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Fritz Lang's Metropolis
Notes and Additional Texts
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In this page you will find additional texts as well as useful information received from the visitors of the site. Visitor's messages are marked with an *.
  1. The proper term for the process used by Moroder is tinting. Sepia tinting (the most commonly used) was available and was widely used in the silent era to impart moods and and images to the silent film audience without the gratuitous titles such as the infamous "DAWN BREAKS OVER THE TRENCHES!!". Sepia tinting gave film the warm glow of various hues ranging from near gold to brown. This is the process most used in the '84 version. The blue and other tinting or toning effects are perfectly in keeping with the technology and style of the period. While I thing Moroder goes too far in stating that his version uses tinting the Fritz Lang would have, I feel that the tinting makes the '84 version more powerful as the contrast in colors allows for the attainment of more detail in some of the more damaged scenes. *(This comment was sent by Dennis Bashaw)


  2. Fritz Lang was amazed when he saw the skyscrapers of New York in the 20's. Nowadays many cities all over the world have big skyscrapers, but in the 20's skyscrapers existed only in the USA. To see the big buildings of NY was certainly a fantastic experience for any European.
  3. " The Parade's Gone By written by Kevin Brownlow. This book deals with the development of the silent film industry from its early days to its death at the hand of 'talkies'. While it is very limited as to its review of foreign films, I think Metropolis gets 1/2 page, it is very well written and discusses not only movies and actors, but directors, stage hands, and movie making techniques used in the silent era. The chapters on the technical aspects of filming answers many questions as to the correct speed to run a silent film, the issue of color (and what options were available), and the growth of F/X and stunt work. It is an easy read for a 400+ page book with many rare stills and enlargements from the early days. " * (This comment was sent by Dennis Bashaw)

  4. "As you mentioned, I have also noticed that in JEF films' version and in Moroder's version you see different parts of the frame (more from the left or more from the top and right corner). I have also done a research about the difference between the versions of the movie and this is what I found out: Metropolis was originally on a 35mm silent negative. The newer 35mm with sound had smaller frames so the sound could be added. Now, what happened, is that when newer versions where created, they couldn't copy all the frame from the original negative to the smaller 35mm with sound. Conclusion: Moroder and JEF films copied different parts of the negative to their own. And about seeing more from the top at Moroder's version, I think he used lenses to fit more from the original negative to his (maybe a compensation for using the lower part of the frame for the inter-titles)."*(This comment was sent by Aitam Bar-Sagi)


  5. Martin Matalon composed the soundtrack for the 140-minute version restored by the Filmmuseum Munich. The music is played live when the movie is exhibited at Public Festivals. See more info here;


  6. "Have you had the luck to see/hear the film accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra? They've performed it around the world over the past five or so years; out of Boston, Cambridge. Three-man percussion original, and true to the spirit of the movie. Keep your eyes open for them."*(This comment was sent by Joseph Kenyon)

  7. "The first reconstruction of Metropolis was by the East German "Staatliches Filmarchiv", by the end of the 1960s. It is that version commonly shown on German TV. It has more scenes than the old US and German'27 version, but not all the new scenes from the Moroder version."
    This version was reported to be 114-minute long. One of the versions currently being sold in VHS, distributed by "Madacy", is also 114-minute long. Would both versions be the same?


  8. Moroder's version is just 80-minute long because of 3 factors:
    • It is played at 24 frames per second. Other versions are played at lower speed. If played at 18 fps, for example, Moroder's version would be around 107-minute long;
    • In Moroder's version, the captions are over the scenes. They do not take any time for themselves. In all other versions, the legends are shown between scenes, at thus take some seconds at each time - and many minutes, when we consider all the movie;
    • Moroder's version has more independent scenes than any other version, except for the later restoration conducted by Fillmuseum Munich. However, Moroder did not use all the footage he had (I don't know why). Small parts of some scenes are not present in his version. Examples: (1) The first scene of the workers and their way to the underground city is a little longer in the B&W versions; (2) some parts of the first talk between Joh and Freder are not shown by Moroder.
      (This comment was written by me, Augusto Areal)


  9. "I just purchased a copy of the new Madacy DVD of Metropolis. It appears to be transferred from the same version that the Kino VHS tape used.

