Abstract: Metropolis & Huyssen

1) summary
The Vamp and the Machine by Andreas Huyssen is, in effect, a critique of other critiques of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Huyssen expresses that other critiques do not adequately address the issue of the woman-machine with historical context in mind. He stresses that the film contains opposing views on technology, highlighting the transitional atmosphere present in Germany at the time due to the end of WWI and the beginning of the Neue Sachlichkeit. The woman in Metropolis then, states Huyssen, serves as a symbol for both the fear of technology out-of-control (Maria as machine-vamp) and the containment of technology as a servant of mankind (Maria as the asexual mother). According to Huyssen, the "witch-burning" at the end of the film symbolizes society's transition to the Neue Sachlichkeit side of things.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis is a German expressionist film released in 1926. The film takes place in a futuristic city which is kept running by an underground vault of machines and their corresponding operators, who work long hours for little pay. The son of the master of Metropolis, Freder, follows the workers one day into the catacombs of the city to witness a woman, Maria, preaching peace and social harmony. His father, Joh Frederson, finds out about her and orders an inventor, Rotwang, to create a robot in Maria's likeness to create discord among his workers. He does so and the machine-vamp follows instructions and soon is out of control, seducing men and persuading them to revolt against the machines themselves. Eventually the city floods and the workers burn the "witch," then finding out she was really a machine.


2) key terms - it's mostly visual!!

• metaphysical - concerned with abstract thought or subjects, as existence, causality, or truth (dictionary.com)
  
• Minotaur - any person or thing that devours or destroys (dictionary.com)
  
• moloch - anything conceived of as requiring appalling sacrifice: the Moloch of war (dictionary.com)'
  

3) questions

• Do you agree that the transfer of Maria's likeness to the machine also transfers her sexuality? Does she become a "helpless mother figure, " as Huyssen states?
  
• What do you think about the role of water in the film? According to Huyssen, water represents female libido. What do the fountain and the flood represent?
  
• Both unbridled female sexuality and submissive asexuality are male fantasies expressed and repeated in the film. Does every male subscribe to these fantasies? What were the social ideals for German women of the time that may have influenced the view of men toward women?
  
• Is Maria really at fault for anything in the film? Does she or the robot deserve the punishment she receives (being held captive and symbolically raped by a flashlight count as punishment)? Does anyone in the film acknowledge her lack of fault?
  
• Why does Joh Frederson want to "sow discord" among his workers and "destroy their confidence in Maria"? She was preaching social harmony, which benefits Frederson.

Comments: It's revolting to see the blame for everything that goes wrong continually thrown on a female! If Freder hadn't decide he wanted Maria, if Joh wasn't so damn power hungry, if Rotwang didn't have some weird creation-mother complex, and if those stupid double standards and limited stereotypes that are created by men didn't exist, Maria might have some space to just be a person instead of the symbol men attach all kinds of meanings to. AGHH.