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Metropolis Reconstructed
Matt W writes "The New York Times (free as in beer reg, blah blah) has an article about a recent reconstruction of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. After being butchered by studios, Martin Koerber and Alpha-Omega have restored most of the scenes and score. Film Forum on Houston St. in NY City will be showing the film for two weeks." Collect all three! I don't think they're using Georgio Morodor for the soundtrack for this one.
The anime was the best! I loved the ragtime soundtrack. They didn't even credit Fritzy though :(
Could someone explain to me what the hell this article is about? It's just words, man!
I think they must be getting kickbacks from registration fees.
I've got a polis I'd like you to suck. Bitch!
I'm very excited to hear about the "restored" release (hope it comes to my metro soon), though it sounds like there are a number of rolls still missing... what's 1500 new feet of film translate to, minute-wise, anyway? 10 minutes?
Then don't watch Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis. It's quite a departure from the plot of the original, taking way too many pages from the Akira playbook. The character animation is across the board, but done so intentionally - Some of the characters look like they were drawn 30 years ago, while others are clearly modern and highly detailed.
Still, the drastic departure from the original plot keeps me from really enjoying this release...
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Available here
Aw, fuck it. Let's go bowling. - The Big Lebowski
get it here without registering with ny times
I remember watching this sci-fi classic back in College during my "Science Fiction" course :)
If you are a sci-fi fan that can appreciate a movie for the message it communicates to the viewer, this movie is worth watching. As a warning the original has no sound and of course is in black & white. But true to the original purpose of science fiction it very much delivers an important message.
... [Insert decent Sig]
I remember watching this class at SFSU in a class called "Arts and Humanities in Computer Science." Well, remember as well as I can through the haze that was my first year of college. Our instructor mentioned that the reason the film seemed so choppy was that large portions of the film had actually been lost. I'm hoping this remake will include some of those "lost" scenes.
I scanned it in for my own site about a month ago.--scroll down a little, it's maybe the seventh book.
Text is public domain/not renewed, but Gutenberg didn't like the version I used (and doesn't like not renewed in general), so they wouldn't add it.
Interesting read--was written by Lang's girlfriend of the time, Thea von Harbou.
I saw the original Metropolis at Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival last Spring here at the University of Illinois. The film was made much more memorable because they used a live orchestral score by the Alloy Orchestra (who apprently specialize in silent film music) - although it was three people (drum, woodwind, sythesizer) it really created an excellent mood and atmosphere.
In addition - Ebert showed the anime Metropolis after the original, as a double feature. I really enjoyed the film, it was entertaining and very brilliantly animated and drawn, although I didn't find it particularly complex or intellectually deep. I was also very pleased that Ebert insisted on using subtitles rather than a english dub.
Sincerely,
Kevin Christie
Neuroscience Program
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
crispiewm@hotmail.com
jeezus,
Tickets: $9.75
tickets for movies are almost $10 dollars in new york city nowadays.
There was an early Tom Hanks / Meg Ryan film called Joe vs. the Volcano which has the opening 15 minutes doing a GREAT takeoff on Metropolis - not camp or tongue in cheek, but a serious emulation with modern filmmaking. The rest of the movie was so-so to OK. Worth checking out.
The Heavy Holy Man sits on the hill,
Holding hard wooden ball.
Hears mysteries of the universe unfolding but blocks it all out.
He has one eye pointed toward the sky,
As the other searches over the earth
For dinner.
Without ever once leaving his hill
The Heavy Holy Man has sampled fast food from all over western Europe:
Wimpyburgers from London,
Wonderburgers from Dublin,
And his favorite, Hitburgers from Paris,
Which he ate whenever he had some free time.
This particular day, however,
The Heavy Holy Man travelled to Amsterdam,
To Febo's,
Where he put one and a half guilders in the slot,
Opened the little door,
And pulled out his Feboburger and Febonapkin,
All without ever leaving the hill.
Then the Heavy Holy Man smiled,
His faith reaffirmed once again.
"All the treasures of this, or any other world, are mine for the asking,"
He thought to himself.
As brought to you by FilmThreat, an interview with Martin Koerber about "Metropolis."
What's the difference between "free as in beer" and "free as in speech" and maybe other "free-modes" that you people talk about?
first fembot in movie history!
i had the opportunity to watch this masterpiece two months ago in a local alternative cinema... i really liked the way it was restored, they said they added altogether well over half an hour of previously thought lost material, which fritz lang had to cut out in order to gain more public acceptance in his days. scenes which were destroyed by time are summarized in caption screens, so you get to understand more of the whole picture.
Mittler zwischen Hirn und Hand muss das Herz sein -just beautiful.
