| Rotwang | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First appearance | Metropolis |
| Created by | Thea von Harbou Fritz Lang |
| Portrayed by | Rudolf Klein-Rogge |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Scientist |
C. A. Rotwang is a fictional character in Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction film Metropolis , [1] as well as screenwriter Thea von Harbou's original novel Metropolis . In the film, Rotwang was played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge. [1]
Rotwang is a brilliant scientist and inventor, whose greatest achievement is the creation of a robot made in the form of a woman (the Maschinenmensch , or Machine-Person). Originally, he intended to make a replacement for his lost love, Hel, a beautiful woman who eventually chose Joh Fredersen, master of the city and Rotwang's rival, instead of him. She later died while giving birth to Fredersen's son, Freder. Rotwang uses the robot to get revenge against Fredersen and Freder, while pretending that he is using the robot for Fredersen's benefit, and under Fredersen's instructions.
Rotwang, who lost a hand while developing the Machine-Person and now wears a fully functioning metal prosthesis in its place, covered by a black glove, lives in a strange old house in the middle of Metropolis; its rough exterior design contrasts sharply with the futuristic elegance of the city. In its basement is a trap door that leads down into a network of catacombs, where Rotwang and Fredersen eavesdrop on a secret meeting of the workers and Maria, their spiritual counselor.
On Fredersen's orders, Rotwang abducts Maria, transfers her appearance to the robot, and releases the duplicate to incite a rebellion among the workers. However, the robot is programmed to obey only Rotwang, who secretly instructs it to cause destructive lust among the wealthy elite of Metropolis as well in a plot to ruin Fredersen. During the ensuing riots and power blackout, Rotwang falls under the delusion that the real Maria is Hel and chases her to the roof of the city's cathedral, with Freder in pursuit. The two men fight on the roof, and Rotwang falls to his death.
The name "Rotwang" is derived from a series of German words. "Rot" is German for red, "Wang(e)" for cheek, "rotwangig" for rosy-cheeked. "Rotwang" therefore means "red-cheek" or "rosy-cheek". In the film his name is given on a printed invitation as "C. A. Rotwang" but his first and middle names are not given in full, or mentioned again.
Rotwang was very influential in the iconography of the mad scientist archetype. His laboratory, with its profusion of Tesla coils and towering switch panels, baroque chemical equipment and pipework, became a stock feature of many later films, including many in the Frankenstein series. Like Victor Frankenstein, he attempts to "play God" by creating life, only to be defeated and destroyed in the end.
Many aspects of Rotwang's appearance and character, particularly the black-gloved "mechanical" hand, turn up in the title character of Dr. Strangelove .
Rotwang, along with Maria, his robot, appears as a member of the Twilight Heroes, a German analogue to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in the Alan Moore-scripted graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier .
He also appears as part of the German forces attempting to create the Red Baron, along with silent film characters Doctor Mabuse, Doctor Caligari and Count Orlok, in Kim Newman's historical fantasy novel The Bloody Red Baron .
In the mainline DC Universe's Rotwang's robot creation became the time traveling villainess Mekanique. Mekanique claims to have traveled to the era of the All-Star Squadron to alter history for her master, and that she succeeded; whether this is true is unknown. Rotwang himself did not appear in the comic. In the Elseworld graphic novel Superman's Metropolis, Lex Luthor is cast in Rotwang's role.
In Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis manga and the later anime film based upon it, Rotwang is replaced by a character named Laughton (though their names are pronounced similarly in Japanese).
In the Yugoslav comic book series Borba, Rotwang is a recurring villain, and is portrayed as a Nazi.
In Before Tomorrowland by Jeff Jensen a tie-in novel to Tomorrowland , there is a villain named Werner Rotwang. He is an unethical roboticist who defects from the Plus Ultra organization and joins the Nazis to further his research into achieving immortality via robotics.
In the first series of Hergé's Jo, Zette and Jocko adventures, "The Secret Ray", an unnamed scientist, unsuccessfully experiments with transferring a human soul into a robot's body.
In Jeffrey Thomas's story "Precious Metal", the character Maria Rotwang kills a gang that has previously killed members of a robot jazz band.
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction silent film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang from von Harbou's 1925 novel of the same name. It stars Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, and Brigitte Helm. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studio for Universum Film A.G. (UFA). Metropolis is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction film, being among the first feature-length ones of that genre. Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–26 at a cost of more than five million Reichsmarks, or the equivalent of about €21 million.
