Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS was very successful with both critics and audiences when it debuted in 1927 Berlin--but it was thereafter edited for distribution by Channing Pollock, who disliked it and removed great chunks of the film and substantially altered the storyline. The resulting film was admired for its visual style, but it proved a critical and box office disappointment. Neglected in the wake of sound, surviving prints of the film were left to corrode and decay--and when it began to reach the home market via VHS and DVD the results were very hit or miss; Blackhawk released a fairly credible version of the truncated film to home video, but for the most part the quality of these releases varied from barely mediocre to downright unwatchable.
Until now.
A great chunk of METROPOLIS--perhaps as much a quarter of more--has been forever lost, but this Kino Video DVD release offers the single best version of the film available. The previously cut footage that still exists has been restored; gaps in the film have been bridged by the occasional use of stills and explanatory title cards; the film itself has been painstakingly and digitally restored; and the soundtrack is the Gottfried Huppertz original created for the film's 1927 Berlin debut. In seeing this version of METROPOLIS, I was struck by how very differently it reads from the previously available truncated version. The visual style and the story itself are much more exciting and cohesive, and in the wake of this restoration it becomes impossible to deny the film status as landmark of international cinema.
Freder Fredersen (Gustav Frohlich) is the son of Joh Fredersen (Alfred Able), who reigns over the great city of Metropolis. Freder is surprised to discover his lifestyle has been built on the unseen but backbreaking labor of an entire class of unseen workers who tend the machines that make the city run--and he descends to the subterranean levels of Metropolis in an effort to understand their lives... and, not incidentally, to find the mysterious but beautiful woman Maria (Brigitta Helm) who has inspired his interest in the workers' plight. But his father is concerned by both Freder's interest and Maria's activities among the workers, and he turns to scientist C.A. Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) for aid. Rotwang has created a robot, and he agrees to give it the likeness of Maria in order to undermine both Freder's love for the girl and her own activities. But Rotwang has a hidden agenda of his own: once the robot has been unleashed, he will use her to destroy Metropolis and thereby exact revenge on Joh Fredersen for past transgressions against him.
In many respects the story is simplistic, but the film's visual style and connotations are anything but. Deeply influenced by such art movements as Expressionism, Objectivism, Art Deco, and Bauhaus, the film is visually fascinating--not only in its scenic designs, but in director Lang's famous skill at creating the powerful crowd scenes that dominate the film and building the pace and tension of the film as it moves toward an intense climax. But while one can--and many do--admire the film purely at this level, there is quite a lot going on in terms of philosophical content as well: while it offers few viable solutions, the film raises such issues as the relationship between capital and labor, the place of religion in modern society, human reaction to overwhelming technology, and (perhaps most interestingly) the drift of government into a class-conscious corporate entity. And religious motifs abound in the film: a largely deserted cathedral; Moloch; the Tower of Babel; and crosses--intriguingly juxtaposed with a repeating motif of the pentagram-like designs associated with the robot. It is fascinating stuff.
There has been complaint that this restoration runs at incorrect speed and the performances are therefore unnecessarily jerky. I did not find this to be the case. In certain instances the movement is deliberately jerky and mechanical--the workers are a case in point--but beyond this there is nothing for which the difference between silent acting and modern acting techniques cannot account. There has also been some complaint that the title cards should have been left in their original German and translated via subtitle. There is a certain validity to this, but it seems a minor quibble; title cards were typically translated in the silent era itself. The DVD includes a number of extras, including still photographs, biographies of the major figures involved in the film, and two interesting documentaries-one on the restoration process and one on the creation of the film itself. Both are interesting; the audio commentary track by film historian Enno Patalas, however, is mildly disappointing. But when all is said and done, it is the film that counts. And this restoration is a remarkable achievement, to say the least, a project which brings a great landmark of world cinema back from the edge of the abyss. Indispensible; a must-own.
--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--
**EDIT 1/5/13: ADDED REVIEW OF 2011 KINO "GIORGIO MORODER PRESENTS METROPOLIS" BLU-RAY/DVD**
**EDIT 12/9/10: ADDED REVIEW OF 2010 KINO "THE COMPLETE METROPOLIS" BLU-RAY/DVD**
**EDIT 12/9/10: ADDED REVIEW OF 2010 REGION-B EUREKA "METROPOLIS" BLU-RAY**
**ORIGINAL REVIEW 2/24/03: REVIEW OF 2003 KINO "METROPOLIS" DVD
I'm lumping my reviews together, just like what Amazon is doing! The above 4 video editions of the German silent classic will be covered in this review. Also, see my video clip on the left to see disc covers, film clip comparisons, etc. (Those who can't see my video clip, especially iOS users who can't see flash video, please go to Amazon's FULL site and look under my review for the comment section, where I posted an external link to the video.)
