FRITZ LANG

Fritz Lang's Metropolis has finally been restored to its original 210 minute cut, and will be premiering this week at the Berlinale film festival in Germany. Lang's original cut in 1927 was shortened considerably after its initial test screenings for being far longer than the average 90 minute silent film. Various cuts of the film were made without Lang's consent making the film illogical and nonsensical in parts. American cinemas for example screened an edited version by the playwright Channing Pollock which played the film at a speed of 24 frames per second instead of its intended 16, accelerating the film into a disjointed rhythm. Metropolis languished in its severely edited form until 2008, when a copy 30 minutes longer than any known surviving version was found in the archives of the Museo del Cine, an Argentinian film museum. Restored and re-edited, this version will finally complete Lang's original narrative and answer many of the film's mysterious unexplained subplots.
.