Metropolis-Cinematography

In the film Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, I noticed that there were a lot of close ups. These close ups occurred when you saw the main character, Freder, and his love interest Maria together. The most frequent types I saw in the film were two shots. The two shots were appropriate for the two lovers, because it established an intimacy between them. It allowed you to see fully the love they had for one another in a shot just between the two of them.

Another type of shot I noticed was the telephoto. In the shots with Joh Fredersen in his office with his assistant, you see him looming in the foreground while His assistant is in the background. His assistant looks a bit blurred and small in the background, while Joh's image looks powerful and crisp. It establishes his position of power, besides just him having a stern, authoritative look on his face.

Lastly, the last type of frequent shot I noticed was just regular close ups. There were a lot of these with all the characters, and it helped you to read their emotions more clearly. There is a particular scene where Maria is being chased. We get a close up on Maria's face during the chase and we can clearly see that she is terrified which helps us better than a medium shot, per se. We get a close up of her when she is first introduced as well, and the close up shows her as this pure, innocent person. This helps us to see that rather than just the title cards for her words. Also, Freder looks panicked a lot in the film, and we can see this beautifully in his eyes and expression from the close up shot.

Though Lang was a bit ahead of his time with these things, they worked together nicely with the mise en scene and the title cards. His cinematographers camera work was splendid to help us better understand th position and emotions of the characters.