Metropolises. Metropolii?
January 30, 2022 12:00 PM Subscribe
The "Complete" Metropolis [2h28m] is available on Archive.org for viewing or download. There's still about 25 minutes missing, apparently, that might be discovered at some point. This is also available on YouTube, if you prefer. Also, Metropolis [1h22m], from 1984, the first restoration of the film, with an 80s fever dream soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder [Archive.org, full film soundtrack (not the soundtrack album)]. Or perhaps you prefer a colorized, dubbed version [2h12m]? They all have merits; they are all Metropolis.
Bonus material: Original film release program. [Archive.org] METROPOLIS: A Look Back At Giorgio Moroder's 1984 Restoration Of This Silent Classic [ZRockR] And for the real film nerd: Structures of Narrativity in Fritz Lang's Metropolis [Archive.org]
Bonus material: Original film release program. [Archive.org] METROPOLIS: A Look Back At Giorgio Moroder's 1984 Restoration Of This Silent Classic [ZRockR] And for the real film nerd: Structures of Narrativity in Fritz Lang's Metropolis [Archive.org]
Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time on Fritz Lang.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:24 PM on January 30, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 12:24 PM on January 30, 2022 [5 favorites]
I first saw this in a high school cinema class back in the mid-70s. It was the first silent film I could stand to watch, largely, of course, thanks to gorgeous production and set design. I love this film, and I agree with EmpressCallipygos to start with the complete version. Not only is it as complete as possible, it’s also a very good restoration.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:30 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 12:30 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
Looks like only about 5 minutes are actually missing now.
posted by rikschell at 12:35 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rikschell at 12:35 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
I remember having a VHS of the old print that was available in the 90s, and I enjoyed it - but it was obviously badly degraded and hard to follow. Then I found the Moroder cut for sale in a video store that was going out of business; it was shorter, trippier, and had a great soundtrack. (The Moroder cut used tinting so you weren't just looking at grey frames the whole time as well.) It was probably my favorite experience of the film, although obviously the Kino restored version is by far the most complete.
An all time great film, definitely my favorite from that era.
posted by graymouser at 12:40 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
An all time great film, definitely my favorite from that era.
posted by graymouser at 12:40 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
Metropolises. Metropolii?
Metropoleis? (ancient Greek: polis, poleis)
posted by indexy at 12:42 PM on January 30, 2022 [6 favorites]
Metropoleis? (ancient Greek: polis, poleis)
posted by indexy at 12:42 PM on January 30, 2022 [6 favorites]
See Metropolis first, but IMO also consider Fritz Lang / Thea von Harbou's 1929 film Woman in the Moon--especially the ~20 min. rocket launch sequence that came out amazingly well, the funny zero-gravity scene, and also the moon landing. The copy on YouTube does not seem ideal though--IIRC I watched it on Kanopy.
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:47 PM on January 30, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:47 PM on January 30, 2022 [7 favorites]
The "complete" version is the only one where the plot really makes any sense.
posted by octothorpe at 12:49 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 12:49 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
FYI, the YouTube version cuts out the music but does have English intertitles while the Archive version has music but German intertitles.
The restored bits are interesting because they are very stripey and rough-looking. I understand wanting to preserve as much as the original as possible, but it seems like from a watchability standpoint, they could have run those bits through a Peter Jackson filter and made them look much more acceptable to the eye.
posted by rikschell at 12:50 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
The restored bits are interesting because they are very stripey and rough-looking. I understand wanting to preserve as much as the original as possible, but it seems like from a watchability standpoint, they could have run those bits through a Peter Jackson filter and made them look much more acceptable to the eye.
posted by rikschell at 12:50 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
This was the headline movie at the Columbus 24-hr Science Fiction Marathon in '92 with live organ accompaniment. Was wonderful to see it in an old art-deco theatre that way, along with a theatre full of fans.
posted by Runes at 2:38 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Runes at 2:38 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
Saw it once on the big screen with live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra. I’m sure it must have been a less complete edition, but it was still an amazing experience.
