Freder and the clock machine: Religion and Technology

(This is just me practicing with scene analysis)

Chapter: Fear

The sequence follows the moment when Freder discovers the workers city. He decides that he himself must take up the position of one of the workers, and endures a gruelling ten-hour shift in front of a clock-like machine. The film embodies religious symbology throughout, and Freder represents a physical Christ-like figure as his quest is partly out of sympathy for the people below the world he is accustomed to, and partly out of curiosity to experience the way in which the workers live.

Freder embodies the machine during the end of his shift, as he forms an obligatory attachment to it. His movements are clear reflections on Expressionistic acting; his contortions around the limply hanging clock arms and repetitive movements enhance the horror the scene, making it both surreal and frightening at the same time. This reflects upon ideas of Germany in the 1920’s, and the acceptance and desire for horror. As stated in The Haunted Screen:

“The weird pleasure the Germans take in evoking horror can perhaps be ascribed to the excessive and very Germanic desire to submit to discipline, together with a certain proneness to sadism” (Eisner, 52, 95)

The clock machine appears to serve no real purpose, yet Freder forces himself to carry out its actions. His facial expressions express horror and pain, yet as the machine signifies failure through the lights and thermometers, enhanced by the music, nothing actually comes of it. His black stature against the white clock surface is a reflection of the chiaroscuro technique that was popular in Expressionist film, and it forces the audience to watch his every move, and the tightness of the shot allows for no distractions. Freder becomes another cog in the machine, and his human self is stylised into a mechanical element. Like Christ upon the cross, Freder finds himself collapsed at the foot of the clock, arms outstretched on its arms, crucified by the machine. As he struggles, he says, “Father father! I have never known ten hours could be so long!” which is similar to the “Father father, why have you forsaken me?” that Jesus says on the cross (Matthew 27:45-46).

Thoughts on Metropolis

Last night I had the opportunity to see Metropolis as it should be seen: in a cinema. As it is one of the two key films I’ll be focusing on in my thesis, I really wanted to be able to study this film as I watched it. I had seen the film before, but I hadn’t enjoyed it, perhaps due to my lack of knowledge in the area at the time. With this screening I was going in to watch it with several months of studying that could be used for better interpretation. I’m going to briefly write on my thoughts from the film. I’m not going to go into ideas I’ve gathered from text, rather just what first came to my head when watching.

The story focuses around the central themes of technology, religion, and sexuality. The film also touches on the ideas of the heart, and control of the masses. Whether or not these were present ideas and themes of society during the 1920’s in Germany can only be told through the studies done since the films release, but I also believe the film being a flop upon premiere can also give an indication of whether or not it was reflective on the audience. However, this could either be due to the quality in which the film was made, whether the audience disagreed with the ideas portrayed, or if they just didn’t want to accept it was the truth, when deep down they knew it was. The film really shoves the ideas of religion and sexuality into the story, to the point where it is almost ridiculous and comical. The theme of technology is portrayed perfectly, with the opening montage of machines demonstrating just how advanced society has become.

“There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.” – Maria

Beneath all these themes I found a continuous sign of death. Technology causes the death of workers during an explosion, religious personifications of death come to Freder during a dream sequence and “Robot Maria” uses her sexuality to cause workers to riot, and thus kill. One thing that really stood out for me was the character “Thin Man”. The screening I saw had the found footage, and through this footage came a completely different perception on Thin Man. Initially he is hired by Joh Frederson to follow Freder around, however after mistaking Freder for someone else, the spying seems to draw to a close. This is where the found footage really works in the characters favour. The dream sequence for Freder has the Thin Man turn into a personification of death, as he reads to Freder passages from the bible about the apocalypse. Thin Man also seems to be present at a lot of situations where death is feared or wanted. For example, when Joh Frederson fears that his son may be dead, Thin Man just stands beside him, barely contributing to the situation. While I need to read more into this, I really perceive Thin Man to be a personification of death.

My favourite sequence from the film is definitely when Freder is battling against the clock machine. It demonstrates a battle against technology and time, which can be related back to the people of Germany. Signs and language of cinema really come through in this sequence, and in a way it is a perfect summary of what Metropolis is trying to say.

