Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is probably the oldest movie I’ve ever seen (it was made in 1927). Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m not going to use its age either for or against it. It’s just that they don’t make ‘em like this any more, and for good reason.
It tells of a future ... Read review
Metropolis Film DVD This has to be one of the sickest kitesurfing DVDS to date loaded ... more
with Andre, Pete, Stav, Damien, Marc, Julie, and Elliot. Elliot's mixing is award winning quality! Bonus footage includes a 20 minute Cabrinha factory tour that will blow your mind. You'll see how the kites are made and the tests that they put them through to make sure they are of top notch quality by the time they get to us. From the makers of the wildly successful Ten 4 DVD, Metropolis is filled with up-to-the-minute kitesurfing footage and packed with tons of behind the scenes bonus material. Add a killer soundtrack and appearances from some of the worlds top riders, and youve got pure adrenaline-charged entertainment!! See what happens when futuristic technology collides with the cutting edge world of surfing and kitesurfing. Metropolis takes you on a journey from the design trenches of the Cabrinha lab to the far corners of the earth to showcase how technology has taken surfings next level...to the next level. Join Andre Phillip, Stav Niarchos, Marc Ramseier, Elliot Leboe and Gianni Aragno as they island-hop their way from their private slider park in Antigua to sessions in Rarotonga, Cabarete, Fuerteventura, Australia and Maui. Follow Pete Cabrinha out to Peahi (Jaws), Maui to surf the swell of the decade. Witness his record-breaking ride on a 70-foot wave, which landed him the prestigious Billabong XXL award and an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest wave ever ridden. Metropolis is one of the most talked-about video releases of the decade!!!
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Fritz Lang's Expressionistic masterwork continues to exert its influence today, from ... more
Chaplin'sModern Times(1936) toDr Strangelove(1963), and into the late 1990s withDark City(1998). In the stratified society of the future (Y2K no less), the son of a capitalist discovers the atrocious conditions of the factory slaves, falling in love with the charismatic Maria in the bargain, who preaches nonviolence to the workers. But even the benevolent leadership of Maria is a challenge to the privileged class, so they have the mad-scientist Rotwang concoct a robot double to take her place and incite the workers to riot. The story is melodrama, but it's the powerful imagery that is so memorable. One of the most arresting images has legions of cowed workers filing listlessly into the great maw of the all-consuming machine-god Moloch. Unfortunately, the print used for this DVD is unfocused, scratchy, and five minutes short, altogether unworthy of a visionary masterpiece. It may be too much to hope for the complete film to be restored (only two hours of the original three-hour film are extant), but a clean transfer from a fine-grain negative ought to be possible. And why, when there are other possible futureMetropolisesto be had, should we downtrodden masses accept this junk? --Jim Gay
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A stunning piece of Japanese animation,Metropolis(2001) gets much of its visual look as ... more
well as its storyline less from the Fritz Lang classic than from Osamu Tezuka's comic book adaptation of it. In a style a reminiscent ofLittle NemoandTinTin, Lang's dystopian fantasy is tweaked into the story of the doomed robot girl Tima and her love for Kenichi, nephew of a visiting Japanese detective. The city's ruler, Duke Red, needs her to complete his super-weapon, the Ziggurat, and has built her to resemble his dead daughter; the Duke's adopted son Rock is jealous and possessive of his father; and Tima's builder Laughton has agendas of his own. There are chases, riots, conflagrations and duels in the snow; unusually for Japanese animation the backgrounds are as inventively characterised as the characters who move through them. Screenwriter Katsuhiro Otomo and director Rintaro have deservedly moved from cult status to the mainstream on the strength of this film, which merits the epic tag so often attached to less interesting animations. --Roz Kaveney
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Fritz Lang's Expressionistic masterwork continues to exert its influence today, from ... more
Chaplin'sModern Times(1936) toDr Strangelove(1963), and into the late 1990s withDark City(1998). In the stratified society of the future (Y2K no less), the son of a capitalist discovers the atrocious conditions of the factory slaves, falling in love with the charismatic Maria in the bargain, who preaches nonviolence to the workers. But even the benevolent leadership of Maria is a challenge to the privileged class, so they have the mad-scientist Rotwang concoct a robot double to take her place and incite the workers to riot. The story is melodrama, but it's the powerful imagery that is so memorable. One of the most arresting images has legions of cowed workers filing listlessly into the great maw of the all-consuming machine-god Moloch. Unfortunately, the print used for this DVD is unfocused, scratchy, and five minutes short, altogether unworthy of a visionary masterpiece. It may be too much to hope for the complete film to be restored (only two hours of the original three-hour film are extant), but a clean transfer from a fine-grain negative ought to be possible. And why, when there are other possible futureMetropolisesto be had, should we downtrodden masses accept this junk? --Jim Gay
Postage & Packaging:£1.21 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Science Fiction - Director: Hiroyuki Yamaga - Original Language: Japanese - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Ayako Kawasumi, Fujiko Takimoto
Advantages: Seminal, thought-provoking and fantastic special effects for its time Disadvantages: But it's just so slow! Second half really loses its way.
