Metropolis Reborn

Have a look at this article to find out about the restoration of those lost scenes from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis which we mentioned in our Cities of the Future seminar. These missing sections, compensated for in the version we watched by some rather clunky intertitle summaries, are now reinstated in the film, having been found in an archive in Buenos Aires in 2008. The restoration reminds us that the version of the film shown in the US, and very poorly received by critics, was a long way from the “director’s cut,” and exaggerated some of the most implausible plot developments. It must be said, however, that the reception of the film’s complete version, now restored, was also critically condemned in Germany. Despite this, large crowds are expected at the forthcoming Berlin screening of this restored film. The influence of Metropolis on subsequent science fiction or futuristic filmmaking partly explains this rehabilitation of the film’s reputation.