"Metropolis" restored

[dirac]

Well, not completely, it seems. Still, this is good news.

But on Friday Film Forum in Manhattan will begin showing what is being billed as “The Complete Metropolis,” with a DVD scheduled to follow later this year, after screenings in theaters around the country. So an 80-year quest that ranged over three continents seems finally to be over, thanks in large part to the curiosity and perseverance of one man, an Argentine film archivist named Fernando Peña.

The newly found footage, about 25 minutes in length and first exhibited in February at the Berlin Film Festival, is grainy and thus easily distinguished from an earlier, partly restored version, released in 2001, into which it has been inserted. But for the first time, Lang’s vision of a technologically advanced, socially stratified urban dystopia, which has influenced contemporary films like “Blade Runner” and “Star Wars,” seems complete and comprehensible.

[stinger784]

I tried so hard to appreciate this morning after hearing about the ground breaking things the movie made when it came out a la Star Wars. But man, it just dragged on and on and one. However, the art was amazing, the acting was typical silent film. I don't know. I was disappointed.

[miliosr]

Will this newly restored version have the Giorgio Moroder songs from the early 1980s "Moroder" version?

[dirac]

I understand what you mean, stinger784. It's been a very long time since I saw it and I've been content to respect it from afar. I was reminded of it again when Tarantino quoted from it, visually, in Inglourious Basterds. Curious to see this new version, though.

[sidwich]

Ah, Metropolis was one of my favorite films in film class. (I'm afraid I found myself falling asleep during Rules of the Game.)

I was reminded of it again when Tarantino quoted from it, visually, in Inglourious Basterds.

Many filmmakers and artist borrow liberally from Lang and Metropolis, most notably Tim Burton who has built much of his career on cribbing from German Expressionism, often badly, but also everyone from Ridley to Madonna. The faux German Expressionist look was very popular in the 1980s.

[dirac]

Yes, it may be the most plundered movie ever.

[sandik]

Well, tastes vary, but I've seen several different edits of Metropolis (though only once with the Moroder score!) and have always liked it. My son and I are very excited about this new version, and hope that it gets a theatrical showing here in Seattle before it goes to DVD

[leonid17]

Well, not completely, it seems. Still, this is good news.

But on Friday Film Forum in Manhattan will begin showing what is being billed as “The Complete Metropolis,” with a DVD scheduled to follow later this year, after screenings in theaters around the country. So an 80-year quest that ranged over three continents seems finally to be over, thanks in large part to the curiosity and perseverance of one man, an Argentine film archivist named Fernando Peña.

The newly found footage, about 25 minutes in length and first exhibited in February at the Berlin Film Festival, is grainy and thus easily distinguished from an earlier, partly restored version, released in 2001, into which it has been inserted. But for the first time, Lang’s vision of a technologically advanced, socially stratified urban dystopia, which has influenced contemporary films like “Blade Runner” and “Star Wars,” seems complete and comprehensible.

I first saw Metropolis around 1970 and its imagery has remained with me. Though panned by H.G.Wells and others at the time , I am glad to hear that an enlarged version is to be made available.

Thank you for posting the link it makes a very interesting read.

In London I think we have to wait until September this year for screenings.

See Well's review at:- http://erkelzaar.tsudao.com/reviews/H.G.We...olis%201927.htm

[papeetepatrick]

Fritz Lang's work is great, but the early part is more extravagant and spectacular. There's a good bit about Mr. Pena and the Argentine connection in Patrick McGilligan's 'The Nature of the Beast' (a well-named book, as Lang's sadistic and cruel treatment of his extras and crew is legend, and he was admired more than liked during the long Hollywood period). The making of 'Metropolis' is very detailed in this book, which I wrote about somewhere here a couple of years ago, and also Die Nibelungen --Siegfried. The luxury in which he worked in the 20s is literally astounding (I believe that's Ufa Studios, mostly), and I'd like to see the new footage. I think I first saw it at someone's apt. who liked to show films for parties, and then in the mid-80s saw the Moroder colorized version. I've watched it again last year, and it's always spectacular, although rather peculiar since some of Lang's greatest villains resemble him in not a few ways, and that goes for many of his Hollywood courtroom dramas as well as the first Mabuse (and maybe the others, but I haven't seen anything but the very long first one.) That image of the relentless clock-wheel that has always to be manned is surely one of the most powerful icons in all cinema.

[sandik]

That image of the relentless clock-wheel that has always to be manned is surely one of the most powerful icons in all cinema.

And now that you mention it here, it reminds me of the factory scenes in Chaplin's Modern Times.

[dirac]

leonid, thank you so much for H.G. Wells' review. I did not know about it and encourage everyone to click on the link. Here's a sample quote:

That reversion to torches is quite typical of the spirit of this show. Torches are Christian, we are asked to suppose; torches are human. Torches have hearts. But electric hand-lamps are wicked, mechanical, heartless things. The bad, bad inventor uses quite a big one. Mary's services are unsectarian, rather like afternoon Sunday-school, and in her special catacomb she has not so much an altar as a kind of umbrella-stand full of crosses. The leading idea of her religion seems to be a disapproval of machinery and efficiency. She enforces the great moral lesson that the bolder and stouter human effort becomes, the more spiteful Heaven grows, by reciting the story of Babel. The story of Babel, as we know, is a lesson against 'Pride.' It teaches the human soul to grovel. It inculcates the duty of incompetence.