8.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Starring: Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theodor LoosForeign | 100% |
Drama | 96% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
After Fritz Lang’s Metropolis premiered in Berlin in 1927, the silent science fiction masterpiece was savagely shortened and re-edited for its American release by playwright Channing Pollock, who cut the film from fourteen reels to seven and, in the process, thoroughly obfuscated the original story. Snippets of the excised material surfaced over the decades, and there have been several incomplete restorations—including, most notably, the Giorgio Moroder-speared reissue in 1982, which clarified plot points but also tinted the film and set it to 1970s pop tunes—but Lang’s complete cut was thought to be yet another lost relic of the silent age. That is, until the summer of 2008, when curator Paula Felix-Didier and archivist Fernando Pena found a 16mm safety reduction negative of the uncut Metropolis in the archives of the Museo Del Cine, in Buenos Aires. You might say that this was the film historian equivalent of discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Rosetta Stone. Not only did this print contain almost all of the missing material—minus 8 minutes too damaged to use—but it also served as a narrative blueprint for the multinational restoration team, allowing them to reassemble the entire film to match Lang’s intent. More than 25 minutes of footage has been reintegrated into Metropolis, from single shots to whole sub-plots and action sequences. The result is a film that’s finally as coherent as its images are iconic.
Metropolis
The restoration of Metropolis—a collaborative effort by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, the Deutsche Kinemathek, and the Museo del Cine—has yielded a version of the film that is not only narratively complete, but also visually stunning. KINO's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is a beauty to behold. Let's get the obvious out of the way first: the 25-minutes of restored footage, taken from a 16mm reduction dupe of an extremely damaged 35mm print, isn't of the highest fidelity. The image is soft and streaked with vertical scratches, so much so that, at times, it almost looks like the picture is being projected onto a waterfall. (You'll understand when you see it in motion.) This material is windowboxed on three sides to preserve visual, proportional continuity, as the 16mm dupe slightly cropped the original aspect ratio. It's an elegant solution to a tricky problem, and while the switch between sources is jarring at first, you quickly get used to it. The bulk of the film, taken from an original 35mm negative and early prints, looks wonderful. The picture has been given a frame-by-frame clean-up, removing nearly all of the specks and scratches that have eaten away at the nitrate negative in the intervening decades. Just as impressive, there's little evidence of the digital makeover. The image has natural-looking film grain, and there are few compression artifacts or other quirks. Clarity varies, as you might expect, but most of the film is quite sharp, and I found my figurative jaw dropping frequently over the amount of detail that can be seen in Joh's herringbone coat and the plating of the Machine-Man. Black levels are strong as well, and the monochromatic gradation is satisfying, with tight—but never overblown—contrast. Overall, I'm more than pleased. There were moments when I honestly couldn't get over how good the film looks now.
Just as the 16mm dupe provided a blueprint for how to restructure the film, the recent acquisition of the folio of composer Gottfried Huppert's 1927 score gave the restoration team numerous clues about the pacing of the film and the timing of the editing. This orchestral score—a bombastic affair that borrows from Wagner and Strauss—has been newly recorded and presented here in two formats: a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and a LPCM 2.0 stereo fold-down. Both options sound rich and dynamically full. I have no complaints whatsoever—this is the original score, reproduced wonderfully—but some folks might understandably be miffed that KINO hasn't also included the fan-favorite score by The Alloy Orchestra. No subtitle options are offered—or required—as the original German intertitles have been replaced with all-new English ones. Purists may growl, but the restoration team at least used a classy, period-accurate font.
For such a monumental release, KINO's selection of supplements is rather slim, but thankfully, the material that is presented here is excellent. The bulk of the experience is Voyage to Metropolis (1080p, 54:42), a documentary by Artem Demenok that explores the making of the film, its deconstruction at the hands of Channing Pollock, and its eventual restoration. Along with expert info from a cavalcade of film historians, the doc also features vintage interviews with Fritz Lang and loads of stills and pre-production artwork. A must-watch! Also included is an interview with Paula Felix- Didier (1080p, 9:31), the curator who discovered the lost footage, and a promotional trailer (1080p, 2:01) for the 2010 re-release of the film.
It's hard to overstate the influence of Metropolis, not only on sci-fi films and cinema in general, but also on architecture, urban planning, and industrial design. Visually, the film has always been a masterpiece, even if—in its truncated form—it never made much narrative sense. Well, finally, thanks to the fortuitous discovery of 25-minutes of missing footage and the efforts of the restoration team, it does make sense, and the additions confirm and redouble the film's standing as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. That Metropolis—an 83-year-old film—is so stunning on Blu-ray is just visual icing on the comprehensive cake. For cineastes, sci-fi fans, and silent film collectors, this is a must-see, must-own release. Highly recommended!
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