Metropolis

Question 1

thruout history, what is the most common social structure to provoke revolution?

Answer 1

one with hierarchical social classes

Question 2

how does Lang’s depiction of divided social classes in a film parallel with its time?

Answer 2

encouraging sympathy for the lower class has parallels with its time, being produced shortly after the German revolution in which the imperial government was replaced by a form of representative democracy (the Weimar Republic).

Question 3

how does Lang distinguish the two classes inhabiting the furturistic city?

Answer 3

Lang uses expressionistic imagery, and the strong contrast of light and shade characteristic of German Expressionist Cinema

Question 4

how are the workers depicted?

Answer 4

in uniform black, trudging in synchronised columns into a dark tunnel to their work with the machines

Question 5

what does exiting at at slower pace suggest?

Answer 5

suggesting work draws the life out of them

Question 6

what constructs them as part of the machine?

Answer 6

montages of gears and heavy machinery

Question 7

how is the opening sequence juxtaposed?

Answer 7

with the light shades and open spaces of the upper city, particularly the Eternal Garden

Question 8

who runs freely in leisure activities beneath towering walls and statues while workers trudge into dark tunnels?

Answer 8

Freder, the protagonist and other sons of Metropolis’ elite

Question 9

what does this clear social divide establish?

Answer 9

the familiar pattern for the revolution that is to come