-strangeloop
How could they use a previous score written for a different cut of the film? This version contains 1300 feet of film that hasn't been in any version of the film since since the original German release. This cut, at 147 minutes, is only six minutes shorter than the original, but far shorter than director's 210 minute cut, which is apparently lost forever. More information can be found at the Digital Bits, and from the restorer's site, and Kino's site, the company releasing the DVD of this version.
You're only as smart as your brain.
Adam Ant did "Cage of Freedom," as I recall. A great piece, especially the full version as heard in the film. It seems appropriate even today.
The piece I most identify with the worker's march and descent into the underworld was Cycle V's "Blood From a Stone."
The lyrics from which I could quote in its entirety here, but I don't want to get whacked by the Valenti Heat. #B^)
But a line or two couldn't hurt, right?
"Circles of the human chain/
Turning for wheels of gain/
A system with a power of its own/
To draw blood from a stone"
Stefan
Ah, now it's slashdotted. Try here or here or here or here for more info on this major landmark in film history...
I can understand why some folks my object to the 80's pop, but I liked both the music and the reconstructions. Until Moroder did the work, the only version of Metropolis widely available was short, badly hacked up, and accompanied by an embarassing Moog Synthesizer track.
I would love to get the Moroder version on DVD. My videotape, dubbed from the laserdisk, disappeared years ago.
I certainly look forward to the new release, however.
That's because it has little to do with Fritz Lang's film, and more to do with the 40's manga by Osamu Tezuka (the creator of Astro Boy, hence the character designs)
You can enjoy both, you just have to realize that the two films aren't meant to be the same thing.
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
The first collegiate-level production of Metropolis done as a musical was done in 1994 at Southwestern College (in San Diego, CA). (My father performed in it, so I ended up at the theatre for many-a late night.) Anyway, I remember hearing all sorts of debate over the different versions of the movie out there. Which was the "truest" to the original story (none, really), which was the most accessible.
Since we were the first in the US, the script and songs for the musical were re-written and umpteen number of times during production. It ended up as a sort of rock opera, but evoking many themes that were more present in the original than in later edits.
Apparently, even with as much research as they've now been able to do, there are still significant portions of it missing ('it' being Lang's original version).
Anyway, all technology workers deserve to see this story in one form or another. Definitely has as much to say now as it did 75 years ago.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
No, I take the back. It's mostly three scenes that are used, over and over: The creation of the robot Maria, the workers' descent into their dreary city, and the workers' revolt.
There are a lot more great scenes, of course. There's a amazing, simple, evocative shot in which the hero runs around a corner.
"Eh? So what?"
Because it's a HUGE corner, a giant, windowless, monolithic heap. Seeing Federsohn cruise around it gives you a great sense of scale.
yeah, kickbacks from things that are free will make you tons of money.
sig.
Well, I know where I'm going tommorrow.
www.filmforum.com/
Metropolis is a fantastic film and I am glad to hear that the english version is being revamped to be as close to Lang's original. With lost footage that Hollywood thought was to intellectual and made the movie to long for an american audience.
Hollywood tends to make the former mistake quite often. The original Star Trek pilot "The Cage" was rejected for that reason leading to the second pilot "Where No Man Has gone Before". Man, I would love to go threw Hollywood's extensive stack of rejected scripts. I'm willing to gamble that there is more diamonds in that stack than in
South Africa.
Lang did have a vision about the perils of a industrial society and the film delivered his message with for the time brilliant cinemetography and visuals. When you watch the film you must remeber that this was six years before "King Kong". Audio wasn't very widespread and the color film of the time was crap. Yet the cityscape and factory sets where remarkable and very well done, and I think I don't need to mention the robot. Lang wasn't the only artist who put their effort into the film.
The Americanized version of Metropolis proudly has a place in my DVD collection and so does the Anime. When the revision is released I would love to compare the three.
>
We have to make sure George Lucas dosen't get anywhere near this revision. That guy can't even remake his own movies.
>
Why, do you think it's inconceivable that someone could like both?
Back in February I wrote a lengthy report on Metropolis for my college cinema class. The report was supposed to be about the themes of the film, but its history was so interesting I spent 2/3 of my time on that instead of the plot and events. An assignment for a 600 word paper turned into a 1700+ word essay that received an A+, not that I'm bragging or anything. I think it's an interesting read, whatever the grade was. The paper includes links to other sources and reviews more knowledgable than I. Check it out at www.msboycott.com/kmarks/metropolis.shtml .
There you have it.
== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign ====
After being butchered by studios, Martin Koerber and Alpha-Omega have restored most of the scenes and score.