Blade Runner and Star Wars are probably the most famous films to be influenced by its imagery, but I don’t think the influence on sci-fi film in general can be overestimated.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:18 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
Blade Runner and Star Wars are probably the most famous films to be influenced by its imagery, but I don’t think the influence on sci-fi film in general can be overestimated.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:18 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
I really liked the fan dubbed version it's a very strange experience but it's compelling in an eerie way. It was never meant to be seen that way and it shows but they did a good job keeping it weird.
posted by SageLeVoid at 4:19 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by SageLeVoid at 4:19 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
One of my friends used to work for an architecture firm. The principals of the firm had a tradition of hosting a weekend-long party for the employees every year. They showed 'Metropolis' as the centrepiece of the party. I can't remember whether pharmaceuticals were involved.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:54 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:54 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
I can see the appeal of the set designs for architects, sober or not.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:00 PM on January 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:00 PM on January 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
Metropolis (1927) [Wikipedia article] is occasionally on Turner Classic Movies: you can search their 16-month schedule. If you don’t have TCM already, here’s a list of TCM providers.
You can watch the Metropolis Refound (2010) documentary on DailyMotion – “Metropolis Refound tracks down the detour of this print containing the complete version of the film, its exceptional arrival in Argentina in 1927, how it survived and was discovered in 2008 at Buenos Aires Film Museum. Metropolis is a legendary film, not only for its wonderful imagery and the revolutionary technique applied in its making, but also for the several mutilations -or adaptations- that the film suffered since it was first screened in 1927, creating an appetite for recovering Fritz Lang's original concept.” (The Wikipedia article cited above has a section about The Complete Metropolis (2010) version.)
It’s interesting to compare the architectural renderings of Hugh Ferriss to the cityscapes in Metropolis.
posted by cenoxo at 10:48 PM on January 30, 2022 [5 favorites]
You can watch the Metropolis Refound (2010) documentary on DailyMotion – “Metropolis Refound tracks down the detour of this print containing the complete version of the film, its exceptional arrival in Argentina in 1927, how it survived and was discovered in 2008 at Buenos Aires Film Museum. Metropolis is a legendary film, not only for its wonderful imagery and the revolutionary technique applied in its making, but also for the several mutilations -or adaptations- that the film suffered since it was first screened in 1927, creating an appetite for recovering Fritz Lang's original concept.” (The Wikipedia article cited above has a section about The Complete Metropolis (2010) version.)
It’s interesting to compare the architectural renderings of Hugh Ferriss to the cityscapes in Metropolis.
posted by cenoxo at 10:48 PM on January 30, 2022 [5 favorites]
There are two MP4 files included in the 9GB BitTorrent download linked from the archive.org page above: Metropolis 1927 vose.mp4 and Metropolis 1927 vose.ia.mp4.
Both are 4,545,385,385 bytes long, and although they are not even close to being bit-identical, ffprobe emits identical metadata information for them all the way down to the creation timestamp and I can't spot visual differences so I'm not sure what's going on there.
The video encoded in them has been pillarboxed to 1280x720 and the rip quality is OK but not great, with some visual noise reduction artefacts more annoying than the original noise and some distracting compression-induced object wobble. Intro cards are in English, intertitles in German, and there are Spanish hard subtitles throughout for both. English soft subtitles are available in the accompanying Metropolis 1927 vose.ia.srt file but the Spanish subs make these harder to read than they should be.
If you're going to get this thing from archive.org via BitTorrent (as you should, so that you're not costing that worthy institution in bandwidth charges) then I think you could deselect Metropolis 1927 vose.ia.mp4 in your BT client and cut your data volume in half without losing anything of value.
Alternatively, you might prefer to seek out the version with a BitTorrent info hash of 3e12c642733ca73fc020d835ac52c28a1a0487f2 instead. This one is a 12GB pirate BluRay rip, in 1440x1080 with no pillarboxing, and looks quite a lot nicer. It has German intro cards and intertitles, and comes packaged as a Matroska file that includes English soft subtitles.
Perhaps one day we will reach the sunlit uplands where the legit copies of everything are actually better than the pirate versions and more convenient to acquire as well. But today is not that day.
posted by flabdablet at 11:44 PM on January 30, 2022 [11 favorites]
Both are 4,545,385,385 bytes long, and although they are not even close to being bit-identical, ffprobe emits identical metadata information for them all the way down to the creation timestamp and I can't spot visual differences so I'm not sure what's going on there.
The video encoded in them has been pillarboxed to 1280x720 and the rip quality is OK but not great, with some visual noise reduction artefacts more annoying than the original noise and some distracting compression-induced object wobble. Intro cards are in English, intertitles in German, and there are Spanish hard subtitles throughout for both. English soft subtitles are available in the accompanying Metropolis 1927 vose.ia.srt file but the Spanish subs make these harder to read than they should be.