The last thing I want to discuss is the way in which the film portrays humans, in particular the scenes towards the end of the workers rioting and thus causing the flood. The workers seem to be easily influenced, listening to “Robot Maria’s” ideas from the bible, and immediately act out on what she says. When the flood happens and the workers realise they left their children behind, they point the blame to technology for allowing such a thing to occur, as well as the Biblical ideas put in their heads by “Robot Maria”. They burn “Robot Maria” at the stake on top of cars (perhaps pointing to Henry Ford and the Americanisation of industrial Germany), and when she turns back into her true form, they point the blame to social class. However, throughout all these events they should really be pointing the blame to themselves, as they were the ones foolish enough to forget their own children. Perhaps this was reflective of Germany in the 1920’s? Perhaps it was society’s fault for putting the politicians in power, and listening to their every word during the Weimar Republic.

These are my immediate thoughts. I’m not saying they are accurate, and they most certainly need more research and refining. However, I enjoyed the film a lot more second time around, and really gained more of an appreciation for the Expressionist ideas and how they translate to film. I need to do more thinking into the semiotics and techniques. However, it’s late and I never write at this time. I’ll leave it at a sequence which looked beautiful on the big screen, especially in the high quality, digitised version I saw. The fountain behind him appears to look like angel wings, portraying Freder’s kind nature, and (more) religious symbols.

Expressionism and Romanticism

At the moment I am reading “The Haunted Screen” by Lotte Eisner, which is considered to be one of the two most important books on the topic of German Cinema in the 1920′s, so the next couple of weeks will be focused around ideas from the book. The image above is based on a play called Der Butler which was released in the 1910′s.

The German are odd people, all the same. What with their profound thoughts and the ideas they are forever pursuing and introducing all over the place, they really do make life too hard for themselves. Oh, have the courage to yield your impressions and do not always think that everything is not the same idea or abstract thought must be vain

– Goethe Eckerman “Conversations” 1827

German Expressionism stemmed from the ideas of Romanticism, which is based around “mysticism and magic”. These ideas flourished after the war, as German’s were finding themselves connected to the dark forces and ghosts of this idea. Expressionism and Romanticism are not only related through the interest in the dark, but also in the werden (becoming). Expressionism then differs from Renaissance periods, where are the idea of sien (being). Therefore, by looking at the becoming and being, Expressionism represents what the world/society is turning into, not what they are.

Below is a Romantic painting titled “Death of Sardanapalus” by Eugene Delacroix (1827), and when looking at this painting and ideas of Expressionism, it is easy to see similarities between the two. One of the similarities is the distorted body movements. This can represent physical pain, or a mental state in which darkness prevails.

“Behind the lives and writings of the Germans there is always a mysterious world whose light alone seems to pierce the veil of our atmosphere; and the minds dispose to ascend towards that world – which ends with the beginning of this one – will always be alien to France” – Astolphe de Coustine, in a letter to the artchetypal Romantic Rahel Varnhagen (1817)

Expressionism v. Impressionism

“Expressionism is a reaction against the atom-splitting of Impressionism, which reflects the iridescent ambiguities, disquieting diversity, and ephemeral hues of nature. At the same time Expressionism sets itself against Naturalism with its mania for recording more facts, and its paltry aim of photographing nature or daily life. The world is there for all to see; it would be absurd to reproduce it purely and simply as it is. The Expressionists also oppose the effeminacy of neo-Romanticism.

The Expressionist does not see, he has visions. The chain of facts: factories, houses, illness, prostitutes, screams, hunger does not exist; only the interior vision they provoke exists.”

–

über den Expressionismus by Kasimir Edschmid

Introduction to the thesis topic

Hello Internet,

Yesterday in my class for “Research Methods” it was suggested to us that we start a blog to encourage writing about our thesis/exegesis topics every day. Since my motivation has been lacking in the last few weeks, I decided that this was the best method to force myself to start writing about a topic that I love so dearly, and will be turning into a thesis that’s due at the end of the year.

