Preview Review: Metropolis Restored Authorized Edition Metropolis Kino Video 1927 / b&w / 1:33 flat / 80 min [Moroder 1984, 24 fps], 123 min [this DVD, 24 fps], 147 min [the museum presentation of this same cut, 20 fps], 210 min [original premiere length, if projected at 20 fps] / Restored Authorized Edition / Street Date February 18, 2003 / $29.95 Starring Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theodor Loos, Heinrich George Cinematography Karl Freund, Günther Rittau Special Effects Ernst Kunstmann, Eugen Schüfftan Art Direction Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, Karl Vollbrecht Costumes Aenne Willkomm Sculptor Walter Schulze-Mittendorf Set Designer Edgar G. Ulmer Original 1927 premiere score by Gottfried Huppertz Written by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou from her novel Produced by Erich Pommer Directed by Fritz Lang
	Previous Savant articles on Metropolis: METROPOLIS and STAR WARS, Metropolis: a theatrical review of the digital restoration Reviewed by Glenn Erickson About a year and a half ago, Savant was amazed to see the German digital restoration of Metropolis at a touring museum showing. In my city (Los Angeles) the beautifully restored epic was presented with a live organ accompaniment and received by the audience as if it were a lost book of the Bible. Metropolis predates what we call Science Fiction in movies, and proceeds in a totally different direction from movies about the destiny of man (2001: A Space Odyssey) or various depictions of futuristic dystopias. It's a strange eclectic collage about key themes of the 20th century - progress, technology, class suppression, and faith. Thea von Harbou's utopian conception is a mix of futurism and mysticism, faith and fate. An expressionist film, it derives a grandiose power from its massive architectural designs, whether of futuristic buildings or huge crowds of people moving in organized groups. It is 'quite a silly film', as H.G. Wells claimed, and also 'two films glued together by their bellies', as Luis Buñuel stated. But it also has a giddy, optimistic sense of wonder, an awe at the potential of man for greatness and folly, that no other film even approaches. Its mystery is contained as much in Brigitte Helm's silvery unblinking eyes as it is in the machine that transforms into a primitive god demanding sacrifice, or a Tolkien-like primitive house standing in the middle of a futuristic city. It's about the future, but also about dreams and visions and poetry on a vast scale. Kino distributed this version of the German restoration theatrically last fall, and this is what's been replicated on this DVD. The intertitles are now in English, and the film is synchronized with a new recording of its original 1927 score. The result will stun anyone who has only seen the earlier, ragged-looking versions, on the screen or on video. Synopsis: The futuristic city Metropolis (2026) is a classed, closed society where one business leader, Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel of Dr. Mabuse the Gambler) controls all. The sons of the rich live in airy skyscrapers, and play in lush pleasure gardens. Fredersen's son Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) sees a mysterious woman gate-crashing the pleasure garden one day, with a crowd of ragged children, and decides to investigate what really makes the city run. What he finds is a vast society of worker-slaves living like moles far deep beneath the Earth, manning the vast power stations that make Metropolis function. Swapping identities with worker #11811, Freder goes to one of their prayer meetings in the catacombs, and falls in love with the preacher/mediator Maria (Brigitte Helm), the woman he earlier saw in the garden. Meanwhile, Joh Fredersen interprets the prayer meetings as an uprising, and conspires with an old enemy, inventor/alchemist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge, also of Dr. Mabuse), to instigate a premature revolt that Fredersen can suppress. Rotwang shows the leader his latest creation, a Machine-Man robot in metallic feminine form. The plan will be to kidnap Maria and give the robotrix her likeness; the 'False Maria' will be sent as an agent provocateur among the workers, preaching violence instead of peace. But Fredersen doesn't know that Rotwang bears him a vicious resentment, for running away with Rotwang's wife, Hel, long ago. Mad scientist Rotwang will dispatch the false Maria to instigate an apocalyptic revolt that will destroy everything Fredersen has made. As covered in detail in the insert liner notes written by Martin Koerber, Metropolis in this new incarnation is an integration of surviving pieces of the film found in archives the world over. Although some fans have reported that it's missing a shot or two seen in earlier versions, the virtuosity with which the Munich Filmmuseum has reconstructed the film is nigh unquestionable.  