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Fri 14 Nov, 2003 01:50 pm
Just finished watching the new restoration of "Metropolis" (although it has been out on DVD for over a year). With a newly recorded orchestral performance of the original scoring in 5.1 Dolby sound and the latest techniques of restoration including a unique "wetting" of the scratched negatives instead of digital (!), this is a superb recreation of what was possible to present the original screening. Unfortunately even with the print at New York's Museum of Modern Art and many other sources around the globe, a third of the film is lost forever.
LINK to IMDb PAGE ON METROPOLIS
Make sure if you're ordering the film that it is the authorized restored version with this cover:
We can also discuss other films where architecture played a significant role in the design of a film. Like "Lost Horizons," or "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire."
I'm of fan of the rerelease of Metropolis as well, LW. . . and I'm especially glad that they rerecorded the score instead of using the track they did for the last release (which was a sort of hideous rock/punk/ska/dunnowhat thing).
I do whish someone would magically find the rest of the film. . . including the stuff Lang wanted to use but edited out. . . to me the movie still doesn't make sense (with the gaps) and I'd like to know the whole thing!
The Giorgio Moroder version with the rock score written by him and the coloration was a novelty but certainly not a viable restoration and a rather dubious revision of the original intent of Lang (understated!)
From those who are authoritative on the subject of find the rest of the film, it looks rather bleak. What they did reconstruct is heartening.
Hey, glad to see you still plugin' over here on A2K, princessash! I think I remember we had some good interaction over on that other site regarding films.
Well. . . I took a hefty break, but trying to get back in the swing of things :-)
It's interesting that, since the Matrix came out, there's been a lot in the news about Metropolis and films like Dark City. . . I was hoping that if enough interest was generated, there might come, like magic, a new cut, and voila. . . a brand new Metropolis. (Not that the Matrix had anything to do with the rerelease, but my local video store has a waiting list for The Crow, Metropolis, Dark City, and just about any other alternate-reality type movie ever made :-))
"Dark City" is a superior film over "The Matrix" and it's sequels (really clones of the first film). "The Matrix" owes a lot to "Metropolis" in its thematic material and the exposition of technology in the first film is extraordinary. It's just that the idea of machine taking over was also done in the "Terminator" series and the element of some kind of metaphysics involved with TM is really only enough for one film. I think they should have done away with the Hugo Weaving character and come up with a new formidable "human" enemy. There really is buried under all the CGI effects a rather palid imagination.
BTW, the best of the machine taking over is in Kurt Vonnegut's first novel "Player Piano," never committed to film
Ugh. . . I've made a deal with myself not to talk about the Matrix for more than a few seconds so that I don't drive myself crazy :-)
I was SO excited by the first movie and its potential, thinking it could take Dark City just that one bit further. . . .
. . . and then the whole thing fell flat. Pooey on them.
Gotcha -- same sentiments here. Ditto "Terminator III." "Terminator II" was good just like "Alien II" was good because James Cameron is a powerhouse director and put a new face on the material. "Matrix" is just one long overblown trip to nowhere -- not good drama and second rate sci fi.
"Metropolis" is the granddaddy of all sci-fi flicks and the recent animation which was more successful than the Moroder is a fitting homage to a film masterpiece.
Loved Dark city. Have you guys seen Le Cite de les enfants perdu?
I've got it on my list at NetFlix. But what do you think about "Metropolis," hobitbob -- it's story about the workers overthrowing the elite rich is pretty universal. The rich are shown as hedonistic and uncaring and the workers as oppressed and abused. A bit oversimplified, yes, but there's a prophetic tone to the film that makes it a good story.
BTW, the DVD of "Dark City" has wonderful DVD Rom game of finding clues to how one reaches the "beach" at the end of the film.
Lightwizard wrote:I've got it on my list at NetFlix. But what do you think about "Metropolis," hobitbob -- it's story about the workers overthrowing the elite rich is pretty universal. The rich are shown as hedonistic and uncaring and the workers as oppressed and abused. A bit oversimplified, yes, but there's a prophetic tone to the film that makes it a good story.
I think that it is quite interesting, adn quite the commentary on Weimar Germany. This was also the time of a great deal of organizing by socialist anc communist parties in Germany,and by equally strong organizing by right wing militant groups. I also find the design of the film to be one of the most visaully enticing I have ever had the chance to view. The incorporation of the combination of Art Deco and new Soviet Monumental is just overwhelmingly rich.
It could have also been designed by Albert Speer.
I once began a project to rebuild the major miniature with the giant Tower of Babel parable in a room at the Ackermansion (Forry Ackerman, Mr. Sci-Fi). It was just going to cost too much.
"Just Imagine!" has some wonderful architectural concepts in it for the time it was made as well as "Things to Come" with its underground very Art Deco styled extrapolation of future architecture.
Even The Emerald City in "The Wizard of Oz" has a futuristic look.
Love "Things to Come," too!
I just did a fun parody in FrAcTuRed FliCks of "Things to Come" (mixed up with some truly climactic metaphors):
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10924&start=210
I haven't seen a decent print of "Things to Come" so I hope it truly is in things to come! The Facist style government in the middle of the film which is supplanted with the "Peace Gas" and what is basically a Technocratic government still haunt my imagination. I should go back and read the H. G. Wells.
Ooh. . . Things to Come is a great movie. . . but, as far as I know, there aren't any plans in the work to clean up the film. . .
But, the fact that it's a little. . . hmm. . . almost B-Movie in quality at this point is kinda cool, I think :-) I dunno. . . I've always thought authors like Wells and Huxley might (and Vonnegut as well) might LIKE to see their stuff in that sort of seedy sepia. . .
(oddly enough, I felt that way about Metropolis until I saw the new print and realized how visually stunning the movie is. . . you can really see what people have been saying about Lang, his attention to detail, his sadism, almost, in the search to get the perfect shot. . .
So maybe a cleaned up Things to Come would be the same. . .)
The cuts on TV and on DVD are not of the original film and I'd bet MOMA has a print that is representative of the original release. I've seen many truncated versions but never the version I saw in a theater when I was in college at the old Vogue Theater in Hollywood.
Incidentally, here's the Kino Video site where all their releases are listed and for sale. I would suggest shopping around as I found "Metropolis" at a far better price at several DVD online stores.
http://www.kino.com/video/
The Angelika theater in the city has a habit of showing films like Things to Come when their supply of "interesting" foreign films run out. . .
And I'm lucky to have a classic sci-fi/foreign film theater around the corner from me. . . 10 bucks a ticket, but they show a lot that other theaters won't touch or have lost. . .
For instance, they had Spirited Away months before it was actually released here. . . (and without the Kiki's Delivery Service squeaker :-))
Have "Spirited Away" on rental DVD at home and will watch it over the weekend. I did like the animated "Metropolis" and might add that to my permanent collection. Will likely watch "Hidden Fortress" tonight -- the Kurosawa that "Star Wars" was based on.
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