What's the subject of that sentence?
~ radiographite: art by john shepard
The Club Foot Orchestra did a
soundtrack that was just marvelous.
It was also a great experience to see the film with the group playing live in the theatre.
Jesus, did anyone buy the DVD release? It was HORRIBLE.. my god. Shitty transfer, wrong aspect ratio, etc.. god..what a waste of $6. I guess "you get what you pay for" sometimes IS true. :/
I'm anxious to see this baby in its full glory on the silver screen..it'll be the first time i've seen it proper (I viewed the Girogio Moroder version many moons ago..christ did that put a bad taste in my mouth)
I don't think they're using Georgio Morodor for the soundtrack for this one.
If you had actually read the article you're posting about, you'd know they aren't.
It be hip-hopera fo' sheezy, mah neezy.
unless they found a BUNCH of reels of film, they can't say restored most. 7 of the 17 reels (3301 ft) of the film are missing, thanks to them shortening it for "American audiences".
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
I saw that version of Metropolis even before I saw Bladerunner, and I swear it somehow turned me into the sci-fi geek I am now. Now the only copy of Metropolis that's available is a very poor DVD that I have. The DVD itself looks like there has been 0 attempt at a restore. I suspect they may have burned the DVD from a VHS tape. I'm -so- looking forward to any new DVDs that show up as a result of this.. and I'd even love to find the fruited-up 80's version (because it sorta rules in it's own way too).
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
IIRC, Metropolis fell into the public domain or something (or at least, there are 50 million versions of it, editing aside -- sort of like His Girl Friday).
Will they be releasing this spiffed up version at some point in the future?
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
Well wasnt there?
My blog can kick your blog's ass
Rotten Tomatoes, one of the two great meta-review sites, doesn't seem to "get" that this release is very different from all previous cuts of the film, especially the recut, tinted, rock-n-roll-soundtracked 1984 Moroder cut. Many of the reviews refer to the "out of place rock-n-roll soundtrack" and "terrible image quality". This is a real problem, because people will be choosing whether or not to see the film based on extremely inaccurate data.
I've emailed them about the problem (and offered to provide them with a list mapping reviews to releases), but they seem to be ignoring me. If we can get enough people to let them know that yes it is worth taking the time to be accurate about this, this release might actually get the respect and attendance it deserves. Please mail them and let them and (as politely as possible) inform them that this is important.
Thank you.
"Only by pushing himself to the very edge of coherence was Lang able to transcend the schematic moralizing that keeps so much science fiction tethered, ultimately, to the mundane."
Personally, I push my perl code to the very edge of coherence in order to "transcend the schematic moralizing"... but YMMV.
P.S.- what the heck does that mean!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
funny, Ive liked all versions I have run across, Moroder's, the original, the anime based on the magna which is based on the original movie. I have read the book many times, and I have the book-on-tape version as well...
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Try turning the sound off before watching some more recent movies and see if you can discern their underlying messages. Here's what I came up with:
- Training Day: Cops do drugs and beat up homeless/crippled people.
- 2001: Always bring your helmet when leaving the space ship.
- Tron: Jeff Bridges should not smoke crack before operating a computer.
- Full Metal Jacket: Soldiers kill people.
- Dr. Strangelove: Peace is the military's profession.
- AI: What the hell was that all about?
It's not so easy, is it?Mittler zwischen Hirn und Hand muss das Herz sein.
Intermediary between brain and hand must be the heart.
From Dictionary.com's translation service.
How can you use my intestines as a gift? -Actual Hong Kong subtitle.
If you're going to pick on someone's grammar, at least make sure there is something to pick on. That sentence is perfectly correct (someone else already pointed out what the subject is).
Is this the Superman vs. Batman movie that has been rumored? Superman lives in Metropolis, right?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
was dominated by giant, dehumanizing machines. Machines driven by steam, gears, pistons, etc.
:-)
The thing that fascinates me about the film is not that he tried to protray a future dominated by machines, but that the machines that came to pass are so vastly different. We don't labor in front of huge steam engines; our machines are based on information.
And hence the danger of predicting the future based on past history.
Here is a review that does that.
What is interesting to me about 'Metropolis' (besides a cool flick) is the history of the term 'robot'. The Russian word for 'worker' is 'robotnik.' Kinda puts a different slant on our (if you're lucky) 40 hour work week.
Back in Austin, I think I saw the silent version of Metropolis with a Kraftwerk soundtrack. I enjoyed it, but was kinda... medicated.
