The emphasis on the expressive in Metropolis

Analyse how the German expressionist or the French new wave film you have studied reflects an emphasis on naturalism or the expressive that is characteristic of their film movement. [35]

-Metropolis

Fritz Lang's 1927 German Expressionist film 'Metropolis' uses expressionist imagery to comment on technology consuming society. As a film made during the latter years of German expressionism, early films of its genre influenced Metropolis' expressionistic style such as the gothic, medieval, and cinematographic distorted shadows of Nosferatu (1922) and the painted sets of exaggerated perspectives exploring madness in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari made in 1920 (TDODC). Despite these films' limitations in budget, the aesthetic and thematic characteristics pioneered have translated to Metropolis' dystopian science fiction aesthetic in its spectacle, performances, sound, mise-en-scene and cinematography. 

The film's vast spectacle and scale, owing to its large budget, demonstrates an obtrusively expressionistic perspective that pushed the initial boundaries of its genre. From the opening scenes, Lang establishes the representation of class such as through choreography, sets, and cinematography. For example, the spectator is presented with a montage of working machinery, the non-diegetic music, like its film predecessors, originally composed to fit the expressionistic aesthetic, one that reflects a sense of madness, most comparable to TCODC score; the low brass and high string instrumentation mirroring the chaotic machinery and anchoring a perception of expressionistic technology that communicates a hostility, mayhem, and agent of control. Succeeding this, the spectator is introduced to the workers, where everything from their costumes to stylised walk reflects the misery of their exploited labour. Their performance shows their shoulders slumped and heads turned down which hides the dismay of their facial expressions, and their gait is in unison, suggesting the mechanisation of the working class identity. Their first stylised shot has a divided composition, in which the workers themselves are divided by strong vertical lines in the bars of the metal doors and the white line that separates those who have come from 10 hours of work to those who will be entering it, both walking at relevantly different speeds. The non-diegetic sound works with this; the music is legato and low-pitched to match the rhythmic drudgery of their movement, which changes to become more foreboding as they move to the underground worker city. Even the shadows in this city are painted on, with artificial spotlights and buildings that show modernisation as stripped of identity as the working class is expressionistically represented as a uniform identity.  Perhaps less extravagant in scale though characteristic of German Expressionism, painted and model sets are used to construct an expressionist view of the city of Metropolis during a montage; extreme canted angles and impossible perspectives of skyscrapers illustrate the wealth and power of the city, the music glorifying this view. Characteristic of German Expressionism, the distorted and exaggerated perspectives also connote a sense of madness; perhaps the ruling elite through their exploitative behaviour succumbs to this in order to fulfil the utopian vision of their success, parallel to the excessive prospects of the 'heads' within the allegorical 'Tower of Babel sequence', wherein the tower is ironically destroyed from exploitation and over-consumption. Significantly expressionistic in this sequence, with special effects bordering it to represent idealism, the workers in a vast spectacle are divided into 5 segments which visually express a hand, connoting their existence as functioning for labour and exploitation. The sense of anxiety expressed in the film's aesthetics in an expressionistic view of work, urbanity, and futurism mirrors the modernisation and future fears of Weimar Germany in the 1920s which fuelled the creation of the German Expressionist genre.

