The Dance of the False Maria

Dance of the False Maria
Often referred to as the first great science-fiction film, Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” (1927) is a stunning visual masterpiece. His visions of dystopian city hellscapes, robots in human form, and mad scientists have served as inspiration for films such as “Blade Runner,” “The Fifth Element,” “Gattaca,” “Dark City” and countless others.
In “Metropolis,” the mad scientist Rotwang creates a robot "Maschinenmensch" (literally translated as "Machine Human") and transforms it from metal machine into the living image of Maria, a beautiful, kind woman from the underclass. Rotwang’s robot is often referred to as “The False Maria.”
Rotwang chooses the image of Maria for his Machine Human so that he can undermine the efforts of the real Maria who is working to unite the elite ruling class with the downtrodden working class. The evil, chaos-lusting Rotwang sets his false Maria loose on the city to destroy the work of the real Maria. False Maria’s first role is as temptress to the elites for whom the robot performs a seductive dance.