La crisis constructiva del sueño europeo en Metrópolis, de Fritz Lang. Un estudio contextual comparado de los mitos de Prometeo y Atlas

Abstract

Almost one hundred years after its premiere, Fritz Lang's Metropolis remains a film of enormous complexity whose possible ideological interpretations continue to provoke controversy. This article studies Metropolis in parallel with other ideological interpretations of the same classic Greek myths explored, such as those of Prometheus and Atlas. In particular, a comparison is made with the iconographic project of the Rockefeller Center in New York, which follows a similar aesthetic and also makes an ideological use of the same myths. However, while Metropolis supposes a certain dystopian and preventive premonition of the crisis of the European dream (as seen in the totalitarian use of the same mythology by both Nazi Germany and the USSR), the Rockefeller Center symbolizes the most utopian project of the American capitalist dream. The comparative study between the distinct applications of these myths in different ideologies results in a renewed reading of the open meanings contained in Fritz Lang's film, which today more than ever—having overcome the methodological prejudices inherited from the Cold War— reveals themselves as universal and timeless.