Most Wanted
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Il Grido
(Antonioni, 1957)

The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)

-30-
(Webb, 1959)

Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)

Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)

The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)

Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)

The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)

In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)

That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)

The Fox
(Rydell, 1967)

Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)

Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)

At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)

Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)

Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Mike's Murder
(Bridges, 1984)

Reader Submissions

1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
'Doc'
(Perry, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing
(Pakula, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Running on Empty
(Lumet, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Men Don't Leave
(Brickman, 1990)
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

June 11

Tetro

June 12

Call of the Wild 3D

Food, Inc.

Imagine That

Moon

Sex Positive

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love

June 16

Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

June 19

$9.99

Dead Snow

The Proposal

Whatever Works

Year One

June 24

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

June 26

Cheri

Fireflies in the Garden

The Hurt Locker

My Sister's Keeper

The Stoning of Soraya M. 

Surveillance 

July 1

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Public Enemies

July 3

The Girl from Monaco

I Hate Valentine's Day

July 10

Bruno

I Love You, Beth Cooper

Soul Power

July 15

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

July 17

(500) Days of Summer

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

July 24

All Good Things

The Answer Man

G-Force

In the Loop

Orphan

The Ugly Truth

July 29

Adam

July 31

The Cove

Funny People

Lorna's Silence

They Came from Upstairs

August 7

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Julie & Julia

Paper Heart

Shorts

When in Rome

August 14

A Perfect Getaway

Bandslam

District 9

The Goods: The Don Ready Story

I Sell the Dead

Ponyo

Pool Boys

Spread

Taking Woodstock

The Time Traveler's Wife

August 21

Five Minutes of Heaven

Goose on the Loose!

Inglorious Bastards

It Might Get Loud

Post Grad

World's Greatest Dad

August 28

The Boat that Rocked

Final Destination: Death Trip

H2

September 4

All About Steve

Amreeka

Black Dynamite

Carriers

Citizen Game

Extract

Pandorum

Shanghai

September 9

9

September 11

The Red Canvas

Tyler Perrys: I Can Do It All Myself

Whiteout

September 17

The Burning Plain

September 18

Armored

Brand New Day

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Jennifer's Body

Splice

September 25

Fame

The Invention of Lying

Surrogates

October 2

A Serious Man

More Than a Game

Sorority Row

Toy Story/Toy Story 2

Metropolis More

Five years ago Paramount Home Video put out a DVD of the "authorized restored version" of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and everyone was happy. Here, finally, was the version film buffs could buy and take to bed. "At last we have the movie every would-be cinematic visionary has been trying to make since 1927," said N.Y. Times critic A.O. Scott.


No longer. A near complete version of the film has been found in Argentina after a quarter of the film was believed lost for 80 years, a German film foundation announced two days ago. The extra footage runs an extra 25 minutes, and the 2003 DVD runs 124 minutes, so this new and presumably final version of Metropolis will presumably run 149 minutes, or just shy of two and a half hours. This is excellent new, of course, but I've seen Metropolis twice and I've never felt the absence of any vital narrative thread. I'm not a Lang scholar so what do I know?

Reminder<< previous | next >>French Improvement

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 4, 2008 at 3:17 PM

comment #1

p.Vice Author Profile Page says ...

It always amazes me how stuff like this can lay around unnoticed for so long.

Posted by p.Vice Author Profile Page at July 4, 2008 3:45 PM

comment #2

The Bandsaw Vigilante Author Profile Page says ...

It was found floating at sea near Patagonia in the same barrel containing the lost MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS footage.

Just give 'em a couple of years to suddenly "discover" the latter...

Posted by The Bandsaw Vigilante Author Profile Page at July 4, 2008 4:19 PM

comment #3

Mgmax Author Profile Page says ...

An Argentinian poster at NitrateVille says they basically tried to tell the Murnau Foundation that they had it several times and always got blown off...

Posted by Mgmax Author Profile Page at July 4, 2008 6:07 PM

comment #4

The Hoyk Author Profile Page says ...

Paramount initially released METROPOLIS in the U.S., as part of the Parufamet alliance they had with UFA and MGM, but the most recent restoration was released by Kino.

I'm hoping that the question of the proper fps will be resolved with this upcoming restoration. Glenn Erickson claims that the movie should be run at 20 or 18 fps and the current edition still runs too fast and herky-jerky, which I pretty much agree with, but others say that it's proper at 24 fps.

Posted by The Hoyk Author Profile Page at July 4, 2008 6:23 PM

comment #5

Carl LaFong Author Profile Page says ...

Hoyk has a good point about projection speed; the current 124 min. Kino/Murnau print is all sped up and looks pretty silly. I first saw it at the California Film Institute a few years back and was struck by the almost comical speedy-running about that typifies the stereotype of silent film.

The film reportedly premiered at 210 min, and if this unearthed copy really is a complete print, the additional discovered half-hour of footage projected at Hoyk's 18-20fps might very well run that long.

