Huge new video releases for Metropolis and Robotech...

[GeorgeC]

Robotech is a getting a brand-new release from A & E Television Networks this coming October...

http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=443

The series is available to order as a 17-disc set with 2 bonus DVDs, or as 3 separate sets.

This release supercedes the previous multi-disc release, Robotech: The Protoculture Collection, from Section 23/ADV Films. No word if this release is the extended, restored version ADV previously released on DVD...


In other BIGGER news... the Giorgio Moroder version of Metropolis is finally getting an official home video release! Kino has negotiated with the music rights holders to this version of the classic silent film.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#081511a

The Moroder Metropolis gets a limited theatrical run beginning October 14th in select (independent art film) theaters. Home video release is TBA but will probably be late this year or early next year on DVD and Blu ray.

[Randall]

This latest Robotech release might be enough to have me finally pull the trigger and collect the show, though I know I should Netflix a bunch of eps first to see if it'll be worthwhile for me. The oodles of extras make the DVD rather enticing. We've already had a review screener offered, so we should have a hefty review up for the set.

The Moroder version of Metropolis seems almost redundant now, after the latest restoration just having come out; but I'll likely get this too, just to see the unique version for myself.

[Dan]

The Moroder version of Metropolis seems almost redundant now, after the latest restoration just having come out.

Was thinking the same thing.

I'll be curious to see the Moroder version, though. Yet I have no intention of double dipping at this time.

[Randall]

As I understand it, the Moroder version is such a different tone and edit, I'm inclined to think of it as a seperate film. At least, that's how I'll be justifying the purchase for myself.

[Ben]

I have this on VHS and it is pretty bad.

The original movie has basically been spliced up into a series of "music videos", where scenes from the film are synched to an ongoing stream of songs. That's really about it. Narrative is out of the window and it's extremely tiresome to watch. Some color tinting was supposed to make it "funky", but it's basically like someone taking an important, histroical movie and covering it with bad 1980s graffitti.

Oh wait...

[EricJ]

I'll be curious to see the Moroder version, though. Yet I have no intention of double dipping at this time.

The Lang-iconic first five minutes 80's style, for those who weren't born or weren't paying attention in 1984:

It's one of my favorites just as an example of how music can Make or Re-Make an already shot movie--I've seen the shift change and Maria's entrance a hundred times, but most of the composers treating the movie as an "important classic" never quite got the same emotional grabs of the scenes, even with a full orchestra.

The original movie has basically been spliced up into a series of "music videos", where scenes from the film are synched to an ongoing stream of songs. That's really about it. Narrative is out of the window and it's extremely tiresome to watch. Some color tinting was supposed to make it "funky", but it's basically like someone taking an important, histroical movie and covering it with bad 1980s graffitti.

Color mood-tinting wasn't "funky" (apart from some inserted clouds); it was fairly common for silent films back in the day, as glaring black-and-white was hard to watch, and there wasn't usually enough music for mood.

As for Moroder, I've seen the Complete Metropolis, Including Those New Scratchy Super 8's of Scenes That Have Nothing To Do With the Story, and I stand by the 80's version:
Lang's movie was cold and operatic (even the studios and actors he worked with complained about his style), and didn't have much story to begin with apart from the standard HG Wells-like socialist pro-union sermonizing--But somehow, we always remember the movie as a "cool" sci-fi fairytale about robot babes and guys moving clock hands.
That was the populist-classic version Moroder turned it back into, and if the songs don't work as "pop hits", they work as structural Broadway songs orchestrated into the plot and dialogue in the best Alan Menken sense.

As Harry Knowles pointed out, there's the version of Metropolis that's "good for you", and then there's the version you actually ENJOY watching.

[Randall]

Thanks for the YouTube clip. That may just be enough to satiate me.

BTW, for anyone who's keen on Metropolis, also consider picking up Kino's DVD of The Woman in the Moon, Fritz Lang's other sci-fi epic. Patience paid off, and I just scooped it up on eBay for a few dollars.

[EricJ]

While Image has a nice restoration of "Destiny" (also written by Thea von Harbou) where Lang had even more fun playing with fantasy settings and special effects, including his own stab at a "Thief of Baghdad" knockoff.

