Let me just say that the new restoration has absolutely exceeded all my expectations. The newly-restored footage encompasses about 25 minutes of added material in all - individual shots and entire scenes - found throughout the film's running time. (Apparently, a few minutes remain "lost" because one scene on the 16mm print recovered recently in Buenos Ares was simply beyond restoration, and a tiny bit of its original footage was cut by Argentinean censors back in 1927.) The quality of the new material is a bit rough, and because it was in 16mm format, the aspect and image area isn't quite the same as the previously restored footage, so there are occasional black bars around the edges of the frame to retain the proper scale. Nevertheless, the digital restoration has rendered this footage entirely watchable, and its impact on the overall story is immense. First, the recovered print allowed the restoration team to properly edit the film to match its original cut - the previous edit was assembled according to the best available notes (and the original script) and some of it was conjecture. Next, what you realize when watching the film with this new footage, is that the editing was extraordinary for the time. Few other films of the era use quite the same aggressive pace of cutting, and this really enhances the dramatic experience. Finally, you're actually getting to see HUGE portions of the story that had previously only been told with descriptive title cards. This is because there are key scenes for which only a few shots were previously available to the restoration team. Without the ability to reconstruct the complete scene visually, many of these scenes were simply cut and replaced with descriptive text cards for the 2002 DVD. So what's been added? More of the Yoshiwara nightclub sequences are now available. The character of The Thin Man becomes a much greater and more menacing presence in the new cut - not only tracking down Josaphat and 11811, but also appearing as a monk to Freder and revealing a Bible image of the Seven Deadly Sins that is visually identical to Mel-Maria's frenetic dance. In the previous cut, you'd see title cards when the workers storm the M-Machine, when Freder and Josaphat break through the bars of the air shaft to free the children, when Rotwang kneels before his monument to the real Hel, when the worker mob finds and chases Maria, etc - now you get to see all of that. The result is that you FEEL the tension build - the film experience is much more dramatic and gripping now. (A complete list of newly restored shots and scenes is [FONT=arial, helvetica, courier, *]
available here in PDF form[/FONT] on the Kino website.) As was the case with the original King Kong, film audiences back in 1927 must have just been completely freaked out by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. It's still a pretty extraordinary experience today, some 83 years later, and with this new restoration that's more true now than ever.
I also can't stress more highly how cool it was to have the Boston-based Alloy Orchestra on hand to perform a score for the film. I say "a" score rather than "the" score, because Alloy performed their own new composition, not the original Gottfried Huppertz music. But their score is just absolutely thrilling - pounding drums, accordion, clarinet and a whole variety of metallic-based percussion. (You can hear parts of it [FONT=arial, helvetica, courier, *]
here on the WBUR website[/FONT], along with a very recent radio interview with the Orchestra as they prepared for the TCM Festival performance - click LISTEN NOW at the top of the page.) It's so good, in fact, that I ABSOLUTELY DEMAND that Kino include the Alloy score as an optional audio track on the November DVD and Blu-ray release! Yes, it's that good. (If you agree, let Kino know on [FONT=arial, helvetica, courier, *]
their Facebook site for the film[/FONT].) It really draws you into the tension and action. I got chills down my spine on more than one occasion, and the Orchestra received a huge and well-deserved standing ovation from the packed Chinese Theater audience when the performance was over. What a extraordinarily cool thing to experience live! I feel very lucky to have had the chance to see this screening. This was a historic event, and it's certainly going to rank as one of the highlights of my lifetime of film experiences.
I should note that the Alloy Orchestra will be performing the score to the film live at another screening of the film in San Francisco in July at [FONT=arial, helvetica, courier, *]
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival[/FONT]. If you can attend, I HIGHLY recommend it. [FONT=arial, helvetica, courier, *]
The film itself is also going to run in limited theatrical release[/FONT] in New York, Los Angeles and Cleveland throughout the month of May. Do NOT miss it.
By the way, TCM host Robert Osborne also confirmed (during his introduction to the screening last night) that this year's first-ever [FONT=arial, helvetica, courier, *]
TCM Film Festival[/FONT] was highly successful, and WILL return again next year to Hollywood. Additional details will be announced in the coming weeks and months, I'm sure.
One last Metropolis note: As I mentioned, our very own Dr. Jahnke was also in attendance last night, and he's posted his own thoughts on the screening in a new installment of [FONT=arial, helvetica, courier, *]
Jahnke's Electric Theatre[/FONT] today, so do check it out!
.
