Metropolis finally closer to it’s restoration

It was around the fall of last year when movie lovers world wide were stunned to find out that  Fritz Lang‘s 1927 classic Metropolis had in fact been found.   It’s been known for some time that the film we all love and have seen has not been the way the director intended. The film has a significant amount of footage that has been left out. However, August of last year it was found in a museum in Argentina with the film’s long lost 26 minutes of footage.

Alas,  not much news surfaced as to whether the restoration process has begun or as to the status of the film itself.  Today we learn though in almost a years time since the news was released we now know that the film has just now been received by the  F. W. Murnau Foundation who will be restoring the footage and piecing the film to its intended piece.

“When you follow the whole story from August 2008 until today, we’re overjoyed to have it in our hands. There were a couple of occasions when we thought we were going get it, but we didn’t. So it’s great it’s here, and we can finally start the restoration work, “

“The work consists of two parts. On the one hand, there’s the technical aspect: the digital restoration. And on the other, there’s the reconstruction. That’s what we’re doing here: reconstructing the original version,”says Helmut Possmann, Head of Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation.

Now that we know the process is going to be longer than initial reports reported that a blu ray version of the now complete work would be released sometime this year is not in fact true it is good to know that for whatever reason the film is now in the hands of those in charge of finally commencing restoration.

The good news though is that the foundation now is hoping to have the film ready by January 2010 for its premiere before the Berlin Film Festival.

Source: EuroNews