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This November, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will present a groundbreaking achievement in filmmaking and film restoration with the world television premiere of the newly restored version of Fritz Lang’s 1927 science-fiction masterpiece Metropolis. This extraordinary new edition of the film, which had its North American theatrical premiere at the TCM Classic Festival in April, features 25 minutes of previously lost scenes, as well as the original Gottfried Huppertz score. Metropolis is slated to premiere on TCM Sunday, Nov. 7, at 8 p.m. (ET), one week before the release of DVD and Blu-ray Disc™ editions from Kino International. TCM’s presentation will be followed at 11 p.m. (ET) by Metropolis Refound (2010), a one-hour documentary about the discovery of new footage.
Metropolis is one of the most memorable films of the silent era and an iconic example of German expressionism. The story takes place in a futuristic, high-tech city ruled by Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). Above ground, the city’s elites enjoy all the luxuries imaginable, while underground, serfs labor long, grueling hours to keep the machinery of the city running. A young woman named Maria (Brigitte Helm) takes Fredersen’s naïve son, Freder (Gustav Frölich), down to the catacombs to see the plight of the workers. The inhumanity leads him to rebel against his father and fight to free those who suffer under the city’s streets. When Fredersen discovers his son’s betrayal, he seeks help from an old friend-turned-rival, the scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), who has created a female robot that can be used to suppress the coming worker rebellion. But Rotwang has an agenda of his own that could result in the destruction of the entire city.
Metropolis took director Fritz Lang two years to complete and soared past its original budget. Lang shot more than 1.3 million meters of footage and used 36,000 extras, including 750 children.
When Metropolis premiered in 1927, it was mildly successful, in part because its extreme length (204 minutes) made it difficult to screen. Distributors began using severely truncated versions, many of which mangled plot and character elements. Over time, only the edited versions remained in circulation, and Lang’s original vision was believed lost forever.
The restoration of Metropolis began in summer 2008, when the curator of the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine discovered a 16mm negative of the film, including 25 minutes – one fifth of the entire film – that had not been seen since the 1927 Berlin premiere. Although it didn’t include all of Lang’s original version, it was the most complete print of the film ever found.
The discovery prompted a new restoration and reconstruction project, headed by Anke Wilkening of the Murnau Stiftung (Murnau Foundation), which serves as caretaker for virtually all pre-1945 German films, and Martin Koerber, film department curator of the Deutche Kinemateque. Acclaimed German conductor and arranger Frank Stoebel, who has worked extensively with music for silent films, adapted the Huppertz score.
The newly reconstructed, 147-minute version of Metropolis features extensive scenes that flesh out many of the supporting characters, fill in jarring gaps in the plot and provide additional back story. The restoration premiered on Feb. 12, 2010, at the Berlin Film Festival. It made its North American debut on April 25, 2010, in Hollywood as part of the first-ever TCM Classic Film Festival.