If you're going to get this thing from archive.org via BitTorrent (as you should, so that you're not costing that worthy institution in bandwidth charges) then I think you could deselect Metropolis 1927 vose.ia.mp4 in your BT client and cut your data volume in half without losing anything of value.
Alternatively, you might prefer to seek out the version with a BitTorrent info hash of 3e12c642733ca73fc020d835ac52c28a1a0487f2 instead. This one is a 12GB pirate BluRay rip, in 1440x1080 with no pillarboxing, and looks quite a lot nicer. It has German intro cards and intertitles, and comes packaged as a Matroska file that includes English soft subtitles.
Perhaps one day we will reach the sunlit uplands where the legit copies of everything are actually better than the pirate versions and more convenient to acquire as well. But today is not that day.
posted by flabdablet at 11:44 PM on January 30, 2022 [11 favorites]
Also, Godwin – Fritz Lang’s Monster: Was Metropolis a Pro-Nazi Film?, Elly Hoffman, Medium.com > Science & Technoculture in Film, Dec 18, 2017 [see references in the article]:
posted by cenoxo at 6:35 AM on January 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
Fritz Lang, the son of a Jewish woman, a [non-Aryan] by Nazi standards, was naturally petrified when he was invited into the office of the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Doctor Joseph Goebbels, in 1933[1]. The Nazi Propagandist, who was a fan of Lang’s previous work in Metropolis, had been less than impressed with Lang’s most recent work, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse[2]. He viewed it, in fact, as being a rebellious film, and thus banned it for daring to suggest that the Leader is not always right[3].*Lang’s ex-wife (and Metropolis screenwriter) Thea Von Harbou [Wikipedia bio] stayed in Germany and worked towards Der Führer and the Nazi Party.
Lang, naturally, figured that he was being summoned into the office of the Propaganda Ministry for a scolding at best, but much to his surprise Doctor Goebbels’ fondness for his previous work was so strong that he was willing to give the half-Jew more than a second chance. Declaring both his and Adolf Hitler’s admiration for Metropolis, Goebbels went so far as to offer Lang a job in the Propaganda Ministry. “The Führer and I have seen your films,” Goebbels declared according to Lang, “and the Fuhrer made clear that this [Lang] is the man who will give us the National Socialist film.”[4]
Lang replied politely to Goebbels’ offer, but the Minister would never get his Lang-made National Socialist film: Lang would flee to America four months later, where he would continue on his career, making anti-Nazi films such as Hangmen Also Die[5].*
For years, the interview with Goebbels, as well as the Minister of Propaganda’s high praise for his work, would haunt him. He later came to regard Metropolis, at least in the case of its story, as ‘silly’, and gazed back upon it with regret for having allowed it to come into a state where Hitler himself adored it, even ‘relating to’ the main character, Freder[6]….
posted by cenoxo at 6:35 AM on January 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
I think we've mentioned this before on the Blue but Karl Freund, the cinematographer of Metropolis, later went on to work on I Love Lucy and helped develop the standard 3-Camera setup for American sitcoms.
posted by octothorpe at 7:09 AM on January 31, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 7:09 AM on January 31, 2022 [3 favorites]
Karl Freund left Germany in 1929 and came to Hollywood. According to his Wikipedia bio:
posted by cenoxo at 8:13 AM on January 31, 2022 [3 favorites]
At the beginning of the 1950s, he was persuaded by Desi Arnaz at Desilu to be the cinematographer for the television series I Love Lucy from 1951. Critics have credited Freund for the show's lustrous black and white cinematography, but more important, Freund designed the "flat lighting" system for shooting sitcoms that is still in use today. This system covers the set in light, thus eliminating shadows and allowing the use of three moving cameras without having to modify the lighting between shots. While Freund did not invent the three-camera shooting system, he did perfect it for use with film cameras in front of a live audience.He returned briefly to Germany in 1937:
In 1937, he visited Germany to bring to the United States his only daughter, Gerda Maria Freund [*], saving her from almost certain death in the concentration camps. His ex-wife, Susette Freund (née Liepmannssohn), remained in Germany, where she was murdered at the Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1942.*Gerda María Freund obituary (aged 101), Minneapolis StarTribune, November 19, 2017.
posted by cenoxo at 8:13 AM on January 31, 2022 [3 favorites]
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Hitler handed the USA the Golden Age of Hollywood on a damn silver platter.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:58 AM on January 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:58 AM on January 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Hitler handed the USA the Golden Age of Hollywood on a damn silver platter.
