Lost Footage of "Metropolis" Found

ram.loss writes "According to a Reuters article, a long version of Metropolis has been found at a cinema museum in Argentina, by a newly appointed archivist. The reels have been authenticated by the Murnau foundation at Germany. 'Although estimates of its original length vary depending on the speed at which it is shown, Possmann said "Metropolis" was conceived as a film lasting just over 2-1/2 hours. Around 20 to 25 minutes of footage that fleshes out secondary characters and sheds light on the plot would be added to the film pending restoration, he added. But around 5 minutes of the original were probably still missing, he said.'"

Comments

I have nothing insightful to add but

[cptnapalm]

Metropolis is an excellent movie and now there will be more of it for me to see. This is pretty damn cool.

Re:I have nothing insightful to add but

[thermian]

Admit it, you're just hoping the new footage has nude shots of Maria.

I mean, she got me hot.....

Re:I have nothing insightful to add but

[MightyMartian]

It's probably the most influential "futuristic" movie ever made, and not just influencing future movies (like Blade Runner or Star Wars), but likely being a major inspiration of Asimov's Trantor in the Foundation Series. It's a touchstone for that genre of film, and it's a pretty amazing story too. I haven't seen it since the last restoration in the late 1980s (they had recovered a lot of stills and used it to fill out the plot as much as possible), and I'm really keen to see a version that comes so close to Murnau's original vision.

Re:I have nothing insightful to add but

[Dogtanian]

The German film makers during the silent era made some pretty amazing films, it's surprising how good they were at conveying mood with just poor footage and a piano in most cases.

What? You mean Giorgio Moroder's synthpop soundtrack wasn't on the original version? I'm shocked, SHOCKED!

Re:I have nothing insightful to add but

[niktemadur]

Ah yes, Fritz Lang's Metropolis - the banned Director's Cut!

Ever heard of Eveready Harton?
You have been warned, it links to YouTube and the cartoon is Extremely Unsuitable For Work, albeit a fascinating artifact of the same era.
The Roaring Twenties were weirder than we can suppose.

Good lord

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I can sit and be bored even longer at my artsy friend's house.

Re:Good lord

[MightyMartian]

I agree. Boooooriinnng. Most black and white movies suck actually. And if they are silent, you might as well shoot yourself if some pompous "friend" has condemned you to an evening of watching it.

Ah yes, those that deprive themselves of great enjoyment because they don't like black and white films.

A few years ago I rented Rules of the Game from the library. I have to say that I can see why it sits right behind Citizen Kane in most critics lists. What an extraordinary film.

Films like Casablance, Psycho, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and NIght of the Hunter are enthralling films. In fact, I'd say in the case of Night of the Hunter and Psycho, they wouldn't be nearly as effective in color.

Don't give them any ideas...

[ActusReus]

If they include dancing CGI creatures, or replace shotguns with walkie-talkies, I'll be PISSED.

Re:George Lucas-esque...

[ciaohound]

Please, oh please don't tell me that Freder shoots first.

Screencaps

[Chris Pimlott]

German newspaper Die Zeit has an article online with a gallery of images from the recovered print.

Metropolis was distributed with a piano score

[MichaelCrawford]

As was the practice with many silent films: a live pianist would play the music during the film.

The first time I saw it, in a theatre, that piano score was on the soundtrack, and it added a great deal to the whole film. It was very clear that the music was carefully composed to work with Fritz Lang's vision.

Later, a colorized version came out with a modern Heavy Metal score. I didn't care for it at all. It's not that I dislike Heavy Metal, but that the music chosen really didn't work for the film.

I read somewhere that Adolf Hitler was really into Metropolis, and that he held it up as an example that all filmmakers should strive for. Food for thought.

Re:Metropolis was distributed with a piano score

[iluvcapra]

As was the practice with many silent films: a live pianist would play the music during the film.

This is partially true, but most modern scholarship on the subject suggests that all but the smallest houses had at least a four-piece ensemble. Large city houses would have entire orchestras, and even hire actors to read the intertitles in character from behind the screen. Metropolis had an entire orchestral score composed, which can be heard on most available DVDs nowadays, and the sheet music sent to most venues would either be the full score or a reduction.

Later, a colorized version came out with a modern Heavy Metal score. I didn't care for it at all. It's not that I dislike Heavy Metal, but that the music chosen really didn't work for the film.

This is the Giorgio Moroder version, alternately ignored and despised; some of the "lost footage" from the original version was present in this cut however, not in its actual form but mocked up with illustrations from the pre-production that were animated on a rostrum camera. Particularly jarring in this version are the extended stadium-rock-inspired lyrics, in English no less.

I read somewhere that Adolf Hitler was really into Metropolis, and that he held it up as an example that all filmmakers should strive for. Food for thought.

Hitler and Goebbels personally sought out Lang to ask him to make films for the government, essentially to take the job eventually given the Leni Riefenstahl. Lang caught the first boat out of the country; he could see that it'd be impossible to work outside of the government in the years to come. But his wife, Thea von Harbou, who wrote the original novel of Metropolis, had Nazi sympathies and stayed in Germany to work for the regime.

Hitler wore khakis.

[johnny cashed]

Food for thought...

Metropolis is really good

[fermion]

I really wish the silent film shown more. It really forced the creative team to utilize what is special about film, i.e. the images, rather than make a movie that is radio with images. Nothing wrong with the later, I actually prefer good dialoque to pretty picture, but have great respect for movies that have both good writing and good cinematography. Action does not hurt either.

Metropolis has action, it is what I would consider the original speculative fiction flick. The original action flick would, I think, be Zorro. Both have plots are driven by sequential credibly related events. Character are stylized, but that is what happens in a yarn. This is kind of different from movies that just degenerate into sequences of special effects driven by some arbitrary plot device. This, in my mind, is really p0rn. Again, not bad, but not film. For instance, I saw the preview to Journey to the Center of the Earth. It seemed to be this kind of random movie. Eye candy.

I am glad the found an original cut of Metropolis, and hope they release it on DVD at some point in the near future. Hopefully it will show up for rental. Highly recommended. For those who can't wait, the current release is on DVD.

It's going to take a lot of cleanup.

[Animats]

There are a few stills on line. The film is badly streaked. It's going to take a lot of cleanup.

Worse, when you run bad old film through modern video compression, the results are awful, as vast amounts of the bandwidth are sucked up following the artifacts.

Hitler ate bread

[woot account]

Food for eating...

Irony

[Ranger]

Interesting that something German was found hiding in Argentina.