1 Since a big chunk of the story is still missing, mainly sub-plots and connective tissue, but also key scenes (like the fight between Rotwang and Fredersen), one has to read the intertitles correctly to get the big picture. The Filmmuseum has added new titles explaining the missing material, in a different typeface to make this easier. There are also titles that cue the music movements - Intermezzo, Furioso, etc.. Either the restorers went way overboard being literal about the cue titles listed in the score and the censor records, or Metropolis was conceived as a symphony of several movements, as with Murnau's Sunrise. It might be helpful to watch a few minutes of a previous copy, even the Giorgio Moroder version, to better appreciate the digital restoration done by Alpha-Omega digital GmbH of Munich. The image now has a proper gray-on-gray patina, instead of the harsh contrast of earlier prints. It's almost completely steady, instead of chattering, shifting, and warping in the gate as it always did before. In 1983, Giorgio Moroder added color tints to the movie, in addition to his own funky opticals and other futzing around. In 1927 the film was originally released all in B&W, as we see it here. The new material consists of longer versions of scenes, with better continuity (although some jump-cuts are still in evidence) and connecting tissue. As I stated before, the scene with Freder having a bad dream in his rooms, while the False Maria dances for the rich sons of the city, is vastly improved. It now has a smoother opening that establishes the spy The Thin Man (Fritz Rasp) at the foot of Freder's bed. When Maria dances, Freder has a dream of Revelations, and The Thin Man seems to transform into the monk in the cathedral who preached earlier about the coming of the antichrist. Through titles explaining missing material, and some now-restored montage shots, Freder, the False Maria, The Thin Man, and the Seven Deadly Sins in the cathedral are now all linked. Death's scythe is an omen of doom for the city, and the False Maria's throne is now borne by the 'freed' Deadly Sins. The scene fuses Freder's delusions with biblical prophecy, eroticism, and visual poetry. It's uniquely cinematic, in that its impact could not be duplicated in print or on a theatrical stage. The cleaned-up, re-beautified image also lets one appreciate the superlative designs, something that was impossible in the inferior earlier prints. Metropolis has complete control of the illusion of scale. As in King Kong, when things are supposed to be big, they Look Big. This won't be as apparent on a monitor as it was on a screen, where the towering canyons of the city indeed appeared to be colossal. Simple sculptural details, such as the design of the Maschine Man robot, are better appreciated here as well. The same goes for the new montage elements, and the bizarre multi-image shots where dozens of disembodied eyes watch the False Maria seduce her audience. Kino Video's DVD of The Authorized Restored Metropolis is a fine presentation in almost every respect. The bit rate and compression are adequate, although complex scenes show additional grain on a large monitor. The film has been slightly window-boxed, which is a very good idea. This version has already come out in Region 2, and this Region 1 release retains all of the extras, translated through subtitles into English, French and Spanish. There are 13 cast and crew text biographies, and several photo, still, design, and poster artwork galleries. The original posters pictured are even annotated with the names of their original artists. The two featurettes are phenomenal. In 'The Digital Restoration', Martin Koerber explains the methods used by Alpha-Omega digital to optimize and repair the film material we see. The narration is very frank and forthright about the problems of using automatic dirt removal software. We see a demonstration where fast-moving objects, like character legs and parts of faces, are erased along with the dirt. The key to such digital tools is to use them sparingly, and concentrate on the manual removal of flaws by trained artists ... which is how thousands of bits of speckling and dirt were removed from even the best film material they had. All of this is backed up with visual clips from Alpha-Omega. For one decomposed composite effect, the restorers apparently had access to the original optical elements, and recomposited them digitally to match the original effects work. Koerber shows us the entire process. The longer making-of docu by Enno Patalas is even better, starting with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and explaining the German studio and political contexts before, during and after the making of the movie. Patalas ends on a very interesting note, explaining the incongruities (poetic contrasts?) in the film that he thinks contributed to its lack of success on its 1927 