Karl Freund was the cinematographer, and after four years of painstaking research by Martin Koerber and Alpha-Omega of Munich, 1300 feet have been added to the previous restoration, and a re-recorded version of the original "Wagnerian" score, plus new English titles and indication of the still-missing scenes, have been added.
Scott writes that "there is now, at long last, a "Metropolis" with a legitimate claim to being definitive."

It is being screened for two weeks at Film Forum on Houston Street in "a spotless 35mm print with a new recording of Huppertz's score."
This is one of my favorite classics, with powerful crowd scenes, science-fiction cloning of an anti-heroine (in a Frankenstein-like laboratory) and a wonderful German Expressionist look.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/12/movies/12METR.html

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>Had Lang lived to see the age of the "director's cut" DVD, he might
>have responded to those transgressions and reconstructed a
>definitive "Metropolis." But now we have something nearly as good.

So seeing it on film, on the big screen pretty much as the director intended is "nearly" as good as a DVD would be? What an idiot.

letters@nytimes.com is the place to write to

The Village Voice review pairs Metropolis with Road to Perdition.

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Thanks for the link to J. Hoberman's review in the Village Voice.
It's really very thorough and I like his relating the influence
of METROPOLIS on modern filmakers and other cultural trends.

Gerard

I hope we get that print here. I have seen a reasonable 16MM print but that would not be the same thing.

Although it is a classic, as Lang films go I prefer 'M'. We had a Lang festival here a couple of years back and the 35MM print of 'M' was sensational.

I love that quote, Scott! I ran the re-release of CONTEMPT and laughed out loud the first time I heard (read) that line.

Also in the same scene is the line in which Jack Palance's character (as producer) challenges Lang about not sticking to the script after watching the dailies. It goes something like this:

----------------------------------------

Producer: 'That's not what's in the script'

Lang: 'It IS!' (Hands the producer the script)

Producer: 'OK, but that's not what you have on the screen'

Lang: 'Naturally! In the script, it is written. On the screen, it is pictures. MOTION PICTURES, they call it'.

-------------------------------------------------

Priceless.

WOW!!
Dennis, that's a beautiful Website! Lots of info on the reconstruction, and beautiful, clear and sharp Flash Animations
made from stills of METROPOLIS. With sound effects. What a find!

This site also gives TRAILERS and PLAYDATES coast to coast including New England.

Thanks--Gerard

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As for Lang being able to give definitive answers if he were alive, I'm not so sure... he consistently lied to interviewers throughout his life, most famously over his supposed 'escape' from Nazi Germany following a meeting with Goebbels in 1933. Suggested reading: Out of print now, but well worth a read if you can get it. Not a bit like the nauseously sycophantic biography by Lotte Eisner.

And as for his films, I too agree that M is a masterpiece, and the 1951 remake by Joseph Losey is also quite an intelligent updating. Metropolis is a bit on the kitsch side for me: You Only Live Once and Clash by Night are, IMHO, much underrated.

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