Released in 1927, amid the golden age of the silent film era, Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS is a stylistic tour-de-force that has remained influential for the rest of the century, inspiring films from "Frankenstein" in 1931, "Bladerunner" in 1982, to "Dark City" in 1997. With its imaginative set design, elaborate photography, bold editing, and its then groundbreaking special effects, this German sci-fi silent classic exemplifies the highly inventive period of German Expressionism, which also include such film masterworks as "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligaru", "Nosferatu", "The Last Laugh", and Lang's "Die Nibelungen".
In 2011, Kino released the 1984 "Giorgio Moroder" version of the classic on Blu-ray and DVD. This version controversially contains a rock score accompaniment which, to many people, myself included, is quite inappropriate for the film. Moroder, a record producer and an Oscar-winning songwriter ("Take My Breath Away", "Flashdance... What a Feeling"), deserves credit for restoring the previously butchered film to a presentable 82-minute version, but he added a few butcherings of his own. Intertitles were replaced with subtitles. Additional special effects were added. And instead of a traditional score, Moroder naturally used what he knew best: a pop rock score with pop rhythm and beats that don't really mesh with the images. His score is not just intrumental, but it comprises of fully-written songs sung by Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury, and others, essentially turning the film into one big music video. What Moroder didn't understand was that in a music video, the song is the centerpiece; but in a film, the IMAGE has to be the center. A piece of film has its own rhythm and beats too. Every cut, motion, close-up, etc, gives the image its rhythm, which Moroder has to understand is not always four-quarter time. There are a few instrumental passages in the score, and they fare better and are less detrimental to the flow of the images. But most of the score are songs. The chapter listing shows the song titles and artists' names, but no subtitles are offered for the lyrics. The quality of the songs vary, with Benatar's "Here's My Heart" seemingly the most effective, showing that Moroder at least paid attention to the movie's theme about the heart being the mediator in any struggle. The picture quality is presentable, but Kino makes it clear on the back cover that this is an unrestored, straight transfer from an old print. The Blu-ray does not look as good as other Blu-ray editions. There are a fair amount of print damages and the picture looks a bit dark at times. But the details of the high-def 1080p picture does come through, making this Blu-ray the best-looking edition of Moroder's Metropolis. The score is offered in lossless DTS 5.1 on the Blu-ray (Dolby 5.1 on the DVD) and it sounds fine. The Blu-ray also offers a lossless LPCM stereo track for those with legacy equipments. Bonus features include a 17-minute documentary (in English with no subtitles) that provides a cursory coverage of the German silent film history, the history of "Metroplis", and Moroder's restoration. Two trailers and 11 high-quality scans of publicity stills are also included.
Currently, the "go-to" version of the Lang classic is the 2010 Kino Region-A Blu-ray edition and its corresponding Region-1 DVD edition. They are titled "The Complete Metropolis" to avoid confusion with other editions. They contain, to date, the most complete, two-and-a-half-hour cut of the film, combining the two-hour version from the monumental 2001 restoration effort by Germany's F.W. Murnau Foundation (previously released as the 2003 Kino DVD), and about half-hour of footage discovered at Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2008 that had been unseen for decades. This previously lost footage has been edited back into the film to create this new "Complete Metropolis" edition. The added scenes are sprinkled all over the film, improving continuity, clarifying storytelling, and thus heightening the impact and yielding a result that is greater than the sum of its parts, as they finally restore Lang's full vision to its near complete form.
The HD picture quality of the Blu-ray ranges from sparklingly clear in some footage, slightly softer in others (especially the special fx shots), to severely battered and damaged as in those newly-discovered shots. All the "good-looking" footage came from the 2001 restoration. With the upgrade to HD, the sharpness and the clarity over the DVD counterpart is readily apparent, and therefore this Blu-ray represents the best that the film has ever looked on home video. Unfortunately, the half hour of new-found footage, originated from 16mm film, looks severely damaged and sometimes barely watchable, and it doesn't benefit much from the HD picture. As the new footage is sprinkled all over the film, the picture quality oscillates between good and bad, normally an uncomfortable experience but a small price to pay for finally watching the most complete version yet of the classic.
