On Tue, 4 Oct 2022 09:41:01 -0700 (PDT), Jack BohnThere are some questions his boss is choosing not to ask to maintain their working relationship.
<jack....@gmail.com> wrote:
We begin with "Metropolis," and the robot Maria, or, as some pedants say, "false Maria." Some call her Hel, after the idea (cut in some shorter versions) that she is modeled after the dead woman of that name whom the scientist loved, but who had married the industrialist instead. (Other names include the german "Maschinemensch," in the '70s some used the term "robotrix," probably now deprecated.) TCM points out that in modern terms this is a sexbot; I suppose the concept of that goes back at least to the Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. In between then and now was the 19th Century "Tales of Hoffman", where a man mistook a dancing automaton of the time for a real woman.IIRC, the Mad Scientist Rotwang explicitly states that the robot is
"Hel reborn" or something similar.
Well, he's not averse to a pentagram or two...Then we come to robots that only approximate the shape of a human. This is where I put Maria, about 0.3, a bit below her "grandson," C-3P0. Those exterior pistons on his arms really do a lot, plus, in her movie, Maria is magically given the appearance of "real Maria," allowing her to be played by Brigitte Helm out of the suit, and somehow in physical interactions with her no one notices she is hundreds of pounds of unyielding metal. (I almost wrote "cold, unyielding metal," but I realized she excited a crowd of men to carry her off on their shoulder with a dance the gyrations of which would have taxed her motors, and may have heated her to be warm or even hot to the touch. It takes a lot of engineering to stay within the narrow range of human body temperature.)She is transformed in a scene which some have tagged as the granddaddy
of all Mad Scientist Laboratory Scenes. No magic involved, just really advanced science. And, for its day, some impressive effects work.
I'm not normally into personalities, but I decided to try to gracefully namecheck the all actors in the tin suits.Robby is the first I heard of a designer disguising the shape of the human operator. The operators' heads (there were two in alternating shifts, not counting Marvin Miller who supplied the voice, although effects technician Eddie Fisher (not that one) wore the suit in building it, the Screen Actors Guild decided that since Robby had lines, it had to have a member play it, Frankie Carpenter and Frankie Darrow got the job) the operators' head was just above Robby's chest plate, and they looked out from between the voice light tubes. (Argon and mercury vapor? Check. With high voltage electricity? Check. In fragile glass tubes? Check. Inches from your operator's face? CHECK!) I want to set this at the midpoint. Well, just below the midpoint, with his "brother" the Robot from "Lost in Space" just above. Either Robby at 0.49 and the Robot at 0.51 or make the difference between them a round 10 milliislands, and take us to three digits 0.495 and 0.505.Who says actors can't be brave? Or stupid, depending on your point of
view.
On Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 12:03:59 PM UTC-4, Paul S Person wrote:
On Tue, 4 Oct 2022 09:41:01 -0700 (PDT), Jack Bohn
<jack....@gmail.com> wrote:
We begin with "Metropolis," and the robot Maria, or, as some pedants say, "false Maria." Some call her Hel, after the idea (cut in some shorter versions) that she is modeled after the dead woman of that name whom the scientist loved, but who had married the industrialist instead. (Other names include the german "Maschinemensch," in the '70s some used the term "robotrix," probably now deprecated.) TCM points out that in modern terms this is a sexbot; I suppose the concept of that goes back at least to the Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. In between then and now was the 19th Century "Tales of Hoffman", where a man mistook a dancing automaton of the time for a real woman.
IIRC, the Mad Scientist Rotwang explicitly states that the robot is
"Hel reborn" or something similar.
There are some questions his boss is choosing not to ask to maintain their working relationship.
Then we come to robots that only approximate the shape of a human. This is where I put Maria, about 0.3, a bit below her "grandson," C-3P0. Those exterior pistons on his arms really do a lot, plus, in her movie, Maria is magically given the appearance of "real Maria," allowing her to be played by Brigitte Helm out of the suit, and somehow in physical interactions with her no one notices she is hundreds of pounds of unyielding metal. (I almost wrote "cold, unyielding metal," but I realized she excited a crowd of men to carry her off on their shoulder with a dance the gyrations of which would have taxed her motors, and may have heated her to be warm or even hot to the touch. It takes a lot of engineering to stay within the narrow range of human body temperature.)
She is transformed in a scene which some have tagged as the granddaddy
of all Mad Scientist Laboratory Scenes. No magic involved, just really
advanced science. And, for its day, some impressive effects work.
Well, he's not averse to a pentagram or two...
--Robby is the first I heard of a designer disguising the shape of the human operator. The operators' heads (there were two in alternating shifts, not counting Marvin Miller who supplied the voice, although effects technician Eddie Fisher (not that one) wore the suit in building it, the Screen Actors Guild decided that since Robby had lines, it had to have a member play it, Frankie Carpenter and Frankie Darrow got the job) the operators' head was just above Robby's chest plate, and they looked out from between the voice light tubes. (Argon and mercury vapor? Check. With high voltage electricity? Check. In fragile glass tubes? Check. Inches from your operator's face? CHECK!) I want to set this at the midpoint. Well, just below the midpoint, with his "brother" the Robot from "Lost in Space" just above. Either Robby at 0.49 and the Robot at 0.51 or make the difference between them a round 10 milliislands, and take us to three digits 0.495 and 0.505.
Who says actors can't be brave? Or stupid, depending on your point of
view.
I'm not normally into personalities, but I decided to try to gracefully namecheck the all actors in the tin suits.
Oops, excuse me while I rewrite the next post...
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