The Mechanical Man

• André Deed
• 42 min
• Italy
• 1921
• Fiction

A scientist creates a robot that challenges social peace in one of the earliest cinematic depictions of a living machine.

Early in film history, filmmakers were interested in the relationship between machine and man. Georges Méliès' regular actor André Deed both directs and plays the lead role in this Italian pioneer work in the science fiction genre, where an inventor constructs a "devilish creation": a mechanical man who is fast, strong, and remote-controlled. Valentina Frascaroli plays the criminal Mado who takes control of the robot for criminal purposes – and the only thing that can stop the mechanical man is another robot. The Mechanical Man is a cult classic robot thriller and a fascinating silent film example of the 1920s' perceptions of artificial life and technological beings running amok.

- Jonas Holmberg

• Övernaturligt
• Äventyr
• Sci-Fi
• Retrospektiv
• Brott