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is probably the oldest movie I’ve ever seen (it was made in 1927). Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m not going to use its age either for or against it. It’s just that they don’t make ‘em like this any more, and for good reason.
It tells of a future city - Metropolis - which is split in two, Time Machine style, into the wealthy, intelligent people living above ground, and the workers living deep ... ...expert in silent movies, since Metropolis is the only one I’ve ever seen, so please tell me if I’m wrong – surely they didn’t all used to be this slow? I’m not talking about the story being slow (which is it, incidentally), I mean the images themselves. Everything looks literally in slow motion. Captions a sentence long stay on the screen for 30 seconds. I got bored in places and played the video on fast forward, and it was overall a much more enjoyable ... more
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is probably the oldest movie I’ve ever seen (it was made in 1927). Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m not going to use its age either for or against it. It’s just that they don’t make ‘em like this any more, and for good reason.
It tells of a future city - Metropolis - which is split in two, Time Machine style, into the wealthy, intelligent people living above ground, and the workers living deep underground. One day, a man from above gets a visit from a mysterious woman, who inspires him to delve underground and see how his brothers live. On encountering their daily toil, labouring to keep vast machines running for the good of those living above, he is shocked and saddened.
He also discovers that the workers have a kind of underground resistance leader, called Maria. She tells them the story of the Tower of Babel, and how their hard work is important, and generally preaches peace.
Meanwhile, the man’s father has teamed up with a mad scientist who has created a robot. Thinking that this robot will be able to replace the human workers, and therefore save him a lot of money, the father decides to replace Maria with the robot, and spread violence and anger amongst the people, rather than peace. He hopes that this will cause the workers, in their ignorance, to destroy themselves.
It seems it’s up to this pleasant young man from above to save the city’s future!
I’m no expert in silent movies, since Metropolis is the only one I’ve ever seen, so please tell me if I’m wrong – surely they didn’t all used to be this slow? I’m not talking about the story being slow (which is it, incidentally), I mean the images themselves. Everything looks literally in slow motion. Captions a sentence long stay on the screen for 30 seconds. I got bored in places and played the video on fast forward, and it was overall a much more enjoyable experience, whilst also cutting down the film’s 147 minute running time.
I was flabbergasted when I checked out IMDb’s ratings for this film. I knew it would be up there in the higher echelons, which is why I was expecting to love it myself; I was expecting it to be a masterpiece. However, after watching the film, I was also expecting under 18s to hate it. Not a bit of it – the average female under 18 rates this film 8.3. 8.3! Not that I’ve got anything against girls under 18, it’s just that they normally give that kind of rating to the latest Pirates of the Caribbean, not to a deathly slow black and white silent sci-fi film (sorry for stereotyping any girls under 18 reading this).
Just for the record, Metropolis is rated 66th greatest film of all time.
There’s no denying that Metropolis is important as a seminal science fiction story, and that it contains many ideas and predictions of the future which are incredibly relevant today. The “people vs capitalism” theme is done very well, and again, forgive me if I’m wrong, but I would imagine Metropolis was quite revolutionary for having the idea of a humanoid robot in 1926. It also has its heart in the right place with a simple yet important and memorable key idea – “if the brain and the hands are to work together, the heart must act as mediator”.
There’s also no denying that the film as a visual spectacle is quite impressive, and years ahead of its time in terms of special effects. Obviously there’s the whole issue of shaky camera work and poor lighting and that lot, but the film’s older than my gran so you can’t expect glossy production values. There’s a lot of good photography, and images blending into each other nicely, especially in the strange first five minutes.
I loved the first hour of Metropolis. I was gripped by the mysterious setting, the unusually slow pacing of the story had me intrigued, and most of all I was interested by the central ideas behind it.
However, the second half completely lost its way in my opinion. It seemed to change from sci-fi to some kind of weird disaster movie, then to a frankly boring and predictable chase across the rooftops. Not to mention the fact that it went on seemingly for hours, and the ridiculous slowness of it all.
