New Visions of Lang's Metropolis

I went to watch the new cut of Fritz Lang's Metropolis on Friday at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

Although I've always heard it's a classic, I'd never seen it. Good thing too as this 2010 release is said to be the closest thing to full length.

It premiered in Berlin in 1927 and at 210 minutes I don't think many people could handle it. With a budget of $200 million in today's dollars it almost bankrupted the German studio which produced it. When Paramount released it in the states, the film was butchered down to 90 minutes leaving out huge chunks of the story and cutting out anything with a seemingly Communist bent. Another blow to its popularity was that it was often projected at the 'talkie' speed of 24 frames per second instead of the intended 'silent' speed of 20 frames. (Nosferatu suffered from this malady as well in many of its releases. When I bought my DVD I made certain the version retained the correct speed!)

In 1984 an attempt was made at restoration. A new soundtrack (it WAS the '80s ya know) was added by Giorgio Morodor. Well, what would Metropolis be without songs from Loverboy and Freddy Mercury? Ouch.

In 2001, another version was released—this one attempting to plug some of the holes with stills and re-written subtitles.

It was accepted by this point that finding a complete copy of the picture was akin to locating the Holy Grail.
Amazingly, in 2008 a print with 25 additional minutes of footage was discovered in the hands of a private collector. Practically the entire film has now been edited together and digitized.

The odd thing is that they left the 'new' bits, the 25 minutes from Buenos Aires, practically unrestored. IF you've already seen Lang's film a few times, this would be a fascinating experience; it would now be quite clear precisely where the recently discovered footage had been added. However, being a newbie I found it distracting. It was like being switched over to a really crummy projector for maybe a minute or perhaps 10 seconds and then back to the crystal clear image.

For the first time since it's premier, the film's narrative is practically comprehensible. I hear that this 'new' footage really aides some critical elements of the story.

Still, Metropolis is a chaotic film with many ideas and subplots; political and religious assertions are tossed in to muddy the waters. While Hitler and Goebbels were admirers, H. G. Welles proclaimed it "the silliest film" without a "single new idea... in the whole pretentious stew." I'm a bit inclined to agree with him about the "plot".

However, the visuals are a knock-out. In 1927? How the heck did they do this stuff? Today it would take months of CGI work to populate this film with the ground-breaking images Lang conceived. I truly feel for the cameraman and editors who had to physically render Lang's incredibly imaginative fantasy. I see why every film student has to study this—and how easy it is to spot its influence on about 90% of the films you've seen.

Many folks have pigeon-holed Metropolis as a Sci-Fi work. I'm not buying it. My impression was of it as more of a political film. A philosophy of politics with a daft mix of religion. As Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon have both said, "sci-fi is not a genre."

Anyroad, if you've never seen it, now is the time. This 2010 release is a stunner.