Metropolis is a science fiction film by Fritz Lang. This film isn’t directly related to nightmares however, the plot of the film has a nightmarish dystopian feel.
Metropolis touches on the loss of humanity through different classes. The working class seems to have lost their humanity by becoming part of the machine they work for.
We can see this by how robotic the movements of the workers are.
The higher class individuals have lost their humanity by becoming slaves to their desires. The machines produce these desires.
Freder, the protagonist of this movie, stumbles upon the underground workers and has a hallucination that the factory is the temple of Moloch and the workers are being fed to it.
Seeing this, Freder runs to tell his father who gives a frosty response. Because of this, Freder decides to rebel against his father and tries to help the workers.
Freders Mother, Hel, was supposed to marry the inventor of the machine Rotwang however left him to marry Fredersen. While giving birth to Freder, Hel died; Rotwang decides to build a robot to resurrect Hel.
While in the catacombs, Fredersen eavesdrops on a conversation in which a woman, Maria, declares that there will be a mediator who can bring the working and ruling class together. Freder states that he can be this mediator and confesses his love for her. After hearing this, Fredersen tells Rotwang to make the robot look like Maria so it can ruin her reputation. Rotwang captures Maria and transfers her likeness to the robot.
He then gives Maria to Fredersen. Freder finds his father and Maria embracing and believes it is the real Maria. He falls into delirium and again suffers hallucinations. In this hallucination, Maria unleashes chaos and drives men to murder. Freder realises that there is fake Maria and recovers. He then finds Maria and accuses her of being fake. The workers ignore him and follow Maria. They destroy the heart machine which causes the workers city to flood. The real Maria rescues the children. While this is happening, the workers capture the fake Maria and burn her at the stake, revealing her to be a robot.
At the end Rotwang believes Maria is Hel and chases her to the roof. Freder follows him and the 2 men fight; Rotwang falls to his death and Feder fulfils his job as mediator.
This entire movie was really interesting. I’ve never watched a silent black and white film so it was a little bit hard to get into. Overall the aesthetic really fits with my nightmare theme. The contrast between black and white really pushes the dystopian feeling. Also the use of hallucinations and delirium really does remind me of nightmares. Both of these things feel very real to the person experiencing it; they can also reveal what a person is feeling unconsciously. This was a fun way to look into nightmares.
Ayanfe III 