Research: Metropolis

I have looked into resources of Metropolis, which is a steampunk-based sci-fi film in the late 1920s and have come up with a short analysis of the film:

Metropolis was a 1927 film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou.


The film was initially published as a novel in 1926 and was only serialized as a film the year after. It depicts a futuristic world in Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic, and studies a common science fiction theme namely the social crisis between workers and owners of capitalism.

The image shows a DVD cover of the re-defined version of the film. The character was made using metallics, with the scaled up model building for the background.

The cinematic theme has hints of German Expressionism like this screenshot suggests:

There is also strong use of black and white contrasts and sillhouettes that can be very dramatic and adds to the gloomy and metallic atmosphere.

The buildings looked like hand-made models, brought to life with a few touches of computer graphics mainly for the subjects' movement (like the hi-tech vehicles). While filming, the models were scaled up to look like life-sized buildings.

Multiple models assembled to create the atmosphere:

It almost looks like computer-generated collage technique, with layers of buildings placed on top of each other.