Anybody out there unfamiliar with Fritz Lang‘s 1927 classic Metropolis?
We guess not, so you probably already had a chance to hear that last year a huge chunk of footage that was missing from this one, and presumed lost forever, was actually found in a museum's archives in Argentina.
So, after 83 years, Lang's Sci-Fi classic Metropolis has returned to the Berlin Film Festival in its full glory, and today there's a trailer for the restoration, which is being released in US theaters via roadshow started in May by Kino International.
Kino International has announced the North American release of the new restoration of Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction masterpiece, now with 25 minutes of lost footage and the original Gottfried Huppertz score. This new 147-minute version will be shown in all major markets throughout the US and Canada.
The Complete Metropolis, premiered on February 12 at the Berlin Film Festival and had its first US showing on April 25 at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival.
When it was first screened in Berlin on January 10, 1927, the sci-fi epic ran an estimated 153 minutes. After its premiere engagement, in an effort to maximize the film's commercial potential, the film's distributors (Ufa in Germany, Paramount in the US) drastically shortened Metropolis, which had been a major disappointment at the German box office.
Everything started in the summer of 2008, when the curator of the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine discovered a 16mm dupe negative that was considerably longer than any existing print. It included not merely a few additional snippets, but 25 minutes of “lost” footage, about a fifth of the film, that had not been seen since its Berlin debut.
The discovery of such a significant amount of material called for yet another restoration. The whole thing was executed by Anke Wilkening of the Murnau Stiftung (Foundation), the German institution that is the caretaker of virtually all pre-1945 German films, Martin Koerber, Film Department Curator of the Deutsche Kinemateque and on the music side, by Frank Stoebel.
At the end of this report, let us remind you that The Complete Metropolis hits theaters soon, and will continue to show “in all major markets throughout the US and Canada.” So, if you're interested to see the most influential of all silent films, we're here to give you list with the release dates for the theatrical roadshow.
Have fun!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n92VYq91zIw[/youtube]
