Message-ID: <12483@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-Aug-84 00:22:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12483
Posted: Tue Aug 21 00:22:58 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Aug-84 01:03:25 EDT
Lines: 37

From:  Peter G. Trei 

	There is a new release of Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS out. This is
 good news and bad news.

	The good news is that many segments which were cut out of the
original English-titled version have been restored, or at least
attempts made to restore plot continuity thru the use of stills from
lost segments and extra titling. I would estimate that about 10-15
minutes have been added to the film, with a considerable increase in
comphrehensibility.

	The bad news is the sound track: Giorgio Moroder probably
thought he could bring in a whole new audience with heavy metal music
and songs by himself and Pete Bellotte, as performed by Cycle 5, Pat
Benatar, Billy Squier, Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, Bonnie Tyler, Freddie
Mercury, and Loverboy. I must admit the New York audience cheered at
the end, but I felt that I had seen a great masterpiece ruined. If it
were not for the promise of the restored sequences, both I and my
companion would have walked out. It made both of us very angry.

	Classic silent films, at least to me, are somewhat dreamlike;
there is little or no color (this version successfully uses tinting to
evoke mood, and occasionally two colors in a scene), and the action
seems sometimes enigmatic. In METROPOLIS, the actors make heavy use of
facial expression and body english (german?) to get their intentions
and feelings across; in this version, the actors intents and moods are
telegraphed far in advance by the music and (very saccharine) songs,
so the actors seem to be hamming it up, and many times caused audience
laughter during the most intense scenes.

	See this version if you are an SF film completest; otherwise,
try to see an older version, or better yet, wait till the video tape
comes out and watch that....	with the sound off.

						Peter Trei
-------

Message-ID: <879@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 03:20:30 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.879
Posted: Tue Mar  5 03:20:30 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Mar-85 05:36:42 EST
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 25

> From:	ttidcc!hollombe	(Jerry Hollombe)

> ...how many people are  aware  that  _Metropolis_  wasn't
> written by Fritz Lang?  One of my pet peeves is everyone referring to it as
> "Fritz Lang's _Metropolis_" when the original novel was actually written by
> Thea von Harbou.

It's called "Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS" to distinguish it from Thea von
Harbou's METROPOLIS. Von Harbou's is the novel, Lang's is the film. The
same is done with "Alfred Hitchcock's PYSCHO" (film) vs. "Robert Bloch's
PSYCHO" (novel), "Stanley Kubrick's 2001" (film) vs. "Arthur C. Clarke's
2001" (novel), "Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING" (film) vs. Stephen King's
THE SHINING" (novel), etc.

Von Harbou may have written the novel upon which it's based, but Lang
brought it to the screen. Besides, Lang *did* co-write the screenplay
for METROPOLIS with von Harbou.

--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)

UUCP:	{decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}
	!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA:	boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA

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