ALL SCI-FI

[Bongopete]

I really enjoy this movie, and have seen it many time and in several different versions.

But I wonder how much of my liking it has anything to do with just understanding how ground breaking this movie was when it came back and the influence on so many movies afterward.

I think to see this with fresh eyes would still be handicapped by the fact that it is a silent film. I do think that the music used can very often influence how you like or dislike it.

The Giorgio Moroder version with its use of music of the day certainly broadened its appeal among viewers, but beyond film buffs and scifi fans...how well received is this movie today?

[Bud Brewster]

____________________________________

The scenes of the robot being transformed into Maria are still powerful.



And the design of the robot is remarkable.



I just wish we'd gotten to see the backside (I mean . . . the back side). I'm sure the design was equally interesting. You know . . . something like this, maybe?



On second thought, "backside" was the right word after all.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Zackuth]

This was the first silent movie I ever watched. It was broadcast on PBS (?) in 1977 or 78. It came on late one night and I couldn't stop watching it and, thankfully, it was on during the summer so I didn't have to get up early in the morning. Because of this movie I've watched, and own, Nosferatu, Phantom of the Opera, Aelita, and many others. Definitely one of the better movies made and still just as powerful today as it was back in the late 70's and I'm sure in the 20's.

[Bud Brewster]

Hey, I remember that PBS airing very well!

The audio was a blend of subtle music and sound effects, a very effective enhancement of this great silent film.

Thanks for sharing those great memories with us, Zackuth.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Part the First

Some more BTS. (All photos taken by Fritz Lang's brother-in-law Horst von Harbou:


















_________________
Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Part the Second

The original Metropolis Magazine given out at the premiere:






_________________
Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Steve Joyce]

How in the world is it that I've never replied to this thread?

I am pretty sure that my interest in Science Fiction movies would never have been aroused it it weren't for Metropolis. First saw it on the Moroder VHS tape. Must have bought a dozen or two VHS tapes and DVDs. Saw it 5 times on the big screen in various versions.

Love the film.

But ... had that 1st viewing not knocked my socks off, most of my interest in s.f. would have still been through the written word. Metropolis definitely (re)piqued my interest in s.f. film. Glad it did.
_________________
"There is a planet in the Solar System where the people are so stupid they didn't catch on for a million years that there was another half to their planet." - Kilgore Trout.

[Bud Brewster]

[Gord Green]

For me there were a few movies from the 50's that deeply interested me in Sci-Fi.

Of course the TV shows SPACE PATROL and ROCKY JONES as well as THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN whetted my young appitite, but there were three movies that were paramount in making that appitite salivate!

FORBIDDEN PLANET, INVADERS FROM MARS and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS were those three main course entrees that solidified a permanent taste for things of science spacey wonder !

I tried to watch everthing of the genre that I could find and of course having devoured Forrest J Ackerman's FAMOUS MONSTERS, SPACEMEN and SCREEN THRILLS led me to appreciate METROPOLIS and earlier B&W films of the past!

[orzel-w]

I, too, was first exposed to sci-fi on TV, with Space Patrol, Captain Video, Captain Midnight, Rocky Jones, Commando Cody, 3-D Danny (a local show), etc. Some programs were broadcast movie serials, like Flash Gordon, and Flying Disc Man from Mars.

My TV IV was supplemented by a neighborhood friend, four years my senior, who would return from the theater and regale me with blow-by-blow accounts of The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide, Conquest of Space, and the like. My parents never took me to see sci-fi movies.

Probably the first theater sci-fi experience I had that stuck with me was Forbidden Planet.
_________________
...or not...

WayneO
-----------

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

This trailer is outstanding!
________________________________


_____________ Metropolis (restoration trailer)


__________
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

Metropolis (1927) full version 720p colorized by neural network algorithm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB3S_ivukkg
_________________
____________
Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Well, they certainly didn't overdo it.

Some scenes are moderately colorized, some scenes look barely colorized, and some scenes look no more than tinted.

But the few scenes I spot checked were pleasant to look at, so perhaps this version is worthwhile. Time will tell.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

The link which Eadie posted to the colorized version no longer works.

But I found a series of links to an wonderul colorized version of the movie in ten parts. Click on the link below to get access to see part 1, then click Play All at the bottom of the video window. Or you can select the part you want to watch from the thumbnails on the right.

Based on my comment above about how the colorization in the version Eadie posted a link for ranged from mere tinting to a somewhat subtle colorization, this version might be a more ambitious effort, with richer colors in some scenes than in others.

Then again, it might be the same one. But the sharpness of the picture is astounding!

As with other silent movies I've watched on YouTube (like the amazing Cosmic Voyage), the sped-up rate of the film can be corrected by going to the "cog" icon in the lower right corner of the viewing window and calling up the "settings", then changing the speed from "normal" to 0.75. This causes a little jerkiness, but the people movie MUCH more normally.

________________ Metropolis (1927) - Part 1


__________
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

It's the same one, just in a different location and in multiple parts instead of one.
_________________
____________
Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.