While I would love to say that Rotwang is the prototypical Mad Scientist, I think Frankenstein did it first in 1910 (although with, appearently, less than one percent of the budget):
That creature-effect must have _horrified_ cinemagoers in 1910.
I've always enjoyed Metropolis. I mean, would we have Blade Runner without it? It's also very Weimar Republic. The hypermodern city is made to look like New York on steroids, looking towards the West in awe of sky scrapers, while the night club is called Yoshiwara, looking for fleshly delight towards the East. It was also the first movie made in Germany that had a significant number of non-white extras.
The whole delirious partygoing aesthetic is very golden 20s. The literature of that time (specifically made in Berlin. E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Hotel_(novel) ) mirrors that. It was the very Babylon that made the right angry enough to sweep the country in their backlash in the following decade. Totally no parallels to today.
Ever catch Greenaway’s experimental tv series on Channel 4 of Dante’s Inferno? Amazing work that just about broke every element of the frame every second it was on. Covered about the first half of the Cantos if I remember right and absolutely screams McKean throughout
While I would love to say that Rotwang is the prototypical Mad Scientist, I think Frankenstein did it first in 1910 (although with, appearently, less than one percent of the budget):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LQj68W7O9Q
That creature-effect must have _horrified_ cinemagoers in 1910.
I've always enjoyed Metropolis. I mean, would we have Blade Runner without it? It's also very Weimar Republic. The hypermodern city is made to look like New York on steroids, looking towards the West in awe of sky scrapers, while the night club is called Yoshiwara, looking for fleshly delight towards the East. It was also the first movie made in Germany that had a significant number of non-white extras.
The whole delirious partygoing aesthetic is very golden 20s. The literature of that time (specifically made in Berlin. E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Hotel_(novel) ) mirrors that. It was the very Babylon that made the right angry enough to sweep the country in their backlash in the following decade. Totally no parallels to today.
Ever catch Greenaway’s experimental tv series on Channel 4 of Dante’s Inferno? Amazing work that just about broke every element of the frame every second it was on. Covered about the first half of the Cantos if I remember right and absolutely screams McKean throughout
I didn't even know about it till now! But I will add it to my list.