    The good news: The disc is cheap ($9.00 US retail) It is mastered at the correct speed (probably the only widely available version that is), and runs for approx. 1hr 55 minutes. Unlike the CMH/Xoom DVD, the interactive menus, chapter stops, etc. all work.

    The bad news: The print is even grainier and muddier looking than the Xoom DVD. Madacy's DVD actually looks *worse* than the Kino VHS tape. It comes with an orchestral sound track that has *nothing* to do with the action on screen. It looks like Madacy found 1hr 55 min. of music and just put it on the soundtrack. (The audio sounds fine; too bad it isn't keyed to the action.)

    It looks like the Kino VHS tape, and the Vestron tape of Moroder's version remain the definitive videos for this film. Too bad. DVD has so much more to offer." *(This comment was sent by David M. Arnold)


  10. If you want to order one of the many versions of Metropolis, you would better visit this page before. Links to some on-line video stores can be found here. At an specific page of Douglas Quinn's Metropolis site, you can find more info about where to find Metropolis stuff.


  11. A lot of different versions, other than those already listed at specific page, seem to exist. It is difficult to verify which versions are the same and which ones are really one. Some versions as reported by Aitam Bar-Sagi:
    - 115 min, by International Historic Filmms Inc.;
    - 115 min, by Lorimar Home video (againstt all others, this is not released on VHS tape but on a BETA tape);
    - 95 min, by United American Video Corp.;;
    - 126 min, by Allied Artists Entertainmennt Group;
    - 118 min (releaser not available);
    - those 3 may be the same or not: "90 minn by Kino International", "83 min by Kino Video" and "115 min by Kino International Video".

    Another visitor reported a 95-minute version released in 1990 by the United America Video, with a piano score, and with "good" image quality.

    Below we list the versions that have been sold in Britain (Nov/1998), as told by Andrew Emmerson:
    1. Released in the early 1980s by Thorn-EMI in PAL format. Film from Friedrich Murnau Stiftung, Germany. Silent with English inter-titles. 115 minutes. Good quality print.
    2. Released 1992 by "The Aikman Archive" in PAL format, copyright JEF Films. Silent with English inter-titles. 139 minutes. Poor quality print (as you say), projected at a crazy slow speed. This company announced it was releasing a huge number of classic films but there were problems soon afterwards. First of all, it emerged that the "copyright holder" owned the rights only to 8mm home movie release, not for home video and the films soon disappeared from the shops -- I believe this was a result of legal action. In addition, the image quality was poor. The original graphic title of the film has been replaced by a crude caption.
    3. Released by Video Yesteryear in the USA, available in NTSC and PAL formats. Musical score on the Hammond organ, English inter-titles, 131 minutes. Quality is not bad, detailed opening titles.
    4. The Moroder version, released in PAL format.
    5. The very latest release, available for the first time this month. Released in Britain in the PAL format by Neon/Eureka Video. "Longest available version." In fact this is all crazy! The film print is the JEF version but even worse quality (poor duplication), with home-made style computer title "Eureka Video presents...". The gold image of the robot on the front of the box is clearly taken from the same artwork as the Moroder version but it is credited to the Ronald Grant archive; Grant is a private collector and is almost certainly not in a position to license the use of this image to Eureka Video. So I predict more for the legal profession! The only good thing about this version is the new music "specially composed" for the film; it is in the modern genre and is actually quite good.


  12. We supposed that the scenes showing the stadium were exclusive to Moroder's version, until we received this message from Claes Ljunghorn: "My favorite version of the film is a 9.5mm film copy I bought a few years back. It was released by French film company Pathé in 1933. Although it is a short version, it does open with shots from the stadium and does feature the tower of Babylon scene."


  13. I have read the story 'Superman's Metropolis', by DC Comics, and I really liked it. It merges Superman's story and characters with those of the film Metropolis. Just for you to have and idea, Lex Luthor is Rotwang, and Clark Kent is Freder. Very well done and surprisingly close to Metropolis real story. Although it is out of print ( see Amazon's page for it ), I would recommend that you look for even an used copy of it.


  14. Did you know that there is a real town called Metropolis located in the state of Illinois?


  15. Pages about Metropolis:

    Pages about Fritz Lang:

    Specific books, Sculptures, Comics and other Metropolis-related stuff: