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.