In any event, I hope that Kino/Murnau folks take this into account when the inevitable re-mastering is performed.

Now, if we can only find the missing nineteen minutes from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY! It played in New York briefly before Kubrick lopped stuff out...

Posted by Carl LaFong Author Profile Page at July 4, 2008 6:55 PM

comment #6

Bob Violence Author Profile Page says ...

The film reportedly premiered at 210 min

This is very unlikely. The 210-minute running time comes from running the premiere version (4,189 meters, per the censor's record) at 20fps, which appears to be the natural speed for Metropolis. But there's no evidence it was ever projected this way -- Huppertz's score for the premiere is marked for 25-27fps (if you think the film looks comical at 24fps, imagine it 3fps faster) and the only contemporary review of the premiere that's come down to us gives a running time of around 2 1/2 hours. At 4,189 meters (the length of the premiere version per the German censor's records), that works out to somewhere between 25 and 27fps, just as the score says.

And while it's an oft-cited article of faith that silent movies were usually projected at their natural speed (which for Metropolis would be about 20fps) and the accelerated look is a result of inaccurate sound-era revivals, the fact of the matter is that films were routinely "overcranked" for projection even during the sound era, and that by the mid-twenties 24fps had become a de facto projection standard, even as cameramen continued to crank at much slower speeds. There are even instances (related by Kevin Brownlow) of audiences complaining when films were projected at something close to their natural speed. The motivations for this were predictable -- exhibitors and distributors who wanted to cram more showings into a day -- and no doubt some filmmakers were less-than-pleased with the arrangement. But Huppertz worked very closely with Lang, and in the regrettable absence of any firm evidence as to what Lang's preferences were, Koerber, Palatas and the rest of the restoration team went with Huppertz's recommendation, unnatural as it may look.

Posted by Bob Violence Author Profile Page at July 4, 2008 10:24 PM

comment #7

Carl LaFong Author Profile Page says ...

B.V., I guess it is just a fortunate coincidence that the Huppertz timing happens to coincide with the televised speed. It will be interesting to hear what was cut from the longer Huppertz score, too, with the longer release, whether it be 150 or 210 min. Either way, it'll be exciting to see the complete story.

By the way, I got the 210 min. figure from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_%28film%29#cite_note-10 (admittedly not always reliable) and still hope to one day see the film exhibited in a more natural speed.

And I didn't mean to bad-mouth the Kino/Murnau restoration - it's an amazing looking print and after years of seeing the hacked up version, it was a treat to be able to understand the whole story (missing portions filled in with title cards) at long last.

Posted by Carl LaFong Author Profile Page at July 4, 2008 11:26 PM

comment #8

lazespud Author Profile Page says ...

Apparently the footage is a copy of the original print (which is lost), and looks pretty terrible. The prints of some of the shots that I've seen look awful; and awful in a way that won't be easy to clean up because it looks like an 8mm copy of a 35 mm film. I suspect whatever final film we see from this, the additional footage will be screamingly easy to pick out.

I had been infatuated by Metropolis since the 80s and that bizarre colored release with the rock sountrack. I always wanted to see the film and they played it about 5 years ago in the grand Paramount Theater in Seattle with a live organ accompaniment. Man, it just bored me to death, I'm embarrassed to say. The sets and the robot were awesome, but the other two hours just killed me. It's not like I'm a rube that wouldn't like any films from the era; I love the cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and Faust, but Metropolis kind of sucked.

Posted by lazespud Author Profile Page at July 4, 2008 11:29 PM

comment #9

Glenn Kenny Author Profile Page says ...

The Kino DVD, like the Eureka!/Masters of Cinema one, is from the most recent Murnau House restoration, but as DVD Beaver noted, the transfer was not pre-converted to NTSC, so exhibits noticeable "ghosting" and "combing" artifacts. Demonstrating that there's still more than one reason (that primary reason being more available titles) to invest in a multi-region player.

I don't agree with Lazespud's assessment of the film, but I understand it—as a narrative, "Metropolis" has tons of issues. It can't really decide whether it's fascist or not, for one thing. For me, the incoherence is part of the fascination, but I can see if you're not keyed into it how it wouldn't be.

Given the state of the discovered materials I imagine it's gonna be some time before they're successfully integrated into another restoration. But I eagerly await more wonderment and incoherence!

Posted by Glenn Kenny Author Profile Page at July 5, 2008 6:08 AM

comment #10

Bob Violence Author Profile Page says ...

Kino claims the new footage will be on the Blu-ray they're putting out next year, although that sounds extremely suspect to me -- the frames we've seen so far range from poor to downright awful, and I can't imagine Kino or anyone else would want to release this without first putting it through a thorough (and lengthy) restoration effort.

Posted by Bob Violence Author Profile Page at July 5, 2008 8:18 AM

comment #11

MPNeeb Author Profile Page says ...

Now if we could only find London after Midnight...

Posted by MPNeeb Author Profile Page at July 5, 2008 9:38 AM

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