Saturday, May 1, 2010

The Complete Metropolis




Have you heard? Two years ago the missing 25 minutes of Metropolis, one of the greatest silent films ever, was found in Argentina. That print has now been restored as best it can be by the Murnau Foundation and for the first time since it's premiere in Berlin in 1927, the Metropolis can finally be seen in it's entirety with the original score!!! I haven't been this excited to see a film since... I've never been this excited to see a film! It really is a miracle that the print no one thought existed (the film was cut immediately after it's premiere because a 2.5 hour movie wasn't deemed commercial enough) was found just in time and the technology existed in order to restore it.
Metropolis will be shown at select theatres this summer, and you can check this website regularly to see if it's coming to a cinema near you. And Kino will be releasing it on DVD in November.

2 comments:

Andi B. Goode said...

That's pretty awesome! It is truly a great film and I can appreciate its importance. Though, I must admit I watched it mostly in fast forward because it's really hard to watch silent movies when you're not used to them. And this one was already really long. =\ I feel slightly ashamed.
-Andi x

Bernie W. said...

Hi, I happened to stumble across your blog this week, and your posts on old-time Hollywood and classic movies are all very interesting and well-written. A few movies I hadn't heard of before--I'll have to see Stairway to Heaven in particular. I'll be sure to read a few more this weekend, and I'm looking forward to future posts as well.

And you're right about Metropolis: it's very exciting! I can't wait to go see it two weeks from now when it's in L.A. Will it come to Vancouver before its DVD release?

Have a great weekend,
Bernie W.