Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Metropolis: from sci-fi masterpiece to chamber musical
limelightmagazine.com.au: Fritz Lang’s science fiction film Metropolis is hailed as a landmark. Made in Germany during the Weimar period, it transposed the class politics of its time into the realms of a future dystopia controlled by industrialists from atop their colossal skyscrapers. Far below toiled the workers, like an army of ants among giant machines.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I think this is so incredibly cool! I love retro futuristic stories and aesthetics like this so I am really glad that they are staying true to that kind of vision of the future rather than our current general view of the future. I think that the designers will get to have a lot more fun this way with that type of aesthetic going on rather than the modern interpretation of the future. Especially when combined with the composer for the show who is already so accomplished, I loved listening to Bonnie and Clyde in the car with my mom growing up so this show is bound to be extremely exciting. I will admit, I do not know anything about the plot of Metropolis beyond just the basic aesthetics of it that are so widely dispersed in pop culture but this musical makes me want to do my research into the plot and characters.
Metropolis is such a formative film for me. I simply adore it. I think it just truly portrays so much with so little. Worker’s Exploitation, Capitalism ,demonization of women’s sexuality, and nepotism. And even then, saying it like that is quite reductionist. I also just adore the aesthetics. Metropolis is an early film that used stage actors on screen. In a way seeing us the active process of the mainstream entertainment shifting from stage to screen. This piece has also served inspiration for so many of my favorite works. Like Hadestown. That borrows many aesthetic and structural and narrative elements from Metropolis to apply them to today while setting it LOOSELY in the 1920s.
To say i’m worried about this as a musical is an understatement. I think that adaptations of films are already so hard to master. Not to mention a long artsy german film from the beginning of theatre. Overall this musical seems to be a smaller scale production. I am not quite sure how it will work. I just hope it does. Truly and sincerely.
Post a Comment