Theatrical performance is also used in Metropolis characteristic of German Expressionism - as a construction of madness and from the limitations of silent film - to emphasise an expressive perspective of fear, utilised significantly through the archetypical villain Rotwang. In his introductory shot, there are remarkable parallels in his appearance to Dr Caligari from TCODR, with expressionistically arched features, wild hair, and a mechanical hand clawed in the centre of the frame that menacingly taps. His difference in clothing is also traditionally represented in an old-fashioned robe which strikingly contrasts to Fredersen's (the head of Metropolist) capitalist suit and tie. This expressionistically suggests that Rotwang is alienated from Metropolis' progression and that he clings to the historical past as he clings to his personal past; his love for Fredersen's dead wife Hel, and his vengeance towards Fredersen as a result. Though Metropolis is a dystopian science fiction it utilises elements of the gothic and medieval particularly reminiscent of Nosferatu's cinematography and gothic set characteristic of the German Expressionistic aesthetic. Rotwang's house for instance is framed in an establishing shot, a clearly handcrafted set against the painted backdrop of the city, the house dark and oddly shaped with a high gothic arch - an expressionistic exaggeration and curvature of medieval architecture juxtaposing the geometric modernist city, the fact it is obscured in darkness positioning Rotwang to be separate from the city and a relic of the past. His performance demonstrates exaggerated gestures, his hand reaching towards Fredersen in its claw-like form that implies intense obsession and power for his revolutionary robotic creation. In addition, his facial expressions are unhinged with widened eyes, raised eyebrows, and bared teeth that manically smile as he says: 'she is not dead...for me -she lives!'.It is here that the sound escalates, positioning the spectator to view Rotwang as 'mad', as the music expressionistically swells to a high-volume climax, matching his increasingly passionate performance. Typical of German Expressionism, a significant sequence where Rotwang chases the holy Maria in dark catacombs utilises handheld camera movement, chiaroscuro lighting, and expressionistic performances to express fear and madness. For example, high contrast of lighting dominates the scene, with Maria obscured in darkness, her candle lighting the way in contrast to Rotwang's artificial spotlight searching for her. Maria performs wide eyes, quick breathing, expressionistic gestures, flaring arms and hands clutching her heart expressing fear and unease, also paralleling Rotwang's clawlike hand. Characteristic of German Expressionism, the lighting emphasises extreme shadows exampled in a handheld LS with Maria running up a flight of stairs, her shadow of flaring arms projected in a depth of field. It is characteristic of German Expressionism to have a female victim pursued or corrupted by evil, with the aim of evoking enigma, uncertainty, and extreme emotional distress.

Perhaps the largest expressionistic sequence in Metropolis is achieved through spectacle; Freder's vision of the worker's machine as the demonic sacrificial God 'Moloch'. A vast formalistic set of industrial machinery dominates the establishing frame of this scene, with diagonal and vertical lines creating a sense of claustrophobia - a compositional aesthetic characteristic of German Expressionism - despite Freder's (the protagonist) minimised scale. Choreographed movements of the workers enhance an expressionistic view of labour, suggesting how their identity and place within the machine has been mechanised, with each individual contributing separately like a cog for the greater machine. Their performance is heavily stylised, with extreme robotic movements as they each alternate directions as if possessed by the machine. The lack of intelligible processes within their movement establishes the pointlessness of their work, suggesting that Lang views this labour as excessive to the point where it loses any meaning. In a Marxist reading of this expressionistic representation of class, there is greater priority towards profit over morals, so the workers' existence has a lack of meaning allocated by the ruling class. The indulgent and expressionistic machine churns in the depths of the city with special effect smoke alluding to Lang representing the lower levels as Hell. German Expressionism is saturated with metaphors and motifs drawn from religious traditions, for example: ideas of fate, destiny, and the holy (Freder's Messianic role as the 'mediator' between head and hands, aesthetically expressed as light falls on his face in the catacombs) plots of sacrifice, suffering, and redemption (Freder's willing suffering to act as a worker aesthetically expressed as he works a machine, the double exposure of the 10-hour worker clock representing his suffering); allusions to the sacred and the mystical (the man-machine, 7 deadly sins); and aspirations for messianic heroism. The low brass music mirrors the synchronised movement of each worker, with a multitude of machinery impossible to function without the need of human suffering; this is explored metaphorically as Freder hallucinates the machine as 'Moloch', the workers in controlled segments walking into the 'mouth' of the machine: the need for human flesh in order for the machine and thus the city to function. Extreme parallels of the primitive and archaic Moloch with the futuristic and modernistic machine suggest Lang is interested in an expressionistic and symbolic representation of labour, technology, and human power.