Here's what MonsterZine has to say:
"In 1920 Czech writer Karel Capek's play R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots coined the term "robot" (from the Czech robotnik, worker) for mechanical man. In the play emotionless artificial persons wipe out humanity, only to develop emotions of their own. In Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927), a grandly mad scientist (Rudolph Klein-Rogge) creates an evil robot, then, through a spectacular display of electrical equipment, transforms the robot into the duplicate of a virtuous labor leader (Brigitte Helm)."
And here is what Kraftwerk has to say about it:
The Robots
We're charging our battery
And now we're full of energy
We are the robots
We're functioning automatik
And we are dancing mechanik
We are the robots
Ja tvoi sluga (=I'm your slave)
Ja tvoi Rabotnik robotnik (=I'm your worker)
We are programmed just to do
anything you want us to
we are the robots
We're functioning automatic
and we are dancing mechanic
we are the robots
Ja tvoi sluga (=I'm your slave)
Ja tvoi Rabotnik robotnik (=I'm your worker)
We are the robots
. This sig unintentionally left blank. I meant to put something here, but I'm busy.
I am pretty sure it comes from "rob" a word that in Russian and most other slavic languages means slave. I am not sure who came up with it though. Probably Azimov.
Amazingly, I bought a ticket for the 5:35 show at 5:32 with no problems. When I left, there were people lined up on the standby line for the 8:00 show though.
I'm not a film geek, so I can't say anything about how the restoration compares to other versions (which I haven't seen, either). There are still literal plot holes where footage has been lost. The restoration patches over several of them in a watchable way.
The science fiction side of this is weak. It's more social commentary than science fiction. Don't expect too much from the fembot who's on all the movie posters. And remember, after all, this movie was written before Asimov's Laws of Robotics!
The set pieces are gorgeous. This movie blew out the budget like "Titanic" did, and it shows.
The plot is ponderous and moralizing for the first third, slow and detour-y for the second third, but then picks up some steam in the last act.
The characters are uneven. Federson, the protoganist, doesn't really have a clue what he's doing most of the time, which makes him hard to watch.
In my mind, I tagged Federson as "Brad", Maria as "Janet", the fembot as "Rocky", the old bitter doctor as "Dr. Scott", and so on. I didn't have the nerve to yell out "Floor Show!" at the approriate time, though.
Here is the big payoff: this is the archetype movie for a lot of other television and movie scenes, from Blade Runner to Apple's famous "1984" commercial. This makes it worthwhile to shell out $9.75 for a black-and-white subtitled silent movie on a screen that's probably smaller than some home theaters of some of the Slashdot readers.
didnt read your whole message. i guessi was wrong.
I doubt it--the event it implies is not physically possible.
(someone else already pointed out what the subject is).
Yes, they did. They were pointing out that the subject was "Martin Koerber and Alpha-Omega." Which implies that they were butchered by the studios (not the movie), then they "restored most of the scenes and score." This is why it is funny. Laugh.
There's no place I can be, since I found Serenity.
Leni Riefenstahl is still alive and active at age 99. She knew Fritz Lang when he was making Metropolis; they were working at the same studio.
No, the sentence is not correct. Just in case anybody else out there needs an explanation, the sentence is incorrect because it's an example of a misplaced modifier.
Properly constructed sentences place modifying clauses or phrases adjacent to the word that they modify. In this case, the sentence is incorrect because ``being butchered by studios'' is not descriptive of ``Martin Koerber and Alpha-Omega.'' If you parse the sentence correctly, it's funny.
After being butchered by studios, Martin Koerber and Alpha-Omega have restored most of the scenes and score.
The strict meaning of that sentence is that Martin Koerber and Alpha-Omega were butchered by studios, and that they subsequently restored the film. This error is doubly egregious because the noun that the adverbial phrase modifies-- ``the film''-- isn't even in the sentence. It's just implied by the elliptic construction, ``restored most of the scenes and score (to the film).''
To be grammatically correct, the sentence could have been written this way. It's not great, but at least it's strictly correct.
After the film was butchered by studios, Martin Koerber and Alpha-Omega restored most of the scenes and score.
The right thing to do in this case, of course, is to rephrase the idea so it can be expressed less awkwardly.
``To read makes our speaking English good.''
I'm a huge anime fan, so I'm probably more forgiving on anime than most movie-goers... and let me tell you, I thought the anime Metropolis was completely awful.
:P
None of the characters were developed in a way that made me feel any empathy, and most of the plot was murky and full of babble. Animation was good but not good enough to make up for the weak story and characters.
Just a quick FYI, Osamu Tezuka based his Metropolis manga off of Fritz Lang's movie in the circa 1950's. He based it VERY loosely, since he'd never actually seen the movie, so it was more of an inspiration thing, rather than an adaptation.
