Metropolis Again

 Bust of Hel 

I was aware at a level beneath overt awareness that the faces of Hel and the false Maria (the robot) in Fritz Lang's Metropolis were the same face. Watching the film again, it jumped into awareness.

Robot Maria

Joh Fredersen supposedly stole the love of the lady Hel from the scientist Rotwang (who is kneeling before her bust in the picture).
Fredersen also used the robot Maria to mislead the workers into rebellion, which he wanted to violently crush.

I had never realized how cruel and bloody was Joh Fredersen - the supremely rational man who ran the city Metropolis like clockwork.

I am reading the  novel by Thea von Harbou. Metropolis is one of those films that escapes like an errant gingerbread boy from the care of its creator, and finds a new life of its own in the minds of the audience.

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ps

I read John O'Hara's The Swimmer this morning before my shower. One of the neighbors in whose pools he swims are the Biswangers.

Erwin Biswanger (below) portrayed the character "Worker 11811" in Metropolis:

Coincidence.
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