. Metropolis : ein filmisches Laboratorium der modernen Architektur = Metropolis : a cinematic laboratory for modern architecture / herausgegeben von Wolfgang Jacobsen, Werner Sudendorf ; mit BeitraLgen von Martin Koerber, Yvonne Rehhahn. 3930698854 series Stuttgart : Menges, c2000.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1997.M436 M48 2000

Jacobsen and Sudendorf, in their book on Metropolis, cover all aspects of the film from its production to its screenwriting.  Written both in German and English, the style in which the authors talk about the film gives the impression of an in-depth viewer who was there witnessing the making of the film.  With an array of pictures that are taken from the movie itself or from behind the scenes, the book is separated into sections describing each part of the film.  They offer an idea of the history and the inspiration behind some of the most important parts of this revolutionary film.
    The chapter concerning architecture covers a large array of issues concerned with the structure of the buildings and thus their symbolic meaning for the film.  The two authors discuss how that there is a mixture of architectural styles that lacks “uniformity and balance” but by putting these two side by side, it emphasizes the coexistence of two conflicting ideologies.  The large buildings that make up the majority of the city landscape cannot be anything without the older, cathedral like buildings.  This juxtaposition conveys the idea of technological progression.  Additionally, it is this necessity of having the older buildings, like Rotwang’s place and the catacombs, and the larger, extravagant building, like the modern Tower of Babel, that makes Lang’s message of the dangers of the dehumanization quality of technology possible.  The architecture in this sense is essential for the main purpose of the film to shine through.