Have a good weekend everybody. I'm going to see the movie Metropolis tonight at the Castro Theatre. It's a new cut of the film with about 25 additional minutes. So apparently the narrative kinda makes sense? Maybe? They found the footage in Buenos Aires in 2008. See, I think that when Metropolis debuted in Berlin in 1927, Fritz Lang and his team had several discussions. One of those was from a gentleman in South America, who loved it coughed up some dough and left for somewhere in South America to show the film. One of the other conversations that were had were studio heads that thought that film was way too fucking long and that film would bomb if it wasn't cut. So they cut the film from 153 minutes to 90 minutes. Quite the cut. And a lot of times back in those days, after they cut a film, they would sometime just through the parts that were cut in to the trash heap. Sometimes they would just put the films in some room unprotected and the film would eventually turn into something that is not unlike vinegar. Needless, I don't know which of these two paths of destruction the cut parts of the film took. But it was gone.

There was some found footage in the late 90's/early 2000's. And they put another version together that was about 124 minutes. This version was what everyone thought would be probably the most complete version that would ever be of the film. Until 2008. The 16mm version that was taken from Germany into South America was actually found and it actually existed. So they restored it (again). And now it's playing tonight in The Silent Film Festival. Which I will be attending because it was my birthday a week ago, and Lindsey gave me that and other wonderful presents.

I might also go to this on Saturday:



Also, many hangouts with wonderful friends.