Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS (1927) is a good example of the balance between black and white. The world above ground level is a thriving city, shining and magnificent. Whereas the world below ground level belongs to the workers who keep the city running smoothly. The workers city is purely functional, devoid of beauty. It is a dark dirty place. The city at ground level is a monument to those who created it, flaunting its power and beauty at every possible chance, home to its thinkers and planners. Both are different aspects of the same city, even though they seem so different that they couldn’t possibly be part of a larger whole.
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The city above is almost entirely oblivious to the city below. Joh Frederson, the man who runs the city, plans to use a robot, created in the likeness of the leader of the workers, to strengthen his hold on them, creating an even larger divide between the two halves of the city. The workers revolt and the city is almost destroyed. The balance of “black” and “white” was upset, causing pandemonium that was only ended by the reintegration and restoration of the workers with the thinkers.
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