[Ben]

Moonfleet is another good one: from his later period, and a big, widescreen Studio (MGM) picture to boot, but pitch perfect.

Thanks, Eric, I know how color tinting was used in the silent b/w days! What I was getting at was that Moroder added color here and there to amp all that up a bit to make the whole thing gaudy and garish. I really can't see how you can say the songs bring a Menken quality to this cut: they're just there, playing on the soundtrack and rarely connecting with what's happening onscreen other than starting and ending at the right time between scene changes. If anything, they're a distraction!

My personal favorite cut is the "middle one", released by Kino in the early 2000s. Previous to that, the film was shorter and snappier, but missing some vital scenes. The first Kino restoration rounded it out more, the more recent one being excellent for seeing as close to the full cut as intended, but as you say, sometimes with additional, ultimately uneeded footage.


Thanks for the head's up on The Woman in the Moon and Destiny...added to the wish list!

[Randall]

I got excited when you mentioned Moonfleet, as I'd not heard of it before; but then I found out it's a "high seas" adventure, and not sci-fi. Still, I might be curous to see it. Warner Archive has it, but the reviews on it aren't good, as there seems to be an aspect ratio problem.

I'm excited to see Kino's Woman in the Moon, as my only previous experience was with a shorter cut on VHS, which I had bought from Sinister Cinema, I think it was. Very neat, early sci-fi.

[Ben]

If you like Walt's Treasure Island, then Moonfleet is along those lines. Yep, the WBAC disc is a rare aspect ratio misfire from what I read, which is why I haven't picked it up yet until someone tells me it's okay. Should be 'Scope, which is how they showed it here years ago. I have a letterboxed off-air VHS, though the film channel has shown it here more recently, and I'd assume it would be a nice 16:9 broadcast as they're prone to show things OAR. If it's on again I'm sure to record it and send it your way...

[EricJ]

I really can't see how you can say the songs bring a Menken quality to this cut: they're just there, playing on the soundtrack and rarely connecting with what's happening onscreen other than starting and ending at the right time between scene changes. If anything, they're a distraction!

Oh, come now, we mentioned this last time the subject came up--
Reason I mentioned Menken was that the songs ARE structurally arranged like songs written for a Broadway musical (although everyone at the time shrugged "These are soundtrack hits?--Geez, they're lame!"):

In any average musical, the opening number is sung by the mass chorus of extras, to establish the world in which the story takes place ("Blood From a Stone") We are usually next introduced to our hero, who sings of his frustration about what he wants or that something has to be done ("Cage of Freedom"). The love interest will soon enter, and the hero will sing about his sudden change of priority ("Here's My Heart"). Inspired by love, he sets out to singlehandedly change the situation, and sings about his new idealistic ambitions ("On Your Own") As the plot thickens, our antagonist knows that the hero is out to stop him, but soliloquizes about his cynical view of the situation, and his plan to stop it or profit off of it anyway ("What's Going On?") A crisis is in the making, which make our hero and love interest closer and more determined, and they reprise their feelings to each other (reprise in the chapel) just before the climactic cliffhanger that ends Act 1. (Rotwang's Chase)
Plot takes over for most of Act 2, with at least one pure song-and-dance number thrown in (Rotwang's Party), although somewhere at what they call the "10:20" mark, a supporting character will step out of the background to make sharp outside-observer commentary on how the situation has grown out of control ("Love Kills"). The plot reaches its climactic crisis ("Destruction"), and is eventually resolved, but not before reprises of many of Act 1's songs, so we notice the thematic messaging of the lyrics...And so on, to the climactic curtain moment (the handshake).

You don't just write a structured musical by pasting songs into a script, but this one...did. That's not easy to do, you know.

[GeorgeC]

Anyone interested in the anime feature, Metropolis, may want to check out their local Big Lots (Ohio-based chain).

I saw copies of Rin Taro's adaptation of the Osamu Tezuka graphic novel on sale for $3.
Another clearance of unsold Sony/Columbia Pictures DVDs!

The R1 release of the Metropolis anime is a two-disc set. The second disc is actually a mini-DVD (3") with all the special feature documentaries.

The feature does have some pacing issues but is otherwise one of the prettiest-looking anime features in a long while...