The Blu-ray disc contains a lossless DTS 5.1 audio track of the original orchestral score by Gottfried Huppertz, performed by Berlin's Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra. Many people would have preferred the newly-composed score by the Alloy Orchestra, who have actually toured North America with their excellent live accompaniment of the complete "Metropolis". I contacted Alloy Orchestra and they said the German distributors would not allow Kino to use their score on the new edition. Thus, Alloy Orchestra is selling their score on a CD disc, albeit in lossy MP3 format with only a 192 kbps bit rate. Google "alloy metropolis order" to order it.
The intertitles for the 2010 Kino edition, just like in the 2003 edition, are in English only. Whenever there is on-screen German text, English subtitles are provided and not removable.
If you are a purist who wants to see original German intertitles, the same thing German audiences saw back in 1927, you need to get the British Region-B "Masters of Cinema" Blu-ray or its corresponding Region-2 DVD edition by Eureka, titled "Metropolis". They can be ordered at Amazon UK. North American viewers would need a multi-region player to play Region-B or 2 discs, however. The intertitles on these discs are in German only and supported by optional English subtitles.
Supplements on Kino's 2010 edition do not contain any from the 2003 edition (so save that disc). Instead, we have a pretty good 50-minute documentary titled "Voyage to Metropolis", shown in HD on the Blu-ray and narrated in German with optional English subtitles, about the dramatic history of "Metropolis" up to its re-discovery in Argentina.
The TCM channel has also broadcast another excellent, 50-min documentary on the same subject titled "Metropolis Refound", but it is not available on any home video.
The Eureka Region-B Blu-ray's HD picture quality is virtually identical to the Kino Blu-ray edition. Both editions have the same Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra score in lossless DTS. Both have the "Voyage to Metropolis" documentary (shown in HD on Blu-ray). The Eureka disc also contains an excellent full-length audio commentary by David Kalat and Jonathan Rosenbaum, while the Kino disc has a 9-minute interview with Paula Felix-Didier, curator of the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires. The Eureka disc also comes with a 56-page booklet of essays, interviews, and restoration notes.
**BELOW IS MY REVIEW OF THE KINO 2003 DVD EDITION, originally posted Feb-24-2003**
This Kino Region 1-only DVD offers an almost pristine-looking video transfer of the film. The untinted, black-and-white image is clean and sharp throughout, the result of a mostly manual frame-by-frame restoration started in 1998 by Germany's F.W. Murnau Foundation. The included jacket essay gives a brief account of its efforts, as well as the work of other restorationists in the past, notably Munich Filmmuseum and film historian Enno Patalas. The DVD supplements also include an excellent mini-documentary that explains some of the technical details in the restoration.
The film's running time on this DVD is 118 minutes (not 124 as printed on the case). It is shown at the speed of 24 frames per second, an unusual frame rate for a silent film. But according to F.W. Murnau Foundation, this was the projection speed used at the film's premiere in 1927. Some viewers may find the motion a bit too fast at times due to the high frame rate. But some believe this was director Fritz Lang's way to intensify some of the action. (For those who want to watch METROPOLIS at a slower speed, there is a PC DVD player called WinDVD 4.0, which lets you extend or shorten a DVD's running time without affecting the pitch of the audio.)
This DVD only has English intertitles (supported by French and Spanish subtitles). The style, typeface, and the occasional animation in the intertitles were all re-created according to the original film. The original score by Gottfried Huppertz was also "adapted" from its 153-minute original length to the current, shorter length. This is the first time I have a chance to listen to Huppertz's elaborately orchestrated score, and it sounds terrific.
This latest restoration, unfortunately, did not recover a lot of film footage that had been missing over the years. Major sequences that were lost, such as Maria's escape from Rotwang, are still lost. To make up for this, and to make the film's plot more coherent, new intertitles were inserted to summarize the story lines of the missing footage. These intertitles are frequently seen in this restored version, a constant reminder of the large amount (a quarter of the film) of lost footage.
I did a brief side-by-side comparison between the Kino DVD and a few old video versions, and discovered the DVD actually has "alternate scenes" that were utilized for this restoration. In other words, Lang apparently shot some of the scenes *twice* (probably for domestic theaters and abroad), resulting in two versions of a scene looking slightly different. For instance, in the running competition early in the film, the winner wins by a bigger distance in all older video versions that I have seen than he does on the Kino DVD.
