"False Maria" robot from 1927 silent film "Metropolis"
-
@bryan k said:
A movie way ahead of its time, tuna.
Have you also seen Shape of Things To Come? Another movie ahead of its time.
Wow, sorry I missed this post. Especially since this is one of my favorite movies! Now, I assume that you are referring to the 1936 movie 'Things to Come' based on H.G. Wells' novel 'The Shape of Things to Come'
and not the pathetic 1979 Canadian movie 'The Shape of Things to Come', which has nothing to do with H.G. Wells, but still somehow managed to put his name of the cover
I did start a model of one of the machines used to build the new civilization after the wars were ended. I called it an 'excavator' for lack of a better term. Still not finished (well, none of my models are ever finished) but it was coming along.
I like to make my screenshots from B&W movies also B&W, as I did for Metropolis. As I said, far from done, it's one of those models where I am always finding doo-dads and thingamajigs that I missed.
I have also worked on models from a few more of H.G. Wells movies.
'The Time Machine'
and the Cavorite Sphere from 'The First Men in the Moon'
Again, sorry I missed your post.
Steve
-
really really cool stuff Hellnbak - I always loved this time machine and these great time lapse trips to the morlocks
-
Yes. "Things to Come" My bad .
Did not even know there was Canadian version. Looks perfectly cheesy!
Excellent models!
-
Brilliant! And... great subject matter. Classic.
-
Another missed opportunity. Brilliant, fantastic and it made my day to finally see these. Thanks Steve.
-
Hi,
All your comments are, as always, very much appreciated.
I've been very busy here. Managed to buy a house in Allegan, about 13 miles from here. Wasn't an easy task in such an absolutely insane seller's market. Every time something came up for sale it seemed like it was "Pending" almost immediately. Used the VA, that helped a lot. Now I'm in the process of moving, which is taking forever. It's just me and my minivan trying to move everything I've accumulated over 22 years of living here, with a two story barn, workshop, and big old farmhouse just stuffed with crap. I have a lot of wood (a lot!) and with the insane price of wood right now I'm keeping every bit of it. Trying to find a very large safety deposit box to put it all in
. Found out very quickly that my old broken down body has it's limitations and can only be pushed so far. All this crap about growing old gracefully is just that, crap. Closed on the house almost two months ago, haven't spent a night in it yet. I figure that, with a little luck, by this time next year I will be finished moving. I didn't know it was possible to be so damned tired.As Linda Ronstadt says, 'Poor Poor Pitiful Me'
Anyhow, again, thanks for your kind words. Hope everyone is doing well.
Happy holidays,
Steve
-
Not at all pitiful mate, know how you feel but we keep moving on.
I hope you can get this done without all the snap on tools falling off, it does help with remaining vertical. That wood will come in handy once you are settled in.
Live long, prosper and be well.
-
This work is golden!
Keep on keepin' on. Happy new place! Happy Holidays!
-
Anyhow, five years later....
First off, I need to apologize to JQL for providing some incorrect information in my response to his question 10 years ago.
In my arrogance (and ignorance) I told him that the robot never existed outside of the lab. Well, of course that was wrong. It did exist in the upper city towards the end of the movie. When the False Maria was being burned on the bonfire she briefly transforms back into the robot. My bad
As far as my Maschinenmensch, every now and then I wake her up and make some tweeks here and there. Sometimes they work, sometimes not. But I feel that it is gradually improving, maybe not a whole lot but it's slowly getting there. She is my favorite project.
And now, speaking of that bonfire, during my extensive research for the making of my Metropolis robot I came across a number of theories as to what ultimately happened to Walter Schulze-Mittendorff's amazing creation, from being destroyed in the war (huh?) to being hidden away in someone's private collection somewhere, even suggestions that WSM had created two of the robots, with one being destroyed in the bonfire and the other still existing somewhere, and everything in between.
But I subscribe to my own theory, that it was indeed destroyed during the big bonfire scene at the end of the movie, but not because it was destroyed in the actual fire (there is no photographic proof of that happening), but that it was for all intents and purposes destroyed while it was being prepared for the bonfire scene (for which there is photographic proof).The suit was never designed to stand on it's own, only to be worn by Brigitte Helm. The many individual parts were molded onto a full body cast of Ms. Helm (can you imagine what that cast would be worth if it was somehow found today?), with thin layers of a very early version of Plastic Wood being applied to Hessian, an early version of burlap. Without her to support it they apparently had great difficulty getting it's parts and pieces to stay in position and in their not-so-subtle attempts to get everything to stay where they needed to be they apparently tightened the straps to the point where they broke through the robot, causing extensive damage. Further major damage was caused to the shoulders and arms while trying to get the arms bent out and back (the shoulders of the robot were sculpted as part of the body, and could not be moved).
For me the real question is why Fritz Lang, who's demand for perfection in absolutely every detail to assure that his vision of Metropolis was was not compromised is well known and documented, would allow such an obviously tattered and broken and much-less-than-perfect, to say the least, version of the robot to become part of his masterpiece at all. It is totally out of character for him.
Some other observations, for what they're worth
Well, just thought I would see if I remembered how to post stuff here. Boy, has this forum changed, hardly recognized it!! If it's not too much trouble I'd appreciate it if you could change it back to the way it was back in the good old days.
Hope everyone's holidays are going well!
-
@hellnbak said in "False Maria" robot from 1927 silent film "Metropolis":
If it's not too much trouble I'd appreciate it if you could change it back
I'll do it next year
Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp 📖
-
@Rich-O-Brien So, the day after tomorrow then? Much appreciated!
Advertisement