | | Size (inches): | 54 x 36 | | Size (mm): | 1372 x 914 | | Catalog #: | PA_080 | | Description: | Signed, titled, date, copyright in magic ink on the reverse.
The Metropolis should have been aborted long before it became New York, London or Tokyo.
-John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 ~) who has been considered by many as the "Last American Institutionalist"/ brainyquote.com
HEAD and HANDS need a mediator. The mediator between head and hands must be the heart! But where is our mediator, Maria-?
-Freder/ from the movie "Metropolis" (1927).
The Bottom Line goes - Let us build a tower that reaches the stars... and we shall write on the top 'Great is the Earth and Its Creator... And Great is Man!
They spoke the same language, but could not understand each other. One man's ideal was another man's curse.
-Maria/ from the movie "Metropolis" (1927).
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie "Metropolis"'s plot - Directed by Fritz Lang.
The Story: It is the year 2026. In the futuristic city of Metropolis, the population is split between the idle rich and enslaved workers. High above ground, the sons of the upper class frolic in the lap of luxury, in the idyllic Eternal Gardens, cavorting with willing maidens. Beneath the surface, in the bowels of the city, the workers struggle through exhausting ten hours shifts, maintaining the complex machines that support the modern city overhead, where aerial speedways interdigitate with the clouds and the brightly lit, angular skyscrapers. One of the most privileged sons is Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), son of the malevolent master of the city, Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). Freder is an idealistic, young liberal whose journey of discovery begins when a saintly, ethereal beauty, Maria (Brigette Helm), pale and blond, suddenly appears in the Garden with a flock of raggedy children, belonging to the poor workers below. She invites the wealthy scions to gaze upon their hapless brothers and sisters. Freder is deeply moved by both her beauty and her nobility of purpose.
Freder chases after Maria, into the underworld, but there he observes a massive explosion (from an act of sabotage) and hordes of sullen workers being herded into the mouth of Moloch, to a fiery hellhole that lies beyond. Freder rushes to his father's command center to confront him about what he has just observed. Joh is distressed by what his son reports, but mainly only because he has to learn about it first from his son rather than from his assistant, Josaphat (Theodore Loos). Josaphat is fired for his incompetence, which is devastating because it means that he, too, will be sent below to work on the machines. Freder follows after Josaphat, just in time to prevent him from committing suicide. Freder asks Josaphat to go home and wait for him while he travels to the netherworld to join the workers for a shift, to learn more fully what their lot is like. Freder meets worker #11811, Georgy (Erwin Biswanger), and takes his spot operating a strange clock-like machine, performing what seems to be exhausting but pointless work. At the end of the shift, Freder follows other workers into the catacombs where they listen attentively to the inspirational words of Maria. She urges them to await the imminent arrival of a savior – a mediator – who will help free them from their dismal lot. Maria recognizes Freder as the anticipated one.
Meanwhile, Joh instructs his chief operative, Thin Man (Fritz Rasp), also called "Slim," to follow Freder and report his activities. Joh then heads over to a ginger-bread shaped abode, which is the home of Rotwang (Rudof Klein-Rogge), a wild-eyed inventor, who is both ally and rival of Joh. Joh and Rotwang had once vied for the same woman, the now-deceased Hel. Joh seeks Rotwang's advice about some drawings that have been confiscated from some of the disgruntled workers. Rotwang informs him that they are maps of the ancient catacombs that lie beneath even the machine rooms. Joh also learns that Rotwang is in the final stages of building a mechanical reproduction of Nel – what we would nowadays call an android. (The android looks very much like a female version of the character C3PO of Star Wars, with conical boobs.) Joh asks Rotwang to make the robot the spitting image of Maria, instead, so the robot can exploit Maria's influence over the workers, to incite them to violent action, so that the conspirators can then be liquidated.
In a harrowing scene, Rotwang pursues and subdues Maria, taking her to his laboratory in order to transfer her visage to his mechanical woman. It a magnificent transformation scene, Rotwang creates the "false Maria," a sneering, evil-eyed vixen, but otherwise a dead ringer for the real Maria. Freder shows up hoping to rescue Maria, but Rotwang tells him that she is now with his father. At his father's office, Freder finds Maria embracing his father and the Oedipal-like shock sends him reeling into psychosis. The false Maria, meanwhile, heads to the city's entertainment district where she entertains the revelers with a sensuous strip tease and wild erotic dancing.
The false Maria incites the workers into violent rebellion. They storm one of the crucial machines, the "heart machine," overpowering the superintendent, Grot (Heinrich George). They destroy the machine, which is folly, since it is the machine that prevents the flooding of the city where the workers live. Fortunately, Maria and Freder are on hand to save the children and lead them to an airshaft through which they can make their way safely to the surface. The workers, imagining that their children have perished, are determined to exact revenge on Maria, whom they blame for inciting them into destruction of the machine. They take to the streets in a witch-hunt at about the same time that the revelers are emerging. They seize Maria – fortunately the false one – and tie her to a stake, on top of a funeral pyre. The mob is shocked when they see robotic underpinnings revealed as her flesh burns away.
Meanwhile, the real Maria is lurking in the shadows, having barely escaped the wrath of the mob herself. So too is Rotwang, who, in his frenzy, now believes her to be his beloved Hel. He chases after her and spirits her away to the apex of the steep roof, atop the cathedral. Freder is soon in pursuit and struggles with Rotwang as Maria teeters precariously along the side of the roof, barely hanging onto a rail. Down below, Joh, who at least loves his son (if no one else), watches the rooftop struggle, anticipating the worst. How does it turn out? Check the movie out and find out!
-www.epinions.com
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500 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1820 (Between 42nd and 43rd)
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