Metropolis… the 1927 masterpiece of cinema
that was ranked #35 in the most recent Sight and Sound poll and the 2nd
greatest film of the silent era. It was an epic science fiction parable that in
it’s day, was the most expensive movie ever produced. It is a work containing
several of the most iconic images of the visual medium. I’m in accordance with
it’s high praise, but it took me some time to reach this conclusion.
My first experience with this classic
occurred in 1977. This was before the advent of home video, so to be able to
see it was partially a matter of luck. At that time I was living in Miami,
Florida and the area was blessed with an amazing venue called the Grove Arts
Cinema. The palace offered up an eclectic and amazing array of fare that was
geared to the contentious movie fan. They showed a double bill of the 1936
“Things To Come” and “Metropolis”. I recall being happy just to actually see it
and being blown away by the stunning visuals. In particular the sequence where
the robot is transformed into a doppelganger of Maria, I found remarkable. But
I was less impressed with the storyline and years later I found it difficult to
remember much about it other than some bravura sequences.
It would be over 25 years before I took it
in again. It appeared as one of the features on a 50 movie ‘mega-pack’
collection of horror films, in a ‘public domain’ version. The quality of this
print was atrocious and diminished even the sections that I still remembered
from that 1977 showing. More problematic was a storyline that I found to be
damned near incomprehensible. I was beginning to question the legitimacy of
it’s high esteem.
I was nagged by my inability to see what all
the others had no trouble seeing. I wanted to take a third trip to the fabled
city and this time I did it right.
Image a great novel of 300 pages in length
and one of uniform critical praise. Then imagine what your reading experience
might be like if someone, randomly tore out 20 or 30 pages. You might still be
able to recognize passages of brilliance on the remaining pages, but in the end
you’d find yourself unsatisfied. This was how I’ve come to realize those first
two viewings.
A few major incidences converged over the
past 30 years that has allowed for a wholly satisfying version of Metropolis.
One thing was the return of an original negative of the American cut. This had
been taken by the Red Army out of Germany, after WW2. Another was the find of a
set of the German Film Board’s censor cards, which held the complete text to
the inter-title cards. Comparing one against the other, film historians knew
what exactly was missing. Even still, by using these and a few other existing
negatives the movie was reconstructed and publicly shown at the Berlin
Film Festival in 2001. The superior film quality put the PD versions all to
shame
Then 2008 brought the ultimate
find. In Buenos Ares, their national film archives discovered a 16mm negative that
contained Fritz Lang’s original 148-minute cut. By a lucky accident, an
Argentinean film merchant film merchant attended the German premiere and
immediately bought a copy. This was before American film interests, which had
partially bankrolled it’s huge costs, savagely edited the film down. This
original negative was later sold to a local film collector and eventually
confiscated by the Argentine government. In the 1970’s the danger of storing
flammable nitrate film had become too great so a film safe 16mm negative was
made. Besides the simple degradation that reducing 35mm down to 16mm incurs,
this negative was of a poor general quality. Still it included the entire work
as envisioned by it’s creator.
So again the restorers went to
work. They digitally scanned every individual frame and attempted to clean them
up, as best they could. Sadly two scenes were so poor that they could not be
used. In the “complete” reconstruction these events are explained with the
inter-title cards. Thanks to these efforts, in 2010 Metropolis was brought back
to life. It’s this version that I most recently watched.
The difference is like night and
day. Story holes are filled in and made crystal clear. We learn of Hel,
Freder’s beautiful mother who died giving him birth and how her love is the
basis of contention between one time partners Joh and Rotwang. Incredibly her
character was excised from the American version simply because her name was too
close to Hell. The relationship between Freder and Josaphat is now clarified.
The dark character, known as ‘the thin man’, is given a major part in the
proceedings, a role that was almost entirely absent from the earlier versions.
The same goes with the foreman Grot, who is more integral to the story than the
earlier editions let you know.
Technically the difference between 2001 restoration and the new one is visually jarring. The film quality jumps in and out. But in a funny way I liked it, as it let me know exactly what had been missing and how much these lost scenes added to the proceedings.
Another element added which aided
my to enjoyment of this one , over the public domain version, was the
rerecording of the original 1927 score. These audio cues enhanced the film
greatly, adding crucial accents to the actor’s non-verbal performances.
So, if you have yet to catch “The
Complete Metropolis”, then you really haven’t seen it. It is a film truly
deserving all the praise it’s received.
Pat
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