The influence of Fritz Lang

In 1927 the incredible talent of Fritz lang hit the movie screens with his creation of the World's first iconic themed Films, 'Metropolis'. An awe inspiring and frightening depiction of Dystopian society set somewhere in the future where Man had simply become automatons and a strict division between the workers and the Master Race persisted.
The time of it's creation could not have been more perfectly timed, the rise of the Weimar and German expressionist period added fuel to the political ideology of the times making the Film even more powerful in it's statements.
With beautifully created sets and low key lighting we were placed in a Futuristic City that seems all too predictable today, one fuelled by greed and power. This vision of the desire to create the fabled City of Babel further influenced many future classic Sci-Fi themes of which Philip K Dick's classic novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' eventually went on to become Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner', just one example.
It does in fact have overtones of Dante's (Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise), the 14thC Italian epic poem in it's depiction of the dark depths of Humanity where workers are removed of their individuality by the repression of freedom.

For further reading on Fritz Lang see this blogspot