Results: Metropolis

The story - The inspiration came from a trip Fritz and Thea made to New York city where they wondered the workings of it. Metropolis is set in a future city powered by a machine underground tended by a subset of people who live there. Joh is the master of Metropolis and when he finds his son Freder has taken interest in the workers below and their spiritual leader Maria, orders inventor Rotwang to to replace her with a replica. Ever visited a major metropolitan city, maybe live in one?

The cuts - The original running time of Metropolis was 153 minutes. From there it suffered a series of five cuts. Without getting into too much detail, these were due to length, subtext, religious imagery and Nazi censors, were it got to the point a 1936 showing was 91 minutes. Are you willing to watch a movie over 2 hours long?

Moroder - the first mainstream attempt at restoring Metropolis came in 1984, with Italian composer Giorgio Moroder involved. Running 83 minutes, it was color tinted, featuring songs he composed sang by popular music artists of the time. While some critics said it came off looking like a long MTV video, it got the ball rolling in interest to reassemble the film. Ever watch a black and white film that was later color-tinted or colorized?

The find - In July 2008, film experts in Berlin announced a 16 mm negative of the full original cut was discovered in Argentina. The print was in bad shape, a couple scenes totally damaged beyond repair. However, this combined with good footage from from other sources resulted in the 148 minute cut released in 2010, just 5 minutes short of the original run. Considering the fate of some old films due to decay, fires or simply being destroyed, do you find this a bit amazing?

Influence - to wrap this up, despite being a classic silent film, it influenced later ones such as Blade Runner with it's towering buildings, or Star Wars, where C-3PO is similar to the Maria robot as can be seen in this early Ralph McQuarrie concept painting. Below a few more, any you've seen?