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The Tannhäuser Gate

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The Tannhäuser Gate Quart 2018, 9 PL ISSN 1896-4133 [s. 83-109] The Tannhäuser Gate. Architecture in science fiction films of the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century as a component of utopian and dystopian projections of the future Cezary Wąs University of Wrocław u ↪Q art Nr 3(49)/2018 The frame from the filmMetropolis , I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships dir. F. Lang; Universum Film AG (UFA), on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter Neubabelsberg 1927 in the dark near the Tannhäuser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die1. � 1 Monologue of a replicant Roy Batty Films in many ways represent views on social life in the more or less from the film Blade Runner. distant future. Pluralism of messages contained in them extends 2 F. Jameson, Archaeologies of the Fu- from the vision of the so-called bright future to manifesting beliefs ture: The Desire Called Utopia and Oth- about the fall or even the annihilation of the Earth civilisation. Also er Science Fictions, London – New York 2005, p. XIII. in the case when creators of a given piece created their image of ex- istence in epochs that were just to come in isolation from objective 3 P. Aleksandrowicz, “Metropolis” Frit- za Langa jako pierwowzór i inspiracja justifications and unleashed their fantasies their works belonged to współczesnych filmowych dystopii, [in:] the stock of predictions rooted in specific historical conditions. The Narracje fantastyczne, ed. K. Olkusz, K. M. Maj, Kraków 2017, https://factaficta. fantastic vision therefore had limits set by current ideological and files.wordpress.com/2018/01/narracje- political situations. “Even our wildest imaginings are all collage of fantastyczne-red-ksenia-olkusz-krzysz- tof-m-maj.pdf (access date: 25 IX 2018). experience, constructs made up of bits and pieces of the here and now”, as Fredric Jameson wrote2. If we limit our research on projec- 4 The set designer of the film was E. Kettelhut; see W. Pehnt, Expression- tions of the future only to the time after the end of World War II, it ist Architecture in Drawings, New York can be noticed that the optimism, still prevailing in the 1950s and 1985, pp. 81, 82; “Metropolis”. Ein fil- misches Laboratorium der modernen 1960s both in the communist East and the capitalist West, gradual- Architektur, Hrsg. W. Jacobsen, W. Su- ly changed into pessimism and lack of perspectives. Whereas when dendorf, Stuttgart 2000, p. 15, fig. 9, p. 106, fig. 26; A. Kaes, “Metropolis” we look at films from the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries we can (1927). City, Cinema, Modernity, [in:] An register a lack of direction of predictions corresponding to the help- Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era Weimar Cinema, ed. N. Isenberg, New lessness of liberal democracies towards negative phenomena of the York 2008, p. 175; C. D. Guschelbau- present and the increasing visible lack of ideas for the modernisation er, Formensprachen der Filmarchitektur im Weimarer Kino, Master’s thesis un- of political systems. der. Univ.-Prof. Dr. B. Marschall, Uni- Among the various genres of cinema, the images of the future versität Wien 2010, http://othes.univie. ac.at/9274/1/2010-04-13_0216452.pdf were most often presented in films conventionally defined as science (access date: 25 IX 2018), pp. 82, 86–87. fiction. Starting from Metropolis (a 1927 film by Fritz Lang), images of the consequences of the characteristic phenomena of the present, among which the most frequently mentioned were the overgrowth of technical values over natural ones, were all too often combined with the presentation of works of architecture3. At the same time, the film performances of the buildings did not only play the role of backstage scenes, but often correctly communicated the important ideological contents of individual works of cinematography. However, even the most bold images of architecture used in the film had their real pat- terns, as it was for example in the case of the monumental residence of industrial magnate Joh Fredersen shown in Metropolis inspired by the impressive water tower built in 1911 by Hans Poelzig in Poznan4. Reflecting on the sources of film architecture and the processing of real objects allows to bring out additional messages of specific works, and it should be noted that the reinforcements of expressive values of the originals by set designers sometimes made of the buildings actors expressing proclamations beyond the possibilities of natural language. /84/ Cezary Wąs / The Tannhäuser Gate. Architecture in science fiction films... Cinematographic works are rarely carriers of serious content, � 5 L. Kent, Werner Herzog: “Film Is Not as such a focus would run counter to their spectacular character the Art of Scholars, But of Illiterates”, “The