The mad scientist is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly ambitious, taboo or hubristic nature of their experiments. As a motif in fiction, the mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign, or neutral; may be insane, eccentric, or clumsy; and often works with fictional technology or fails to recognise or value common human objections to attempting to play God. Some may have benevolent intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental antagonists.
Science fiction is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, mutants, interstellar travel, time travel, or other technologies. Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition.
Metropolis, also known as Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis or Robotic Angel, is a Japanese manga by Osamu Tezuka published in 1949. It has been adapted into a feature-length anime, released in 2001. It has some parallels to the 1927 film of the same name, though Tezuka stated that he had only seen a single still image of the film in a magazine at the time of creating his manga.
Thea Gabriele von Harbou was a German screenwriter, novelist, film director, and actress. She is remembered as the screenwriter of the science fiction film classic Metropolis (1927) and for the 1925 novel on which it was based. von Harbou collaborated as a screenwriter with film director Fritz Lang, her husband, during the period of transition from silent to sound films.
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Metropolis is a musical based on the 1927 silent movie of the same name that was staged at the Piccadilly Theatre in London in 1989. The music was written by Joe Brooks, the lyrics by Dusty Hughes. The show was directed by Jérôme Savary. The cast included Judy Kuhn, Brian Blessed, Graham Bickley, Jonathan Adams, Paul Keown and Stifyn Parri. The musical marked the London debut of Judy Kuhn, who left the show shortly before the end of its run to be replaced by Mary Lincoln. The production was notable for its set design by Ralph Koltai.
Prosthetics, the artificial replacement of organic limbs or organs, often play a role in fiction, particularly science fiction, as either plot points or to give a character a beyond normal appearance. Numerous works of literature, television, and films feature characters who have prosthetics attached.
The Maschinenmensch is a fictional humanoid robot featured in Thea von Harbou's novel Metropolis and Fritz Lang's film adaption of the novel. In the film, she is played by German actress Brigitte Helm both as a robot and in human guise. She was created by the scientist Rotwang in dedication to his deceased lover, Hel, though in the novel they have no correlation. Maschinenmensch was one of the first fictional robots ever depicted in cinema, and as a result popularized the concept worldwide.
Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, and the famous character of Frankenstein's monster, have influenced popular culture for at least a century. The work has inspired numerous films, television programs, video games and derivative works. The character of the Monster remains one of the most recognized icons in horror fiction.
Metropolis is a 2001 Japanese animated futurist cyberpunk drama film loosely based upon Osamu Tezuka's 1949 manga of the same name. The film was directed by Rintaro, written by Katsuhiro Otomo, and produced by Madhouse, with conceptual support from Tezuka Productions.
Gustav Friedrich Fröhlich was a German actor and film director. He landed secondary roles in a number of films and plays before landing his breakthrough role of Freder Fredersen in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis. He remained a popular film star in Germany until the 1950s.
Nikola Tesla is portrayed in many forms of popular culture. The Serbian-American engineer has particularly been depicted in science fiction, a genre which is well suited to address his inventions; while often exaggerated, the fictionalized variants build mostly upon his own alleged claims or ideas. A popular, growing fixation among science fiction, comic book, and speculative history storytellers is to portray Tesla as a member of a secret society, along with other luminaries of science. The impacts of the technologies invented by Nikola Tesla are a recurring theme in the steampunk genre of alternate technology science-fiction.
Mekanique is a supervillainess in the fictional DC Universe. She first appeared in Infinity, Inc. #19.
Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron, or simply The Bloody Red Baron, is a 1995 alternate history/horror novel by British author Kim Newman. It is the second book in the Anno Dracula series and takes place during the Great War, 30 years after the first novel.
Alfred Peter Abel was a German film actor, director, and producer. He appeared in more than 140 silent and sound films between 1913 and 1938. His best-known performance was as Joh Fredersen in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis.
The Biblical term Moloch has traditionally been understood as a Canaanite god to whom child sacrifice was offered. In post-classical rabbinical tradition, this supposed deity was associated with Greco-Roman reports of Carthaginian child sacrifice to the god Baal Hammon. In later Christian tradition, Moloch was often described as a demon. Moloch is depicted in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost as one of the greatest warriors of the rebel angels, vengeful and militant.
Metropolis is a 1925 science fiction novel by the German writer Thea von Harbou. The novel was a treatment for Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis, on which von Harbou and Lang collaborated in 1924.