Film Archive

Metropolis

Metropolis returns to cinema screens in the original, 1927 version, believed lost for decades but now almost entirely reconstructed. The myth of Fritz Lang’s silent film classic lies in its opulent, visionary staging and a long-enduring story as film material that became cinematic history in which its tradition and restoration have played an intrinsic part. The 2001 version was adopted into the world documentary archive “Memory of the World” by the UNESCO. The sensational find in Buenos Aires in 2008 means that it has now been possible to re-insert almost all the previously missing takes and sequences into the film – about 30 minutes running time that was only available previously on censorship cards and in individual stills in the past.

The fully restored version of 2010 can be experienced together with the new edition of the film music based on the original score by Gottfried Huppertz.

Fritz Lang was born in 1890 in Vienna and dies in 1976 in Beverly Hills. He celebrated his first success during the Weimar Republic, reacting to the massive political and social changes of the time and integrating them into his work. He left Germany in 1933, emigrating via France to the United States. His best known films from his work in Germany include: Spiders (1919), The Plague in Florence (1919), Madame Butterfly (1919), The Wandering Image (1920), Kaempfende Herzen (1920/21), Destiny (1921), Das indische Grabmal (1921), Die Nibelungen (1922-1924), Metropolis (1927), The Spy (1928), Woman in the Moon (1929), M - A Town is Looking for a Murderer (1931), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), and many more.
 

Genre Art, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Category Feature Film Cinema, Silent
Year of Production 1927
Director Fritz Lang
Screenplay Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang
Directors of Photography Karl Freund, Günther Rittau
Music by  Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Frank Strobel
Original Music by Gottfried Huppertz
Production Design Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, Karl Vollbrecht
Production Company Ufa/Berlin
Principal Cast Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gustav Fröhlich, Fritz Rasp, Theodor Loos, Heinrich George, Erwin Biswanger
Length 145 min
Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.33
Original Version silent with German intertitles
Intertitled Versions English, French, Italian, Spanish
Festival Screenings Berlin 2001, Berlin 2010 (Berlinale Special), CPH:PIX Copenhagen 2010
Awards UNESCO Memory of the World
With backing from BKM, Gemeinnuetziger Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, VGF Verwertungsgesellschaft fuer Nutzungsrechte
German Distributor Transit Film/Munich

World Sales
Transit Film GmbH
Loy W. Arnold, Mark Gruenthal, Susanne Schumann
Dachauer Strasse 35
80335 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-5 99 88 50
fax +49-89-59 98 85 20
email: loy.arnold@transitfilm.de; mark.gruenthal@transitfilm.de; susanne.schumann@transitfilm.de
http://www.transitfilm.de