TheDigitalBits wrote:Do you want to hear something EXTREMELY cool, especially if you're a serious film fan? Film archivists at the Museo del Cine (Cinema Museum) in Buenos Aires have recently uncovered the lost footage from Fritz Lang's original 1927 version of Metropolis in 16mm negatives! You can read more on this news here at ZEIT Online and here as well. Apparently a copy of the long version of the film was set to Argentina in 1928 for a theatre screening. Shortly thereafter, a local film critic came into possession of the film reels and added them to his private collection. They were later sold to Argentina's National Art Fund, and were eventually donated to the Museo del Cine, where they were eventually rediscovered by the museum's curator this past January. The footage isn't apparently in the greatest shape, but it CAN be restored to the point where Lang's original vision can finally be appreciated by audiences in theatres and on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. As fans of the film are no doubt aware, some 20% of the footage from Lang's original version was considered lost until this discovery. This is just extremely cool news! You can read our review of Kino's previous (and outstanding, we might add) DVD release here. Let's hope Kino is able to include the new footage in their forthcoming Blu-ray edition due sometime in 2009. Special thanks to Bits reader David J. for bringing our attention to this! We can't WAIT to see it for ourselves.
Now if only someone will find the original 2-plus hour version of The Magnificent Ambersons.
Albert
WIST #60:
AwallaceUNC: Would you prefer Substi-Blu-tiary Locomotion?
WIST #61:
TheSequelOfDisney: Damn, did Lin-Manuel Miranda go and murder all your families?
That's really cool! In my German Film class, we learned about this film, and we had to know about it for the test, but we never actually watched this one (since there wasn't time to watch all the films we learned about). It's neat how part of a film can be lost, and then all of a sudden it's found!
This was in our newspaper today and everyone in the German movie industry is super excited, since it's another step to releasing a complete version of the movie that Lang itended. In our newspaper they said that the scenes found are in a bad condition, however the Murnau institute that takes care of most of the German silent classics said they will be able to restore it and put it in the movie.
It's really exciting that there are still scenes out there and this also means a new DVD release should be on its way in a few years after the scenes have been restored.
Netty, there are still copies of Nosferatu out there because the court order concerned only German copies from the time of its release, so all the copies in the Netherlands or England didn't have to be destroyed. At least that's what I heard. And even those aren't complete apparently.
The only complete German copy belongs to a German Murnau collector who won't even lend it to the Murnau institute to have it restored.
That's quite good news; I've seen this film several times and really enjoyed it. I was getting set to pick up the Kino DVD as one of my last purchases on the format, but I guess I'll hold off now that a more complete cut is probably already in the works. I hope a 16mm print produces a decent-looking HD transfer. Maybe this one should be given to Criterion, or a Kino/Criterion joint release; they do great restoration work. Hell, even Lucasfilm... as long as you keep George away from the CGI software, heh.
Since when was the restored cut available on DVD? It just received it's premier at the Berlin Festival and is due for a DVD and Blu-Ray release at the end of the year
I heard about this! I've never seen the film, but it sounds fascinating. I did also hear that the recovered scenes are (or were) in really, really bad shape. I also heard that it still isn't complete.... apparently one part was at a reel end and was basically powder. But this is as close as they are going to get.
I own a dvd of the film, put out in 2008, and it contains the "extensive 2001 restauration licensed from the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation and Transit Film GmbH". It's a region 2 release, put out by Living Colour Entertainment. Although a lot of 'lost' scenes were reinstated in this restauration, this is still not a complete version. Some of the scenes look really bad and sometimes it's hard to make out what's on the screen. It's a shame that only a tiny portion of the silent decade-films have survived.
A new HD trailer for the North American theatrical re-release of Metropolis (Kino International) is up on Apple. This theatrical re-release will feature the recently discovered 25 minutes of "lost" footage reincorporated for the most complete version of the film since it's premier. You can see in the trailer how bad the new footage looks (which was on a 16mm film strip and kept in terrible conditions), and they did a pretty good job dealing with what they had (although, the old 35mm footage looks like it could still use a little more restoration as there is still a lot of dust, scratches, flickering, and frame shifting; it says they're using the 2002 restoration for that footage). There is lots of grain but that's to be expected for a film over 80 years old and featuring so many effects shots.
From what I've heard the new footage actually makes the movie even better, considering I liked it to being with, I'm really excited to see it. I first saw this with the restoration that had title cards saying what happened in the missing footage, it was annoying and I never thought I'd ever see the real footage, and now I can. Hopefully it will be in a theater near me, as I don't plan on buying it but would very much like to see it (my library usually doesn't re-buy a movie they already own, but this could arguably qualify as a new movie).
Yeah, the upcoming UK-Blu-ray looks awsome and it will contain a book. I'm so excited
I saw the reconstructed version live in Berlin and although the "new" scenes are in really bad condition it's just stunning how they make the film so much better!
Hmm... I'm not 100% crazy about that cover, though. Of course, it gets originality points for not being just a close-up of the maschinenmensch's original form, like very other poster/DVD I've ever seen. It just seems to be missing something... Oh well.
I see it comes with a 56-page book! How lovely! But will there be a DVD-only release? And if there is, will it come with a collector's book as well?
SpringHeelJack wrote:I like that they're deciding to do something new, I just... wish it would fit on my shelf. I'm hoping Region A is going to look different.
Why wouldn't it fit on your shelf? It's a regular Blu-ray case (or DVD case) on its side.
...you sure? It looks in the picture like a regular Blu-ray / DVD case standing normally with said 56 page book directly to the right of it both inside a large slipcover of sorts.
Even if not, why would they design a movie with cover art so that it had to be on its side to be displayed normally? That's also kind of lame.
"Ta ta ta taaaa! Look at me... I'm a snowman! I'm gonna go stand on someone's lawn if I don't get something to do around here pretty soon!"
I did just that! Reviewed it on the "What Movie Did You Just Watch?" thread. Loved it! 
