{"id":850,"date":"2015-02-23T22:32:29","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T03:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/?p=850"},"modified":"2016-02-20T15:30:08","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T20:30:08","slug":"art-deco-meets-italian-futurism-the-art-direction-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/art-deco-meets-italian-futurism-the-art-direction-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Deco meets Italian Futurism – The Art Direction of"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Main<\/a><\/h4>\n

March 5th, marks the 88th anniversary of the opening of Fritz Lang’s classic film Metropolis,<\/em> at the Rialto Theatre in New York City. This version differed greatly from the film that opened in Berlin, Germany in January, 1927. Because of a distribution deal Ufa<\/a><\/span> made with Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the American studios could\u00a0edit\u00a0the Ufa films any way they saw fit. Paramount, distributed\u00a0Metropolis<\/em> in North America, cut the film by a half an hour and rearranged scenes, making the plot incomprehensible. While this version was not a critical success dramatically, what did impress most critics was the art direction, which utilized design themes so modern, it was almost considered avant-garde.<\/h4>\n
\"The<\/a>

The machine room, where the influence of Italian Futurist architecture is easily seen.<\/p><\/div>\n

Otto Hunte (1881 – 1960), Erich Kettelhut (1893 – 1979) and Karl Vollbrecht (1886 – 1973) were the team of art directors that created the look of the dystopian city.\u00a0These three men had collaborated\u00a0for the first time on the Fritz Lang film The Indian Tomb<\/em> (1921) and would continue as art directors on Lang’s\u00a0Dr. Mabuse the Gambler<\/em> (1922) and Die Nibelungen<\/em> (1924). For Metropolis<\/em>, the\u00a0futuristic appearance of the city was heavily influenced by two current art movements, Modern or Modernistic (now known as Art Deco), which had just be given\u00a0a massive kick off party at the 1925 Paris Exposition, and the more established Italian Futurism. To learn more about Futurism\u00a0click on the links below.<\/h4>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Futurism<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Futurist_architecture<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here are a couple of videos about\u00a0the\u00a0Futurism exhibition held at the Guggenheim Museum in 2014.<\/h4>\n