9 good things about '10: #3 - Metropolis
(A potted history of Metropolis. Feel free to skip if you know the story.
Lunatic savant Fritz Lang made Metropolis in 1926 and in the process managed to spend ALL THE MONEY IN GERMANY. It premiered in Berlin in January 1927 and received lukewarm reviews. The producers panicked because Lang had, in their eyes, wasted ALL THE MONEY IN GERMANY and they would now have to survive by drinking rainwater and eating stray cats. In an attempt to get some money back, they hired an American playwright to recut the film, who made it shorter and tried to emphasise the love story. This is the version known to most people. Prints of the original version were ground into a fine powder and flushed down the toilet (possibly). Lang is so unhappy with the alternative cut that he later describes his Metropolis as "a film that no longer exists". Thankfully, he died before Giorgio Moroder released the version of Metropolis with colour tint and Pat Benetar on the soundtrack. Not to mention the video for Radio Ga Ga.
Then in 2008, someone finds the original version of Metropolis lying around in Argentina. It turns out that a South American film buyer bought a copy of the film _before_ the cuts were made. It contains all of the deleted scenes, plus it has the existing scenes in the correct order. The restoration job takes some time but is finally premiered in Berlin in February 2010, complete with a new recording of the original score)
I watched Metropolis a few years back. My opinion was the same as most peoples: a interesting film, but totally incomprehensible and silly in that way that a lot of silent films are. My opinion of silent movies in general has changed since then, mainly through Paul Merton’s heroic effort to rehabilitate them in his Silent Heroes series on BBC4 and also through watching some genuinely cracking silents like Battleship Potemkin. It was enough to get me excited about the new version of Metropolis, with 30 minutes of restored footage.
Two and a half hours later, I had a sore bum and that giddy feeling I get when I’ve seen something truly great. The restored Metropolis is stunning. It’s not the extra footage, which is so damaged that at times it has to be replaced by caption cards describing the action. Most of the cut footage consists of linking shots, apart from one entire plotline about a psychotic butler stalking the hero.
Instead there are two great things about the new version. The first is that the scenes, when put back in order, not only make sense but combine to form a thumping strong story. There is one short deleted scene which contains some critical dialogue explaining the motivation of two of the central characters. The removal of this was part of the reason the original didn’t make a lick of sense. Everything else now builds up into a coherent story that’s quite compelling.
The other great thing is the restoration job. Paul Merton’s big complaint about silent movies is that they tend to be damaged, projected at the wrong speed and have wholly inappropriate music. The restored Metropolis shows what a difference this makes. Everything in this version is now so clear that it could have been shot yesterday, allowing you to revel in the intricacy of Lang’s vision. It’s also accompanied by the original score, which is an incredible piece of music.
Silent movies tend to feel old. Not just in terms of time elapsed, but in the cultural values that generated them. What I mean is, modern audiences tend to watch them and think, “Who the hell was ever entertained by this garbage?” The restored version of Metropolis picks the film up and plonks it right in the middle of a culture that produces Star Wars and Avatar. It’s contemporary, it’s relevant, it’s utterly stunning. I think Lang would be very, very happy if he knew what happened to his film . He created a masterpiece but he was ahead of his time by about 73 years.
There were some other great films released in 2010, such as Toy Story 3, Four Lions, The Bad Lieutenant and Dogtooth, but for me the best film this year was a movie that was very, very old, yet felt very, very new.
(A sample of Metropolis at its lowest point, getting the stuffing kicked out of it by Giorgio Moroder and Freddie Mercury: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7wQ34_vZ7Q)
(And here’s the Maria-bot dance scene from the restored version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0D4fHieW8o)