release. As he explains, nobody then would have guessed that Metropolis would become one of, if not the, most heralded silent film ever made. The score, in 5.1 Surround, is very impressive, with some good themes and some fairly limp ones. I've read much more astute musical criticism of Gottfried Huppertz's work than I can offer. It certainly presents motifs that follow the basic drift of the story, but it makes little effort to 'ride' the emotional content of each scene. It's timed out well, right down to orchestrating aural blasts to complement the shift-change sirens on the rooftops of the city. But during the catacomb church scene, for instance, almost nothing at all happens to mark or underline Maria's entrance, or the two lovers coming together. I guess movie score 'Mickey Mousing' happened later with composers like Max Steiner. Huppertz veers toward kitsch when his 'revolt' theme quotes 'La Marseillaise'. But his music consistently augments and amplifies the rhythms that Fritz Lang built into the film, such as the ringing of the giant bell in the Workers' city. That was the main failing of Moroder's dynamic disco score - it too often ignored the rhythms of the movie running beneath it. This brings Savant to the issue that got him into hot water earlier with Kino. When Enno Patalas and his restorers toured the world with their digital print, they opted to screen it at 20 frames per second. I assume they determined this was the proper speed, otherwise why would they make the various screening venues go to all the trouble of changing over to vari-speed motors, making sure the arclights wouldn't burn the film at the slower speed, etc.? When Kino decided to release the film theatrically at 24 frames per second, it was the only practical thing to do. Having a theater change its aspect ratio is often too much to ask for, and most modern equipment is meant to run at 24 fps and nothing else. So it is of course reasonable to expect a wide release of the picture to be at the standard speed. In this, history was on Kino's side. It's been established that at the original premiere of the film, it was projected at least 24 frames per second, and perhaps at 25 or 26! The score was composed at that speed - indeed, the whole picture would have to be re-scored and Huppertz's music adapted to 'fit', if the film were projected at the earlier 20 fps of the Museum tour.  2 Kino opted to carry through with their theatrical speed for the DVD release, and here is where Savant has differences. Metropolis is grand at any speed, but when one speeds it up so radically to 24 fps, it becomes another film experience altogether. The rhythms are faster. When they jolt jerkily with each step, the marching workers no longer look weary, shifting forward as if in a funeral procession. All of the fast action is now in a hyper-fast, Keystone Kops mode. In some shots that were originally undercranked to make the action faster than normal, the characters now zip about like fireflies. The heavy, somber fatality of scenes is diminished when their on-screen duration is shortened. Things like water and fire move much too quickly. The dramatic scene of Maria hanging from the rope of a ringing cathedral bell is now humorous. The rocking bell now makes her bob up and down like a puppet. Finally, the extreme fast-cut montages, some with shots lasting only 2 or 3 frames, had a perfectly judged impact at 20 fps. At 24, they chatter past like some kind of mistake, or subliminal experiment.  5 Why would Ufa premiere Metropolis at this fast speed? I believe it was because Erich Pommer had departed, their financial situation was dire, and their new partners MGM and Paramount didn't believe in two-part, four-hour marathons like Mabuse and Die Nibelungen. It's true that 1927 audiences wouldn't understand or appreciate Lang's avant-garde artistic abstractions. Most audiences still don't. But Metropolis was gutted just like films are today - by corporate edict, with the artist shoved aside. In the docu, Patalas explains that the long version (supposedly 210 minutes!) was withdrawn soon after it opened, and replaced with the first of several cutdown versions, simplifications that must have made the film incomprehensible and thus insured its lack of popularity. 'Parufamet' wanted the film shorter, period.  