The DVD's audio commentary by Enno Patalas is mild disappointment. As in the Kino DVD of THE BLUE ANGEL, the comments are too sparse and not too in-depth. And long stretches of silence are frequent. The commentary is largely analytical, and it points out some of the key themes and visual motifs of the film.
The other DVD supplements include an involving 45-minute documentary that covers the making of the film, the German Expressionist period, the "unmaking" of METROPOLIS by censors and Hollywood, and a few interview segments of Lang. The still gallery contains about 90 production photos and design sketches, including about 27 photos taken from missing scenes.
Buy Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis: Special Edition (1984) Now
Austrian director Fritz Lang and his wife, Thea Von Harbou, made this first-ever science fiction film in Germany in 1926. While all extant copies are in poor to bad condition, the story and cinematography are so wonderful as to still hold the interest of a large audience.
There are many versions of this film on the market, with running times anywhere from 63 to 139 minutes, but this is by far my favorite. While it only has an 81 minute running time, it is actually one of the most complete versions available, because Georgio Moroder went back to the original script, and using still photos from the production, reinserted scenes that were cut from the film for it's American release. (The Nazis destroyed all original German prints of the film, as well as the negative.) The intertitles, which accounted for about 20 minutes of the film's running time, were replaced with subtitles, and his version uses the 24-frames-per-second projector speed that modern films are shown at, while the longer versions are shown at the historically correct 18-frames-per-second. He trimmed more time off by careful editing, to give the film a more contemporary pacing.
He also added a "contemporary" score, as well as subtle washes of color, which actually aids in understanding the film, while not detracting from Karl Fruend and Guenther Rittau's marvelous b&w cinematography. In fact, in some of the scenes where the film has been severely damaged, it helps accentuate the contrast.
There are many classic images in this film, including shots of the city (where monorails and bi-planes coexist), but the best known is probably Brigitte Helm as "Hel" the robot. In fact, people who have never seen, or even heard of the film have seen clips of Rotwang (Hel's creator) and Hel in the laboratory. Brigitte Helm also stars as Maria, the film's heroine, and hers is a standout performance.
Also of interest is the similarity between the character, Joh Frederson (the "master" of the city of Metropolis, played by Alfred Abel), to Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich. Combined with the workers, whose underground city seems like a concentration camp, and whose uniforms bear a startling resemblance to the ones worn in the Nazi concentration camps. This is especially odd considering that the film predates Hitler's rise by almost a decade. Those similarities are just one reason that the Nazis were so keen to destroy any trace of the film. It is truly a shame that Lang did not bring the negative when he escaped from Germany to the USA in the thirties.
In most science fiction, the message is about the human condition, and Metropolis is no exception; the moral is that the brain that plans and the hands that build need a mediator: the heart. That's as true today as it was in 1926.
At this writing, this version is no longer in print, which is a crying shame. Other versions are available, and I can recommend many of them, although some are made from prints that are in horrendous condition, but if you can find an affordable copy of the Moroder version, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Read Best Reviews of Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis: Special Edition (1984) Here
Kino's Restored Authorized Edition of Metropolis is undoubtedly the most superb restoration of a film ever executed. However, as of July 1st, 2008, this is no longer the most complete version of the film available. Metropolis was originally a 130 minute film which was mercilessly chopped down to an overly simplified 80 minutes. Archivists across Europe worked tirelessly to restore Metropolis to the best of their ability, producing this 124 minute version as a result -the longest version of Metropolis to date, containing scenes and subplots that don't appear in any other version.
However, it's now been twice verified that a complete 130 minute version of the film (which wasn't supposed to exist) has been discovered in Buenos Aires and is the real thing. This Holy Grail of classic film is in poor condition and will, no doubt, take time to restore, but you can bet that restoration will begin immediately.
The point of all this: If you want to watch Metropolis NOW, then this is the version to get. However, if you're willing to wait, a perfect "Ultimate Edition" will eventually be on the way.
Want Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis: Special Edition (1984) Discount?
I used to have a friend who let me borrow his Laserdisc copy of Giorgio Moroder's version of Metropolis. I thought that was a better copy than VHS. Moroder's version was never to be found again in print, and I was hoping for a DVD release, Now it's on Blu-ray ! Thank you, thank you!!! I already own the restored black and white version DVD, but Moroder's music score and color tinting, fits with the futuristic ideas of the movie, IMHO. The sound effects are not bad too, like when Freder stumbles into Rotwang's lab. Actually, I saw a screening of Moroder's version first before the classic B&W. I'm happy now that I'll own both versions. Thanks again.
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