I was so disappointed by Metropolis, as you can probably tell. It wasn’t as sci-fi-ish as I’d expected, and I’m sorry to keep harping on about the slowness, but at least half an hour could have been cut out. It’s probably worth watching because you have to and because it’s important, but not really as an entertaining movie. Sorry, Fritz, but your film’s vastly overrated! _______________________________________________________
You can buy Metropolis for £9.99 from www.blahdvd.com. Being such an old film, there are many different versions available, some with longer running times than others. Perhaps that's why mine seemed so slow. It seems some DVD versions last 118 minutes, some 139 minutes, whilst IMDb states anything from 80 minutes to 153 minutes to 210 minutes!
Directed by: Fritz Lang
Starring:
Gustav Fröhlich ... Freder Alfred Abel ... Joh Frederson Brigitte Helm ... Maria/The Robot Rudolf Klein-Rogge ... The Inventor
...film classic by Fritz Lang Metropolis came free with the Times in DVD video format, I had some problems choosing the category from ciao's selection, any ideas on improvements to this please let me know. This German science fiction epic produced in 1927 has a running time of 118 minutes. The censors rate the film PG parental guidance for general viewing but some of the scenes might be unsuitable for young children. The film stands as a monument to ... ...CAST
The Thin Man : Fritz Rasp
11811 : Erwin Biswanger
Grot : the guardian of the Heart Machine.
Joh Frederson : Alfred Abel.
Maria : Brigette Helm.
Rotwang : Rudolph Klien - Rogge.
Perfect in every detail. Intriguing, exciting and thrilling with lots of religious undertones and tyranic leaders. No wonder Hitler liked this movie...
It is the future (about 2000 in 1926 when the film is made a lifetime away), and humans are divided into two ...
JeffreyB 07.06.2006
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Advantages: a Classic silent film Disadvantages: rather difficult to understand sometimes
copy is by Eureka Video masters of the cinema No 8. • Box set, Black & White, PAL, Silent
• Number of discs: 2
• ASIN: B0006HIPQ8
• Catalogue Number: EKA40094
Region 2 encoded.
Now costing £19.99 but with 10% off £17.99
DVD Features:
Special Feature Information:
Original 1927 Orchestral Score By Gottfried Huppertz Newly Arranged By Berndt Heller.
Full Length Audio Commentary By Enno Patalas.
28 page Booklet Featuring Restoration Notes.
The Metropolis Case A Making Of Documentary.44 mins
Restoration Documentary. 9 mins
Production Stills.
Posters.
Costume Designs.
Stills Of Missing Scenes.
Architectural Sketches.
German Intertitles.
Aspect Ratio: 1.33 Full Screen
Sub Titles: English, French, Italian, Spanish.
Having the original music does help to heighten the pleasure ...
Coloneljohn 08.01.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Metropolis (DVD)
Advantages: Eye-popping animation, great plot, deep, involving Disadvantages: Character development could have been better and ending is a little too abrupt
nothing more than expendable commodities and raising questions as to whether humans are getting so arrogant with their mastery of technology that they start to feel themselves as being gods. Also the over-mechanization of society is liable to make humans more useless as witnessed by the lower classes in Level 1, who have lost their jobs and livelyhood due to machines taking over their work. The end of Metropolis is classic sci-fi, if a little predictable, but still very well executed. Despite presenting a somewhat sorrowful outcome, the film leaves off with a little gleam of hope that rather shamelessly pulls at the heartstrings of even an old cynic like myself.
IV MOUVIMENTO: ALLEGRETTO
The DVD is presented as a 2 disc edition, with the first disc containing the film and the second the special features. In Finland the audiotracks ...
Advantages: Lovely-looking mix of CGI and anime, fair soundtrack, imaginative and clever, lots of extras Disadvantages: Difficult to see who it's aimed at at times, unendearing leads, too many sub-plots to keep up with, fails to ignite much interest in the viewer
this sadly isn?t it. Too sweet and dull for adults, too perplexing for kids, Metropolis isn?t terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but it simply fails to engage in the same way that Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and countless other do. Memorable only for its visuals in the end ? one for the fans only.
*DVD Extras*
There is a good selection of extras onboard the 2-Disc DVD set. Starting with the more common of features, there is a well-presented picture gallery showing off some of the more impressive stills the film has to offer, and there?s a theatrical trailer shown prior to its original release. One of the nicer touches are the brief biographies of Tezuka and Rintaro, which explain a little about their respective careers with the text being nicely-presented on comic-styled open storybooks..
The ?History of Metropolis? is ...
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