3 The relative speed-up from 20 to 24 fps is best understood in the difference in running times. In the Museum screening, the film ran 147 minutes. At sound speed, the same film lasts only 123 minutes. This isn't the slight edge you see on TV Land, with time compression running a 24 fps Leave it to Beaver at 25 fps or so. This is much faster. It's true, when Savant heard about the speed decision for DVD, he squealed like a stuck pig, and acted indignant in a way that got a lot of attention I didn't need. The web is already overflowing with Whining Weenies complaining about trivial problems in DVDs. Kino didn't need the backtalk either, and made some attempts to show me the error of my thinking. I was given the reasoning that replicating the premiere speed was authorized, authentic and historically accurate, and was chided for pre-judging a film I hadn't seen. But I had seen Metropolis at 24fps many times and knew exactly how it would play. And that's how it does play in the Kino presentations. The False Maria's erotic dance, a showstopper in the Museum, now looks like a Betty Boop cartoon. When UFA sped the film up for their 1927 premiere, Lang must have been crushed to see his good work so severely altered. I did not read a single published review of the Kino theatrical release that complained about, or even mentioned, this speed difference that so concerns me. Did none of them see the earlier Museum run? The lack of concern is good ammunition for Kino to label me an errant nut (too late, that happened a lo-ong time ago), and dismiss my protests. But that doesn't change the facts - Audiences who tittered and laughed at the accelerated action of earlier versions, still chuckled in the theatrical run of this version. I had the opportunity to ask Mr. Patalas if he felt the 24 fps speed was 'correct', and his return email simply quoted Kino's 'authentic premiere speed' party line. Then why, when he toured his restoration around the world before Kino was involved, did he go to all the trouble to have it shown at the slower speed? Kino Video's DVD of Metropolis is delightful. I'm buying a copy to send to a relative, and might get a third as a gift. But it is a licensed, franchised & marketed product that even the Munich restorers want & need to be a big success - the restoration was an adventure in perfectionism, not economy. If it doesn't make a profit, Metropolis 2001 will go down as a failure. Big-studio marketing experts would never green-light a costly and experimental incomplete restoration for an ancient public domain movie. And we aren't hearing of any new full digital restorations happening, when there are hundreds of films begging for it.  4 The miracle is that digital imaging can restore a not just viewable, but a dazzling version of a mangled masterpiece like Metropolis. The Munich Museum and Alpha-Omega deserve to walk on rose petals while we cheer. As I said in an earlier column, the 2001 premiere of this version was the most important film event of the year. C'mon, Kino, how about a follow-up disc? A version running at the correct speed, perhaps with a choice of scores, would fully restore Fritz Lang's masterpiece to the closest approximation of its original luster. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Metropolis rates: Movie: Excellent, if Too Darn Fast to please spoiled Savants Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent Supplements: Commentary by film historian Enno Patalas, Commentary subtitles in English, French, and Spanish, 5.1 surround sound of newly recorded orchestral score, "The Metropolis Case": a 43-minute documentary by Enno Patalas (with English, French, and Spanish subtitles), Restoration featurette (with English, French, and Spanish subtitles), Photo galleries featuring production stills, missing scenes, architectural sketches, and poster artwork, 13 cast and crew biographies, Facts and dates Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: January 22, 2003 Footnotes: 1. Aitam Bar-Sagi informs me that the Australian print of the film had an additional shot in the Pleasure Garden, where the party girls react to the appearance of Maria. There also should be several more seconds of the view of the main Metropolis cityscape, where a big zeppelin moves into the space between the buildings. Either they were mistakenly omitted, or they didn't fit the original score. Silent movie restorers have a problem when combining negatives found in different archives. In many silent pictures, more than one negative was exposed of each scene to make up for the fact that dupe stocks didn't exist to copy a single negative. That's why we often see more than one camera cranking away on a Chaplin scene in stills. When the archivists assembled missing negative elements, sometimes all of the pieces didn't fit - especially when following the very accurate music score with its shot cues. The different negatives were really different movies, with small but troublesome variances in action and length. Return 2. At our Museum premiere, composer/organist Robert Israel adapted the score and made it work for the much longer screening, where he played for an almost unbroken (I believe there was an intermission) 2 and 1/2 hours. Return 3. That's the gist of both of Variety's 1927 reviews from New York (the Paramount Rewrite-recut) and Berlin (apparently after the cut-down) : the reviewers in both cities think the film is silly, has bad continuity and a story that makes no sense. Return 4. Kino Video recently released a full-length