Metropolis lost parts found !

[Level42]

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Missing-Metropolis-footage-found-in.4255148.jp

[rlemmon]

I never saw the movie but that's a damn cool robot design.

  I remember them mentioning it on the special features disk of robocop. They said maria was one of the main inspiration's for the robosuite.

Have you seen metropolis ?  Was it any good ?

[Level42]

Strangely I've seen only parts of it that got aired on TV etc. Early SF intrigues me. Like everything H.G. Wells wrote and of course Jules Verne.
Amazing how minds in that time could think up things we take for granted now....

I've read Metropolis isn't that great as a movie, but it's been a big inspiration for later SF film makers.

[SithMaster]

I heard a good condition movie poster is worth quite a bit.

[SavannahLion]

Strangely I've seen only parts of it that got aired on TV etc. Early SF intrigues me. Like everything H.G. Wells wrote and of course Jules Verne.

I've only seen short clips here and there. I completely forgot about this film.

What version is that DVD cover for? Seems a little early to be releasing a DVD when the entire film has just been found.

[Sprucemoose]

The film is a real classic.  Its kind of an adjustment to watch black and white at first, but once you get into the film its pretty good.  I have watched it a few times and pick up something different each viewing. 

[Level42]

Strangely I've seen only parts of it that got aired on TV etc. Early SF intrigues me. Like everything H.G. Wells wrote and of course Jules Verne.

I've only seen short clips here and there. I completely forgot about this film.

What version is that DVD cover for? Seems a little early to be releasing a DVD when the entire film has just been found.

That's the version that was "edited" by Paramount. The edited out parts are now found, so I guess I'll wait until the full-size release

[SavannahLion]

http://www.archive.org/details/Metropolis1927.mpg

The movie is public domain, and that link is supposedly a fairly robust cut.

I believe under the new Copyright laws, this was renewed and extended. Copyright for this movie won't expire until 2022, not 2007.

[SavannahLion]

I believe under the new Copyright laws, this was renewed and extended. Copyright for this movie won't expire until 2022, not 2007.

Irrelevant.  The original movie is public domain.

Say what? Coming from you, it's no surprise. Movie fell out of copyright, then was restored in 1998. Check into Golan v. Gonzales.

[AtomSmasher]

I believe under the new Copyright laws, this was renewed and extended. Copyright for this movie won't expire until 2022, not 2007.

Irrelevant.  The original movie is public domain.

Say what? Coming from you, it's no surprise. Movie fell out of copyright, then was restored in 1998. Check into Golan v. Gonzales.

The link he posted is from a site that only legally hosts movies, so whether or not it's actually public domain doesn't really matter since apparently everyone can still legally download and watch it.

Taking a look at the details page on that site, it doesn't seem to list anything about the licensing or copywrite of the movie and according to their faq: "If there's no license, you should assume that the only thing you're allowed to do with it is watch it."

[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]

I would think that the actual movie is public domain, and the "restore" copyright only covers the new work done to the film.

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. 

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.  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.

[Zero_Hour]

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).

Maybe they received a DMCA takedown notice.  I was able to view other films on the site, but ran into the same issue you describe with Metropolis.

[SavannahLion]

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).

Maybe they received a DMCA takedown notice.  I was able to view other films on the site, but ran into the same issue you describe with Metropolis.

Now? It's been ten years though. At 3690 downloads, I'm thinking bandwidth overload perhaps? The MPEG1 file weighed in at 1.2GB.

[Zero_Hour]

Just speculation on my part. But with news of footage long considered "lost" being uncovered, I would think the rights holders interest might be piqued, just a bit.

Of course, I'm sure that same news drove more than a few interested parties to that site in the last few days, making bandwidth issues plausible as well.