A Comparative Analysis Of Berlin And Fritz Lang's Metropolis

It has been argued by Kaes, that the director of Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grossstadt, successfully manages to ‘construct a text which makes this nexus become readable’. Moreover, the very first shot in Berlin is of open calm water, which Kaes argues is designed to deliver an impression of tranquillity and the natural organic state. Essentially it is a momentary position of calm before the onset of the frenetic urban environment. In other words, Ruttmann’s film is an allegorical impression of an immigrant’s journey of displacement, from the known rural world, into the pulsating unknown world of the metropolis of Berlin. We know that it is a one-way journey of deliverance because that movie does not offer a return train ride back to the familiar

Ruttmann uses these organic structures to construct his impression of the city. Unlike Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, which is overtly directed by a perpetual ten-hour work cycle clock, Berlin in contrast can be viewed through the juxtaposition of the old and the new worlds. The symbolic editing of the compilation of the shots depicting the crowd of labour’s marching to work, initially contrasted with the herd of cattle, then against the shot of the marching infantry, is an allegorical representation of the interconnectedness between the natural rhythms of life and the constellation of social modernity in the city. In other words, the city maybe dominant, but its urban rhythm is underwritten by the natural and inescapable tempo of

For example, the hysterical pace of the roller-coaster sequence leading up to the staged suicide of a woman jumping into the river, after a brief moment of amazement by the onlookers on the bridge, is frustratingly devoid of any further explanation. Moreover, this shocking sequence is callously absorbed without being resolved, with no solution to the problem being offered to the audience. Furthermore, through the juxtaposition of the next frame cutting to a light-hearted fashion show, Berlin is delivering a starkly idealised message. Essentially, this allegoric editing is designed to convey that the modern urban rhythm was both frivolous and impervious to the rigours of modernity. However, despite Ruttmann attempts to convey the city as an unforgiving and heartlessly perpetual monster, the reality was that rising suicide rates were not being