There is a museum devoted to movies in Berlin, and in one of the rooms in their regular exhibit they flat-out admit this. In fact, they have the Marseillaise scene from Casablanca going in a continuous loop in there; officially it's because most of the extras in that scene were themselves refugees from Nazi-occupied France, but I also felt like it was an acknowledgement that "Okay, yeah, we Germans look like jerks in this scene, but come on, it's awesome."
....Apparently they had to take a lot of breaks during filming this scene because some of the extras were breaking down crying at the chance to sing La Marseillaise again.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on January 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
There is a museum devoted to movies in Berlin, and in one of the rooms in their regular exhibit they flat-out admit this. In fact, they have the Marseillaise scene from Casablanca going in a continuous loop in there; officially it's because most of the extras in that scene were themselves refugees from Nazi-occupied France, but I also felt like it was an acknowledgement that "Okay, yeah, we Germans look like jerks in this scene, but come on, it's awesome."
....Apparently they had to take a lot of breaks during filming this scene because some of the extras were breaking down crying at the chance to sing La Marseillaise again.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on January 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
I forgot to mention!....One of the things they also have on display is a whole room devoted to Metropolis, with concept art, pages from the original script, and a recreation of the robot.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:56 AM on January 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:56 AM on January 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
Some amazing Metropolis robot cosplay at Dragon Con '16
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:16 AM on January 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:16 AM on January 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
I really liked the fan dubbed version it's a very strange experience but it's compelling in an eerie way. It was never meant to be seen that way and it shows but they did a good job keeping it weird.
Yeah, I could do without that wonky colorization, but the Foley sounds make it so much more watchable to me.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:44 PM on January 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I could do without that wonky colorization, but the Foley sounds make it so much more watchable to me.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:44 PM on January 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
They should just have Jenny Nicholson recreate the final few missing minutes.
posted by legion at 1:58 PM on January 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by legion at 1:58 PM on January 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
Corrected link: *Gerda María Freund obituary (aged 101), Minneapolis StarTribune, November 19, 2017.
posted by cenoxo at 6:38 PM on January 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by cenoxo at 6:38 PM on January 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
Here’s Jeff Mills’ Metropolis on YouTube. (Techno).
posted by ec2y at 3:05 AM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ec2y at 3:05 AM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
And then there’s Metropolis (2001) – Wikipedia: “…a Japanese animated futuristic dieselpunk drama film based upon Osamu Tezuka's 1949 manga of the same name [which was based on Lang’s Metropolis]. The film was directed by Rintaro, written by Katsuhiro Otomo, and produced by Madhouse, with conceptual support from Tezuka Productions.”
You can watch an HD trailer on YouTube, but I haven’t found any subscription service or streaming site that has the full movie.
posted by cenoxo at 5:30 PM on February 1, 2022
You can watch an HD trailer on YouTube, but I haven’t found any subscription service or streaming site that has the full movie.
posted by cenoxo at 5:30 PM on February 1, 2022
Oh, what the hell - here's the video for Queen's Radio Gaga, which flat-out uses clips from Metropolis in it and also draws inspiration from it for other moments throughout.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:45 PM on February 1, 2022
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:45 PM on February 1, 2022
I've long thought the Spaceship set from Einstein On The Beach must be inspired by the workers in Metropolis. You can see what I mean after the 10m mark on this video of that section of the opera.
posted by hippybear at 7:12 PM on February 2, 2022
posted by hippybear at 7:12 PM on February 2, 2022
I followed flabdablet's advice, upthread, and it is very watchable.
I've seen various versions before, but one thing I had never noticed that my co-watcher pointed out: nobody seems to blink?! They close their eyes sometimes, but ordinary blinking: seemingly not present. How? Why? I haven't watched enough silent to know if this was a convention of the time/format, but... what?
posted by inexorably_forward at 12:38 PM on February 3, 2022
I've seen various versions before, but one thing I had never noticed that my co-watcher pointed out: nobody seems to blink?! They close their eyes sometimes, but ordinary blinking: seemingly not present. How? Why? I haven't watched enough silent to know if this was a convention of the time/format, but... what?
posted by inexorably_forward at 12:38 PM on February 3, 2022
PS: Watching with someone who has never seen it before, or even heard of it, is really fun!
posted by inexorably_forward at 12:39 PM on February 3, 2022
posted by inexorably_forward at 12:39 PM on February 3, 2022
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posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:22 PM on January 30, 2022 [6 favorites]