TAYLORIZATION MOTIFS IN FRITZ LANG’S FILM METROPOLIS
Text topic: Culture and Money
Text author: Моња Јовић
The Fritz Lang’s cult film Metropolis seen in the context of ideas
presented by Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of scientific
management, reveals a powerful message that the modern cult of
efficiency, according to which things can be done “in one best way”,
dehumanizes labour and turns humans into machines thus preventing
their spiritual accomplishment. The paper examines the presence of
Taylor’s ideas in Germany during the 1920s, as well as their global
impact on the art and culture trends, underlying their dystopic potential.
Through intersemiotic references to other literary and cinematographic
works, primarily Yevgeny Zamyatin’s novel We and Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World, this interdisciplinary study confirms conclusions
of certain authors about the crucial importance of Taylor’s ideas in
understanding the world we live in.