Back to the future as Metropolis reels are found

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-4  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

FILM historians had doubted they would ever find the missing parts of "Metropolis" - until three reels of the classic science fiction movie made in Germany were discovered in Argentina.

Two film fans there uncovered the fragile footage in a small museum, earlier this year - more than 80 years after Fritz Lang's dystopian classic first began to shed scenes. With its cold, monumental vision of mechanized society, "Metropolis" forged a template for generations of science fiction cinema, and its enduring influence can been seen in films from "Blade Runner" to "Fahrenheit 451" and "Star Wars."

"We were overjoyed when we heard about the find," Helmut Possmann, head of the foundation which owns the rights to the film, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, said. "We no longer believed we'd see this. Time and again we had had calls about supposed footage but were disappointed."

"Metropolis," which depicts a tumultuous class struggle in a vast, urban society, was released in 1927 and set a century later. The silent film was not a commercial success and nearly ruined the studio behind it - according to some estimates, it still ranks as one of the most expensive movies ever made once inflation is taken into account.

Soon after its premiere, the movie was heavily cut to make it more accessible, and several versions emerged. A series of efforts were made to restore the film over the years but roughly a quarter of the film was believed to be lost. However, there were those in Argentina who knew better.

According to German newspaper Die Zeit, Buenos Aires film distributor Adolfo Wilson acquired a long version of "Metropolis" in 1928 which survived as a copy, and finally ended up in the archive of a local film museum.