New York Times” 1977, no. of and entertainment objectives. As Werner Herzog said: “Film is not 11 IX, p. 83; online: https://www.ny- the art of scholars, but of illiterates”5. Even among cinematograph- times.com/1977/09/11/archives/wer- ner-herzog-film-is-not-the-art-of- ic pieces with philosophical themes, socially or politically engaged, scholars-but-of-illiterates.html (access what dominates are forms that provide the viewer with pleasure date: 25 IX 2018). (or perhaps contrariwise – arousing fear), but – maybe apart from documentary films – that are not research oriented or do not bring valuable cognition. The attribution of cognitive deficiencies to films touches only one side of their character. The autonomy of art in the face of moral or epistemic problems, strongly outlined in Immanuel Kant’s aesthetics, aroused doubts already at the time when it was first formulated. Works of art cannot be detached from the practice of individual or social life, and even musical works became compo- nents of reflections on the destiny of human or the desired social system. Also in the case of films, as if deliberately devoid of intel- lectual threads, it can be seen that they reflect criticism of certain tendencies in collective life and transfer current deficiencies in an exaggerated way to the concepts of future times. Predicting certain social phenomena or changes in the basic be- haviours of individuals based on the recognition of annoying man- ifestations in their current existence is so uncertain that it rarely leads to accurate scientific forecasts. Such situation even encourages to make less logically organized predictions the intuitive character of which however is not an obstacle to obtaining accurate results. Cinematographic works are probably the best area in which the fu- ture was projected with great freedom, while at the same time diag- noses of the present and fears of what might happen were depicted. The reflections on the coming times contained in films can be grouped into utopian and dystopian images. The variety of defini- tions of the mentioned types of forecasting leads us to assume that in the analyses below the first term will include predictions permeat- ed by optimistic belief in positive values that the future will bring, and the second – by pessimistic visions. The intensification of the manifestation of the former ends at the beginning of the 1970s and the document of this change is the report The Limits to Growth pub- lished by the so-called Roman Club. The second type of prognosis is many times broader and is associated with multiple fears. Utopian images – optimistic visions: the architecture of glowing future The 1950s and 1960s were a period of economic and industrial de- velopment in the history of European countries (both socialist and capitalist), as well as the United States, Japan and the USSR. Strong competition between the political East and West partially weak- ened after the Berlin crisis in 1961 and the Cuban crisis in 1962 and /85/ u ↪Q art Nr 3(49)/2018 � 6 See K. S. Decker, J. T. Eberl, , “Star Trek” turned into a policy of “relaxation” (“détente”). This situation was the and Philosophy. The Wrath of Kant, New background for the vision of the development of the world, which, York 2008. after the expected next global conflict, will move towards never-end- 7 See B. Schauer, Escape Velocity: Amer- ing progress and prosperity. In both political blocs a science fiction ican Science Fiction Film, 1950–1982, Middletown [Connecticut] 2017, p. 108. prose was developed that showed a united humanity conquering the space and entering into relationships with inhabitants of extrater- restrial civilizations. The most popular motif of the novels of this genre became a journey by a spacecraft into distant galaxies and solving problems resulting from the encounter of various cultures. In the field of film art, this type of content was evident inStar Trek, the first series of which was broadcast in the years 1966–19696. The multi-ethnic crew, consisting of, among others, an American, a Rus- sian, a Scottish, a dark-skinned African, a Japanese, but also com- mander Spock from the Wolkan planet, crossed distant spaces in the spacecraft USS Enterprise (NCC-701) the originator of which was mainly Matt Jefferies, a former American bomber pilot during World War II and then a film designer. The ship’s crew was a model of the future civilization, extending to the whole space, aimed at rational overcoming of all difficulties. The utopian habitat created by the set designers was saturated with the atmosphere of disputes as if from UN Security Council meetings and concealed the fact that in prin- ciple it was a combination of a bomb plane and a warship – a cruiser or an aircraft carrier. Its airplane-navy architecture in interiors in- cluded frugal equipment resembling a control room of an automat- ed factory or a power plant.
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