Fritz Lang's "Metropolis,' restored

The Germans did something surprising on Friday (Feb. 12) in Berlin. They projected the newest restoration of Fritz Lang's expressionist masterpiece, the silent science fiction film Metropolis, on a screen hung from the Brandenburg Gate, free to the public— and then they livestreamed it to any and all in Internet-land who cared to watch.

I mentioned this to a co-worker, adding that this would be the first time that about an hour's worth of footage had been seen since the film's 1927 premiere.

"Wow," she replied. "That will make it really long."

OK, so Metropolis isn't a film for everyone. And if you don't like it at two hours, you probably won't go wild over it at three. Nevertheless, the discovery of this new footage in an Argentine archive made news around the world, and for good reason.

Metropolis is a futuristic film much like Ridley Scott's 1982 science fiction flick, Blade Runner— visionary and confused. If you look for classic purity and elegant plot construction, you probably won't like either film.

Socialist nightmare

Then there's the matter of its politics. The author Thea von Harbou was at her most gushingly socialistic when she penned this tale of a future in which brigades of oppressed workers toil in subterranean darkness so that a handful of blessed aristocrats can live lives of leisure in their skyscrapers and their pleasure gardens.

Harbou's ultimate solution— that the Heart must mediate between the Head and the Hands— wasn't likely to please anyone. In terms of its message, the film wasn't revolutionary enough to please the left but too cheeky in its depiction of the gulf between labor and capital to make it many friends on the right. (Although Hitler apparently appreciated its visuals, if not its content.) In America, Paramount solved the problem by cutting scenes and then ordering up new subtitles that ignored the text of the German originals and further muddied up the author's message (which was none too clear to begin with).

The restored footage won't transform Metropolis into a lost work by Jean Racine, but it will untangle a few of the film's conundrums. You'll learn more about the tangled relationship between the master of Metropolis and his scientific wizard, Rotwang. And you'll finally get to see the great actor Fritz Rasp playing a ruthless police spy. (For years it was assumed that his entire performance had been lost when the film was initially edited down for its general release.)

New and improved

I first saw Metropolis as a teenager in a washed-out print with an inappropriate soundtrack. So I was thrilled, a few years back, when the Murnau Institute released a restored version that sharpened up the images and replaced scores (ranging from the banal to rock) with a new recording of the original 1927 symphonic score. The Murnau people apparently spent something like 600,000 euros for this newest and final restoration.

Some will say: What, again? But I'm thrilled that at last we have Metropolis as Lang intended it.

If it's released to U.S. theaters, I will be there. And I can only hope that some U.S. video company will release it on DVD (even though the Germans already let us watch it for free).