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Metropolis lost parts found !
SavannahLion:
The content of the link isn't what I'm bringing up here. I'm not even arguing the legality of downloading or watching an 81 year old movie. It is PBJ's comment that Metropolis is in the public domain, which I have pointed out and established as not being the case.
shardian:
Everywhere I have looked, the movie has shown up in the public domain. I think I have even seen this movie in the $1 bargain racks at Big Lots, which are all public domain films.
I would think that the actual movie is public domain, and the "restore" copyright only covers the new work done to the film.
SavannahLion:
--- Quote from: shardian on July 09, 2008, 10:35:57 am ---I would think that the actual movie is public domain, and the "restore" copyright only covers the new work done to the film.
--- End quote ---
Face it, Copyright laws were pretty much turned upside down thanks to Sonny Bono and Bill Clinton.
The intent of the Bono act isn't to restore copyrights on things that already entered PD. But Golan v. Gonzales somehow establishes that copyrights can be restored under specific circumstances. The movie was released in 1927 (or created in 1924, whatever date works for you) which places it within the Bono act.
How that affects those $1 Big Lots movies beats me. I suppose the owner can demand those discs stop being published then probably deem the profits from a few thousand $1 sales (incomplete to boot) isn't worth the effort. :dunno
I was just at Big Lots a couple of weeks ago and I don't recall seeing Metropolis on the shelves. Maybe they've already sold off whatever existing stock they had or they were pulled.
Moving along, this film is gold. I watched about 15 minutes of the film from PBJ's link on the big TV this morning and it easily hooked the seven year old. I can't even get her interested in any of the modern Japanese flicks I have, but an 80+ year old film seems to enthrall her. :applaud: I really want to get a copy of the full film.
The only thing I can't seem to get over is the weird uneven lighting these old movies have. It's like looking through a peephole most of the time.
ahofle:
Do you need to register to watch it? I'm not seeing any valid MPG links (the http download just goes to a directory listing with a few XML files).
Zero_Hour:
I haven't watched the specific print linked too, but aside from the technical limitations from 80 years ago, I suspect that some of the inconsistency could be directly related to having to rebuild a modern copy from multiple prints.
I put Metropolis up there with things like Birth of a Nation, and Battleship Potemkin - interesting from a historical perspective, and definitely influential from a cinematography standpoint, but not particularly compelling storytelling. That being said, if you are a fan of film making or SF, Metropolis is definitely worth a look.
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