Die Nibelungen, an incredible epic revenge tale with huge, Two-Towers like battles. It's uncut, but hasn't been given the beauty makeover that Metropolis received. For that matter, I just remarked while reviewing the beautiful but scratched Image disc of Invaders from Mars, that it desperately needed the class-A restoration magic of Alpha-Omega. Return 5. Speaking of subliminal effects, running the DVD slowly through these fast-cut montages reveals images that made an impact in the Museum screening (at 20 fps), that now barely register at all. It also shows a curious cutting pattern. Many shots have a frame or two of black interpolated in between, which are difficult not to notice, and become annoying. I don't remember the black frames from the archival museum screenings, so I'd say they were added to stretch the film match the recorded score. Return METROPOLIS restoration Review Responses, 2/18/03: Hi Glenn - Stupendous job on the upcoming Metropolis. Although it's always a pleasure to witness self-effacement on the Web, I wouldn't characterize yourself as a whiner in regards to this projection speed business. In my weenie DVD world, anyway, corrected fps speed and a good, effective score are two of the most important elements in presenting a silent film. In the case of Kino's Metropolis, it appears that one is at the expense of the other, and I must admit your review makes me a little disappointed in advance of my seeing it. Kino's inclusion of Gottfried Huppertz's score in their Die Nibelungen release was more than a nice plus; it clinched the success of their presentation of that fever dream film. Huppertz was obviously no genius, but his ersatz Wagnerian scoring (which as far as I can tell doesn't quote or plagiarize Wagner at all) sets just the right tone, and Kino's new recording of it is a treat. Obviously they blew some cash accomplishing the same for Metropolis, but I think they misjudged. Your conjectures as to why Ufa screened the film at the faster speed seem very plausible, making Kino's "historical" defense mere rationalizing. I have a lot of sympathy for Kino because of the work they do, independent of the cash flow of a major studio; so I can see why they're not about to correct anything (and I bet somebody over in the Kino offices sees your point; it's not a difficult one to understand). The solution was clearly to adapt the score for the theatrical release at the outset, perhaps laying down Israel's solo organ version, which is not as sexy as full orchestra for sure, but a good compromise nonetheless. Maintaining the integrity of Lang's image-making should have been the priority. May you sleep the sleep of the righteous. - Gordon Thomas 1/27/03 Hi Glenn, I too saw the restoration of Metropolis at 20 fps when it was touring the country, at the Civic Center in Madison, Wisconsin, though it was with Dennis James at the Grand Barton organ (and theremin!) instead of Robert Israel. James' accompaniment was an amalgam of Huppertz's music and James' own compositions, but it worked great (especially the theremin during the creation sequence! wow!). It was THE greatest motion picture experience of my life. Ever. Anyway, I am behind you 110% on the frame rate issue. For the first time (and I've seen Metropolis at least 10 times in various incarnations), Maria's dance at 20 fps didn't seem like a comedy act. At 20 fps Metropolis was weighty rather than flighty, substantial instead of flimsy, and majestic instead of ridiculous. I don't care that Huppertz' music fits 24 or 26 fps. I am watching Metropolis for Lang, not Huppertz. I can't fathom why Patalas doesn't seem to understand that very basic point. It deeply saddens me that I will likely never see this magnificent picture presented properly again. But I think I've made myself obnoxious enough on this point at alt.movies.silent that Kino has apparently refused to send me a review copy. Oh, and Metropolis is no longer public domain; its copyright was reinstated under GATT a few years ago (hence the "authorized" tag). Best regards, Mark Zimmer, Reviewer at Digitally Obsessed.com 1/29/03 Hi Glenn! Happy New Year! That's a classic review of Metropolis you have just posted. As I understand it, the package you have in R1 is the same as the 2-disc special edition just released in R2 by Eureka. The running time is 118 minutes, faster - I assume - because of the difference between the PAL and NTSC formats. I have just landed one from Bensonsworld at Stg14.50 - about NZ$50, on the face of it, a better buy (excluding discounts though!) than the US release which would come in at about NZ$10 to NZ$15 (plus post and packaging). Anyway, I haven't had time to watch it yet and won't for a couple of weeks. But, your review has whetted the appetite! I continue to enjoy the site and refer to it quite frequently in a news page I post on a New Zealand DVD enthusiasts website. I hope you have had many