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Saturday I went to see the new extended edition of Metropolis. The score was played live by the Alloy orchestra. It was awesome! I took my parents and they seemed to like it a fair amount, more than I expected.
the complete restoration to date of German director Fritz Lang’s 1927 science-fiction classic, METROPOLIS. Lang’s visionary work of science fiction redefined the term “super-production,” with its thousands of extras, monstrous sets, and eye-popping special effects, including a cataclysmic, multitude-engulfing flood. Lang’s original conception was only seen by the very earliest Berlin audiences (“positively overwhelming,” raved Variety after the 1927 premiere) — and then the cutting began, followed by decades of attempts at reconstruction. A 1984 version ran only 87 minutes, while the then-“definitive” 2002 reconstruction edged up the running time to 124 minutes. Finally, in 2008, the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires came across a print that had been in an Argentinean private collection since 1928. At a private screening in Berlin, “the room got very quiet,” as the select audience witnessed over a thousand shots that were thought lost — bringing the running time to 153 minutes and virtually matching the original shooting script and musical cues. This astounding new version — after considerable restoration work on the well-worn archival print — has been combined with the visually superb 2002 restoration. Presented in HD, audiences can, at long last, experience Lang’s original METROPOLIS as the director intended it to be seen.
Today I'm going on a tour Frank Stella is giving of his new exhibition!
the complete restoration to date of German director Fritz Lang’s 1927 science-fiction classic, METROPOLIS. Lang’s visionary work of science fiction redefined the term “super-production,” with its thousands of extras, monstrous sets, and eye-popping special effects, including a cataclysmic, multitude-engulfing flood. Lang’s original conception was only seen by the very earliest Berlin audiences (“positively overwhelming,” raved Variety after the 1927 premiere) — and then the cutting began, followed by decades of attempts at reconstruction. A 1984 version ran only 87 minutes, while the then-“definitive” 2002 reconstruction edged up the running time to 124 minutes. Finally, in 2008, the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires came across a print that had been in an Argentinean private collection since 1928. At a private screening in Berlin, “the room got very quiet,” as the select audience witnessed over a thousand shots that were thought lost — bringing the running time to 153 minutes and virtually matching the original shooting script and musical cues. This astounding new version — after considerable restoration work on the well-worn archival print — has been combined with the visually superb 2002 restoration. Presented in HD, audiences can, at long last, experience Lang’s original METROPOLIS as the director intended it to be seen.
Today I'm going on a tour Frank Stella is giving of his new exhibition!
