Metropolis on Turner Classic Movies Tonight!
November 7th 2010 16:18
Tonight Turner Classic Movies will present a groundbreaking achievement in filmmaking and film restoration with the world television premiere of the newly restored version of Fritz Lang’s 1927 science-fiction masterpiece Metropolis.
Metropolis will air at 8:00 PM (ET), one week before the release of DVD and Blu-ray Disc. TCM’s presentation will be followed at 11:00 PM (ET) by Metropolis Refound, a one-hour documentary about the discovery of new footage.
If you have free time tonight and cable television, I highly recommend that you tune in because Metropolis took director Fritz Lang two years to complete and soared past its original budget. Lang shot more than 1.3 million meters of footage and used 36,000 extras, including 750 children.
When Metropolis premiered in 1927, it was mildly successful, in part because its extreme length (204 minutes) made it difficult to screen.
Distributors began using severely truncated versions, many of which mangled plot and character elements. Over time, only the edited versions remained in circulation, and Lang’s original vision was believed lost forever.
In 2008, a 16mm negative of the film, including 25 minutes – one fifth of the entire film – that had not been seen since the 1927 Berlin premiere had been discovered in Argentina. Although it didn’t include Lang’s entire original version, it was the most complete print of the film ever found.
Metropolis is one of the most memorable films of the silent era and an iconic example of German expressionism. The story takes place in a futuristic, high-tech city ruled by Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). Above ground, the city’s elites enjoy all the luxuries imaginable, while underground, serfs labor long, grueling hours to keep the machinery of the city running.
A young woman named Maria (Brigitte Helm) takes Fredersen’s naïve son, Freder (Gustav Frölich), down to the catacombs to see the plight of the workers. The inhumanity leads him to rebel against his father and fight to free those who suffer under the city’s streets. When Fredersen discovers his son’s betrayal, he seeks help from an old friend-turned-rival, the scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), who has created a female robot that can be used to suppress the coming worker rebellion. But Rotwang has an agenda of his own that could result in the destruction of the entire city.
The discovery prompted a new restoration and reconstruction project, headed by Anke Wilkening of the Murnau Stiftung (Murnau Foundation), which serves as caretaker for virtually all pre-1945 German films, and Martin Koerber, film department curator of the Deutche Kinemateque. Acclaimed German conductor and arranger Frank Stoebel, who has worked extensively with music for silent films, adapted the Huppertz score.
Kino International will release The Complete Metropolis on Blu-Ray and two-disc DVD Tuesday, Nov. 16. Both formats are available for pre-order from TCM’s online store at http://tcm.com/shop.
| 88 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog