I am totally geeking out here, but its what I do … especially when something this major occurs in the world of classic cinema. Fritz Lang’s classic German sci-fi epic was the most expensive film ever made in Germany when it released in 1927 and it was a silent film. Unfortunately, audiences at the time did not appreciate it for what it was and the film flopped … hardcore. In an effort to salvage some profits, the studio pulled the film and cut the living daylights (approx. 25%) out of it before re-releasing it and receiving a more favorable audience reaction. Apparently, one of the original “long” prints was taken to Buenos Aires by a guy names Adolpho Wilson. After changing hands several times, the film turned up at the Museo del Cine in Argentina where it was determined that the print contained all of the footage considered to be lost. After reading the following article, I am eagerly awaiting a brand new uncut release of this classic film, but I fully understand it will be some time … patience is a virtue, but so damned difficult to maintain!
Here’s a chunk of the story that broke on Variety.com:
Earlier this year Paula Felix-Didier became the director of the museum. She discovered that the copy included nearly all of the long-lost scenes — some 700 meters, 25 minutes — and contacted Germany’s Die Zeit magazine.
“The discovery of the material thought to be lost forever leads to a new understanding of Fritz Lang’s masterpiece,” said Helmut Possmann, chairman of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, which holds the rights to the pic.
In an interview with Die Zeit, he said the foundation and the archives in Buenos Aires “feel a responsibility to make the material available to the public.”
Lang made the film, considered a classic in part because of its pioneering special effects, at the Babelsberg studios outside Berlin.
Conceived during the heyday of the Weimar Republic, pic is about a futuristic urban dystopia in the year 2026 set against the backdrop of social tension between the working class and capitalist bosses.
“This was one of the most sought-after films ever made,” said Anke Wilkening, a film conservator at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation. The segments were said to be in poor condition and partly scratched.
“It’s a sensational find,” said Rainer Rother, head of the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin and head of the Retrospektive sidebar at the Berlin Film Festival. “Fritz Lang’s most famous film can now be seen in a new light.”