I don't know how closely this modern animated version sticks to the manga- I'm guessing it's a fairly loose or at least highly compressed adaptation of the manga, since that's what happens when a multivolume printed work is crammed into a 2-hour movie.
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
I read somewhere that they are also searching for and reassembling Lang's original stuffed monkey.
And as Lang said himself later this is an utterly message.
Ooops. This was meant to be "utterly stupid message"...
Wake up, pancho.... Metropolis is one of the films Lucas repeatedly alludes to in his Star Wars trilogy, and if haven't picked up on it you should take a course or two in film analysis and quit bashing Lucas as a filmmaker.
Besides the direct visual allusions he gives us to Metropolis in AOTC, here are some of the more striking commonalities between the two films:
(1) An emphasis on clones. The heroine, Maria (who advocates peace) is replaced by a robotic Maria who looks just like her and who advocates war in an evil attempt to cause the workers to destroy themselves so as to enrich the corporate ruler of the city. Likewise the prequels show us individuals who abandon pacifism to advocate war.
(2) Overarching theme that violence/war is self-destructive. Identical to theme in AOTC, where aggressors ALWAYS lose.
(3) The hero of Metropolis is a mediator between "the brain" and "the muscle" of the city -- not a direct parallel to AOTC, but think about balance in the Force, and wisdom versus emotional action. Close enough....
(4) The hero of Metropolis is a SON! In other words, a father-son relationship is at the heart of the movie, and the son is a saviour figure. Just like Star Wars.
(5) The wicked inventor of the robotic Maria has a mechanical hand.
Translation: if you can't pick up on the more obvious of visual allusions Lucas provides in ttack of the Clones, it really isn't your duty to bash the film, or its directory for his lack of sophistication as a filmmaker....
from your review:
We can summarize [the moral of the original film by saying] that men are, by nature, greedy and selfish. Those who have the capacity to oppress others for their own gain will always do so, and the advancement of technology makes that easier. Rebellious masses can be placated, fooled, or eliminated by technologies that appear to be helpful at first but slowly remove more freedom and individuality as they become more advanced.
Or if that doesn't work, you can start a war. That usually keeps those commie rebels who keep griping about human rights confused and occupied long enough to destroy them.
Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
Well the anime was interesting, but definately not one of my favorites.
It has some very interesting artwork, some of the heaviest use of CG anime in a I've seen in a traditional-style anime film. I think the artwork is a very good rendition of 20's-style fascination with mechanical things. Steel high-rises, huge gears, lots of neon signs.
What's disappointing is that there is a lot of character development that never went anywhere. After introducing the characters and the unusual society they live in, it quickly devolves into a pointless series of scenes of wanton destruction. The ending just leaves you saying "huh?" and wondering what the point was. It's as if the writer got halfway through the story and didn't know how to finish it.
Dream Theater album 'Metrapolis -II, Scenes from the memory' rocks. The best concept album after "The Wall" and " Operation Mindcrime". Wait a minute are we talking about the same thing. Never mind, I think music still is the best. Check it out to find what you are missing.
(free as in beer reg, blah blah)
CNN, MSNBC, ZDNET, CNET are all "free as in beer". What news site that you know of, gives away the rights to its stories?This guy reconstructed a metropolis over a month ago!
--
E_NOSIG
If you're interested in good movies chech out Fritz Langs movies about Dr. Mabuse, Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922) and in particular Dr. Mabuses Testament (1933).
I consider myself quite an anime fan. Personally, I really enjoyed Tezuka's Metropolis. It was merely inspired by, not based off the original.
The designs of tha characters are that way because it was based off of Tezuka's manga, he also designed characters for many other anime and manga, Astroboy (Tetsuan Atom) being the most well known.
So instead of moving a clock arms to follow lights, we have to answer to the beeping cell-phones and be monitored by cameras in every corners. Instead of trudging en masse to assembly lines, we are nestled in cubicles 'writing production reports'.
Instead of living in underground warrens, we are living in dense overground apartments.
So while the specific technologies are different, are we not still enslaved by our technologies?
Has not the gap between rich and poor grew at unprecedent rate in the past decades?
Will DubbarU Bush's slapping the wrists of a few CEOs really bridge the gap between the 'head' and the 'hand' ?
It's still a very relevant movie in my books.
Sound of Silents: METROPOLIS Digitally Restored Print!
September 21 With live organ accompaniment
September 22 With restored 60-piece orchestral soundtrack
It's a beautifully restored theater, built in the Roaring 20's, with gold trim, chandeliers, a balcony, and a pre-show organist.
AlpineR