Metropolis - Fritz Lang

Germany 1927

"There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator."

Fritz Lang's Metropolis is perhaps the most famous German film of all time, and certainly one of the most influential of all silent films. In its lifetime it has been: drastically re-edited (shortly after release); unseen for decades; revisioned with a modern music score in the 1980s; and thanks to the work of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and a network of archives all over the world, restored in 2001. This restoration of Metropolis is almost certainly the most complete and authentic version possible of Lang's original 1927 vision.

Metropolis takes place in 2026, where people are divided into two groups: poor workers living beneath the ground and the rich who enjoy a futuristic city of luxury. The tense balance of these two societies is realized through images that are among the most famous of the 20th century, many of which pre-empt such science fiction classics as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Lavish and spectacular, with elaborate sets and jawdropping production values, Metropolis stands today as a testament to Lang's ambitious vision of what cinema could be.

Posters

Theatrical Release: January 10th, 1927 - Germany

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DVD Comparison:

Eureka (Masters of Cinema # 8 - 2 disc) - Region 2 - PAL vs. Kino International - Region 1 - NTSC

(Eureka (Masters of Cinema - 2 disc) PAL Region 2 - LEFT vs. Kino International - Region 1- NTSC - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Eureka Video - Masters of Cinema # 8 Region 2 - PAL	Kino International Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:58:32 (No PAL speedup as it was intended at 25 fps)	1:58:24 (taken from PAL master at 25 fps)
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.75 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.22 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Eureka
Bitrate: Eureka (disc2)
Bitrate: Kino
Audio	• Musical Score Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround by Gottfried Huppertz (448 kbps) • Musical Score Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono by Gottfried Huppertz (224 kbps) • Audio Commentary by Enno Patalas in German or in English	• Musical Score Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround by Gottfried Huppertz • Musical Score Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono by Gottfried Huppertz
Subtitles	Cardboard intertitles: German Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian (all removable)	Cardboard intertitles: English Subtitles: French, Spanish, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Eureka Video Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Original 1927 Orchestral Score By Gottfried Huppertz Newly Arranged By Berndt Heller • Full Length Audio Commentary By Enno Patalas • 28-page Booklet containing extensive restoration notes by Martin Koerber, writing by Otto Hunte, Günther Rittau, Aenne Willkomm, Brigitte Helm, Rudolf Arnheim and a newly revised and updated essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum. • The Metropolis Case A Making Of Documentary • Restoration Documentary • Production Stills • Posters • Costume Designs • Stills Of Missing Scenes • Architectural Sketches • German Intertitles DVD Release Date: January 25th, 2005 Double Slim transparent Keep Case Chapters: 33	Release Information: Studio: Kino International Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Commentary by film historian Enno Patalas • Commentary subtitles in English, French, and Spanish • 5.1 surround sound of newly recorded orchestral score • "The Metropolis Case": a 43-minute documentary by Enno Patalas (with English, French, and Spanish subtitles) • Restoration featurette (with English, French, and Spanish subtitles) • Photo galleries featuring production stills, missing scenes, architectural sketches, and poster artwork • 13 cast and crew biographies • Facts and dates • 5 page liner notes by Martin Koerber DVD Release Date: February18th, 2003 Keep Case Chapters: 33

Comments:

This appears to be a classic example of PAL-NTSC ghosting derived from improper conversion. The Kino - Region 1- NTSC edition uses the same PAL master from the German Transit-Universum (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung), BUT they did not pre-convert to NTSC for their standards' (Region 1) audience. I imagine it was done for monetary reasons as it was far less expensive than paying for the conversion. Unfortunately, the result is that those viewing the Kino edition DVD will see all the prevalent flaws that this common transference practice produces - 'ghosting' in motion sequences (see below), blurriness, artifacts and in this case some dis-colorization. I find the Kino has a blueish tinge to the more grey sequences. For purists, another huge difference is that the Kino have pre-translated the title cards from their original German into English. This is totally out-of-place or anyone respecting this films origins. The Eureka intertitles can be optionally subtitled.

The Eureka edition (an exact duplicate of the Transit German DVD, and marginally less expensive) is on 2 discs - pushing the The Metropolis Case A Making Of Documentary to its own 2nd DVD thereby not impinging on the data storage/transfer of the feature film. The Eureka menus give an initial offering of 5 language choices.

Side-by-side comparison shows how much better the Eureka DVD looks, with incredible greyscale, detail, definition and without any of the visible artifacts on the Kino.

NOTE: The Kino version carries an English version of the commentary written by Enno Patalas but spoken by an actor reading Patalas' words. Kino refer to this as "Audio commentary by Enno Patalas".

The MoC version, like the German Transit version, features two separate audio recordings of the commentary. One is Patalas speaking in German (with English subtitles), the other, the English re-recording as featured on the Kino disc.

Kino squashed everything onto one disc, got rid of the German language commentary, and converted from 25fps PAL to NTSC.

The MoC and Transit versions are 25fps film (not 24fps) transferred directly to 25fps PAL.

NOTE: DVDBeaver has placed the Eureka DVD on its Top 100 List and also elevated it to the status of an Essential DVD. This is definitely a reason to buy a region-free player if you live in an NTSC country.

- Gary W. Tooze

Associated Reading (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)


Metropolis (Bfi Film Classics, 54) by Thomas Elsaesser	Fritz Lang's Metropolis : Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear by Michael Minden (Editor), Holger Bachmann	The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity (Distributed for British Film Institute) by Tom Gunning	German Expressionist Films (Pocket Essentials) by Paul Cooke	The First Female Stars : Women of the Silent Era by David W. Menefee	Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses by Anthony Slide	Silent Stars Speak: Interviews With Twelve Cinema Pioneers by Tony Villecco	Haunted Screen Expressionism in the German Cinema by Lotte Eisner

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(Eureka (Masters of Cinema - 2 disc) PAL Region 2 - LEFT vs. Kino International - Region 1- NTSC - RIGHT)

Intertitle Samples

NOTE: Eureka use the original German intertitles, while the Kino have replaced with English.