of my readers drop by - and sign up. With kindest regards, Richard 1/29/03 Hello Glenn, I just wanted to thank you for your eagle-eye advocacy for Metropolis. I regret the frame rate issue, but having seen the restored version for myself a while back at the Music Box here in Chicago, I can tell you that I was floored by it. Speed issues aside, it finally plays like the movie I thought was somewhere in the incoherent editing. I'm looking very much forward to the DVD. Thanks also for bringing the Kino release of Die Nibelungen to my attention. My copy's on the way! I was lucky enough to see this restoration on a big screen, with the original score played on a mighty Wurlitzer by a real artist. It was unforgettable, and again, I finally felt like the film was what I wanted it to be. While it's a shame it couldn't be scrubbed down like Metropolis, it's true the print I saw looked miles better than any previous one in my experience. Bravo for those tireless, dedicated restorers. Final thanks for your continuing to mention Powell & Pressburger's luminous A Canterbury Tale here and there (I think I've seen you mention it twice). It's a really wonderful movie, one that resonates with me more each time I see it. I think almost nobody has even heard of it unless they're Archers fans, and it's a pity. So, I hope your championing of it contributes to curiosity among your readership. I'd love to eventually have a Criterion edition of it. (A vanilla Kino disc, even!) All their movies, really. I love 'em. (at least I got I Know Where I'm Going!, my favorite) Cheers, Tim 2/3/03 I think you are being too hard on Kino. The clincher is the soundtrack. How can Metropolis be shown at 20fps and still be in sync with the soundtrack? It is arguable that it is an artistic desision based on their desire to mate it to the original score. It is enough that the images are clean and the video free of jitter. I can have my cake and eat it too however. With Divx, I can watch it at any speed I want and even change the sample rate of the audio to match. I can't pitch shift, but without dialogue, it won't be that noticeable. - Stephen 2/4/03 Hello Mr Erickson, First off, I'd like to say thanks for your articles and reviews on DVDTalk. I find them truly indispensable. Regarding Fritz Lang's Metropolis, I was particularly grateful to note your tackling the frame rate issue. It is a very sore point and a painful topic, and it must be very hard on Enno Patalas to see this significant part of his life's work in restoration presented in needlessly compromised form. As surprising as this is with product coming from Kino, the UK edition could be expected to steer this course: After all, it comes from Eureka, a company with a remarkable reputation for butchering silent films. In light of this, it is especially regrettable that the German release will do likewise. They're doing a localization of the extras (with Mr. Patalas' voice for the German version of his commentary track), but they'll retain the speeded-up transfer. You've mentioned the broadcasts of Metropolis on the French-German 'arte' channel. These broadcasts were indeed saddled with a new score (commissioned for the Berlinale retrospective), yet appeared to make up for it by boasting the correct running time. Sadly, this was achieved by simply doubling every fourth frame, resulting in halting movement not only where fast motions were concerned, but wherever there was any motion. It would have been less irritating if they'd doubled every fourth field (halting twice as often but half as long), let alone using more sophisticated speed-correction. Alas, it was not to be. So today we seem to have two sets of compromises: (1) Film archives can finally project Metropolis in a rather satisfying state, although my purist's heart says that combining material from different versions (e.g. differing shots for domestic and export versions) is in itself not exactly "reconstruction", because it amounts to the construction of a new version. (2) DVDs and the recording of the 'arte' broadcast represent yet two more compromised versions, to be added to the large number of versions distributed before. To anybody who reads German, I recommend Enno Patalas' book Metropolis in/aus Trümmern (i.e. Metropolis in/out of ruins; ISBN 3-929470-19-5) which manages to collate the principal versions, the fragments, the script, the censorship records, and evidence from premiere reviews in an approximation of the premiere cut (adding insightful comment on the Huppertz score to boot). Thanks again, and keep up the good work. Best Regards, Christoph Michel 3/6/03 [Savant Main Page] [Savant Links] [Article Index] [Review Index] [Savant 5 Year Report] DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson Advertise With Us Review Staff | About DVD Talk | Newsletter Subscribe | Join DVD Talk Forum Copyright © MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use