Pix via Vintage Blog.
The entire movie can be viewed in 12 videos at YouTube.
Update: The Turner Classic Movie station (TCM) will be broadcasting a special program on the evening of November 7 entitled "Metropolis Refound," detailing the restoration of the movie. Earlier that same night their schedule shows a three-hour segment for "Metropolis," but I've been unable to ascertain whether that will be the original or the restored version.
Man, that poster is just stunning. Was that made for the original film, or for one of the recent revivals, do you know? I couldn't find it on the Vintage Blog. I'm wondering if it's possible to get a reproduction.
ReplyDeleteI watched that first video and found myself preoccupied with the difference in mindset (not quite the right term, don't know what to call it) between 1927 and today, even though the anticorporatist perspective is so similar. I mean, if the people who first watched Metropolis had been able to watch a modern film, what on earth would they have thought of it?--not just the technological developments, but the presentation.
I'm really floundering trying to verbalize what struck me. The term "naivete" comes to mind, but the folks back in 1927 weren't naive, so that's not it. Cinematically naive, maybe, but there's a lot in that film that's highly sophisticated.
Can anybody tell me what the heck I'm talking about?? It's driving me nuts!
Swift - I bookmarked the poster several weeks ago. It's here -
ReplyDeletehttp://vintage-spirit.blogspot.com/2009/12/metropolis-1927.html
You ought to get the DVD of the movie from your library and sit down with your favorite beverage and watch it some night.
Definitely check out the DVD, the one I got from the library had a cool "bonus" bit about how they restored the film with insight on how they made some of the effects (city scapes with people moving in them).
ReplyDeleteoh thank you so much for posting this.
ReplyDeleteSwift: this might start you on some reading on ideas that were prevalent around that time which may help you articulate your thoughts?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Expressionism
http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Expressionism-EXPRESSIONISM-AND-FILM-HISTORY.html
Minnesotastan--thanks. I checked Yahoo Images to see if I could find out more about the poster, but the only ones I found were the cover of the DVD, so I'm guessing the poster is modern. Tremendous range of other posters for the movie made when it came out, some of them quite lovely too, others rather strange. I did put the DVD on my Netflix queue.
ReplyDeleteMomoMonkey--thanks for the tip. I have a hunch it isn't the Expressionist style so much as something common to the films of that period, having more to do with how people related to what they saw on the screen. But I'll have a look and see if your links give me any clues.
Since 1928, nobody has seen an uncut copy, and much of the film was lost. Recently another 45 min (!) of the original print, unseen anywhere in the world for decades, has been found in South America, the Murnau Institute is busy restoring that footage & integrating it for an upcoming release which may finally represent the complete 1927 version of the film.
ReplyDeleteMetropolis was turned into a musical, and back in 2001 (2002?) I went with the English Honor Society at my university, and we sat and giggled through the whole thing, it was just so awful. No matter how inventive or interesting the original movie is, I can only ever think of that musical and how laughable it was.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the advance notice, I would have missed this. Already set the DVR.
ReplyDelete