Metropolis / Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell
Couldn't decide which thread to post this on - too many options just at the moment. I decided to start a new thread because I wouldn't mind hearing some other opinions on the clip, especially what the quote at the end might mean in relation to the movie and/or the song. Because I don't have a clue myself. It doesn't seem to have a lot to do with the song.
From the guy who posted the clip:
Perhaps the most famous sequence from Fritz Lang's 1927 movie, Metropolis, is here set to music from The Flaming Lips.
It also serves as a surprising introduction to the Book of Revelation Chs. 17 & 18.
Maria, who represents the true 'prophetic church', is 'cloned' by Rotwang - the occultic alchemist, kabbalist(?) and prototypical 'mad scientist' (compare 'doc' from 'Back to the Future') - who uses her body to help vivify the technological Maria - her evil doppelganger. The robot Maria / Futura emerges as Ishtar (Astarte / Kali / Isis / Venus), the erotic and destructive 'queen of heaven' - goddess of sex and violence, and, like her ancient Assyrian counterpart, displaying as a symbol the 'witches pentacle'. The biblical and occult imagery in Fritz Lang's classic film (from Genesis to Revelation) is extensive and clearly deliberate.
Visual ideas from this scene can be seen recycled in many other films - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Blade Runner, Star Wars, The Fifth Element, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, every Frankenstein film ever made, and (no doubt) at least a couple of episodes of the Simpsons. It has also been suggested that the show title 'Futurama' is a reference to FuturaMa[ria].
I actually have this particular Flaming Lips album in my collection, but I haven't listened to it very much. This song was probably the reason I acquired it in the first place, but I'd forgotten about it until all this recent talk of "ego tripping" reminded me of it...
lyrics here