Thanks for sharing...fascinating....I own many original german ufa stills of
this master piece..the set is not complete but it will one day....searching
since a real long time...20 years and counting....and I have the color
stills....addiction pure...can't wait to see this version on the screen...
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
-----Original Message-----
From: Wolfgang Jahn <m...@fantompaper.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:59:03
To: <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
Subject: [MOPO] Metropolis 2010 Restoration
I just watched the restored two and a half hour version, restored with the
Argentine 16mm print that was found last year, adding approx 30mins to the
previous versions.
In general I'm mostly surprised how well the film works, haven't seen
Metropolis since maybe 10 years.
It has the original score played live by Berlin philharmonic orchestra and
the original titles.
The restored scenes appear to be recognized at a glimpse due to the quality,
the restoration improved them but they couldn't work miracles, as there were
no comparisons to the lost scenes except stills.
What was most noticeable to me as new besides some bits and pieces:
-entirely new images of the statue of HEL (the original machine-woman)
created by mad scientist Rotwang, and pointing out that Rotwang, the
inventor, created it because he fell in love/adored the real Hel (wife of
the city-leader) before she died, so he recreated her (and transforms this
robot to the 'whore of babylon'-Doppelganger of Maria soon afterwards in the
film)
- more images of Moloch, the man-feeding machine
-A short but wild montage scene showing the sins of upper-class Metropolis
(gambling, prostitution)
-A new character (called 'Der Schmale' = 'The Narrow' (or The Thin man) who
is the guard of the upper class leader
Should be out on DVD soon.
-This restoration (done in only a half year by the Murnau Stiftung) cost
600.000 Euro.
-In a documentary that was shown afterwards it was told that the original
complete 35mm negative was copied to 16mm (with major loss of picture
quality by this process and afterwards) in Argentina not before the 70s! and
destroyed - because the owner was afraid of the danger of nitrate film and
didn't have the money to make a 35mm copy, but they didn't know what they
had of course
-The German poster (the confirmed sale 2 years or so ago) sold for about the
same amount than this restoration cost.
-Production cost of the film was an est. of 3.5 Mill Reichsmark back then
(about 15 Million Euro today)
Cheers,
Wolfgang
Kinoart.net
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