This blog will be updated (almost) every day, and I hope to have written something small and new about my thesis topic for each one of these days. However, should I be having a particularly terrible day in coming up with ideas, I will instead post images, quotes or facts that I find to be relevant to the topic. On the days that I do write something, I will be doing so freely, without constantly referring to texts or thinking over what I write. I’ll sit here for 30 minutes a day and just write whatever comes to my head. Hopefully it makes sense. I hope that by doing this activity, I will gain both a greater skill of writing and understanding of my thesis topic.

So, this post today should just introduce the thesis topic, and the basics of what I know at the moment. The final thesis will be 15000 words (although I’m hoping to extend that) and is due on the 22nd of October. So, coffee at the ready, let’s do this…

To put simply, my thesis topic is about the connection between the film world and the virtual world. This is an idea that has always fascinated me, and when watching films I can’t help but point out ways in which the films symbology, themes or narratives might reflect upon the present. For my thesis, however, I will be analysing the cinematic techniques of two major films during the Weimar Period, and connecting them to the people of that time.

The Weimar Period defines the time of the first republic in Germany that commenced in 1919 following WWI, and fell to the Nazi Party in 1933. This was the result of the Treaty of Versailles, and formed in the town of Weimar in Germany. This was a very unstable period, with many different leaders over the time and terrible financial difficulties. However, amongst all the political and economic shifts was a film industry that was revolutionising the way stories were told. These films made Germany the second biggest industry in the world (after Hollywood) until Hitler came to power. They have also greatly influenced modern movies today.

The first of the two films I’ll be looking at, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), reflects upon themes of medicine, psychology, anarchy and hypnosis. The protagonist, Francis, tells us the story of the somnambulist, Cesare, and his master, Dr. Caligari, and how they travel in a fair and Dr. Caligari forces Cesare to kill. However, through a series of unexpected plot twists, it cannot be understood whether or not Francis is the hero in the story. The film, written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, was set to reflect upon anarchy in Germany and the separation of politics. However, Robert Weine (who directed the film) made it in a way that led Janowitz and Mayer to believe that he had turned it into a film of conforming. This is a debate that has been occurring between film theorists and critics ever since. The film relies heavily on mise-en-scene to portray insanity, and camera techniques are used to show to the audience who is in control. For example, the constant use of the iris directed at a particular character is placed so to show who is in charge of a particular scene. However, I’ll go more into this on another day.

The second of the two films is one that I admit I haven’t seen in a long time, so the story is a little hazy. Metropolis (1927) is a film that was made at the opposite end of the Weimar Republic to Caligari, and uses technology and social class as recurring themes throughout. This film inspired Hitler’s ideas for the Nazi Party, and is regarded as one of his favourites. What I like about this film is its use of choreography to portray the masses. This also relates to Sigfried Kracauer’s ideas of the “mass ornament”. Directed by one of the most well known directors during the period, Fritz Lang, this film was one of the first “big budget” pictures, yet it was a flop. This film will also be focused on more-so on another day.

My thesis is going to be divided into four chapters (not including the introduction and conclusion).

1) Anarchy and Chaos: Looking at anarchy as a motivation for conformity in Caligari, and anarchy as a product of conformity in Metropolis. In terms of Weimar, it relates to the constant political, economic and social shifts in Germany, and the desire for the German people to rebel.

2) Fear: Fear is an underlying theme throughout this period. Both films utilise this theme effectively, and it forces the characters to act on events as well as hide from them.

3) Order and Authority: Order and authority is used towards the end of Caligari as a means to control those who wanted to rebel, and it is used at the beginning of Metropolis to demonstrate how “Americanised” Germany had become. There was a period of stability in the Weimar Republic, and that can be related back to these films.

4) The Reception and Influence of Cinema: It’s important to look at how the public viewed cinema as a whole and with regards to these two films during the period. Research has been obtained that looks at the percentage of people who went to the movies/the success of the movies. This chapter will also look at other mediums of art (such as painting or music) that took influence from the cinema.

That’s all for today, I hope to be back tomorrow, where I will start picking out themes and concentrating on them. I really do enjoy what I study, and I look forward to sharing these ideas with as many people as possible.

Thanks for reading!

(1033 words)