Time for some backwards-to-the-future time travel, courtesy a screening of 'Metropolis' (1927) on Wednesday, April 5 at 7 p.m. at the Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, N.H.
Lots more info in the press release pasted in below. Hope to see everyone in the future, meaning tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
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MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2023 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more info, contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Restored classic sci-fi epic 'Metropolis' to screen at Rex Theatre on Wednesday, April 5
Landmark early futuristic fantasy to be shown with live music; includes nearly half-hour of rediscovered footage
MANCHESTER, N.H.—A silent film hailed as the grandfather of all science fiction
fantasy movies will be screened with live music in Manchester next
month.
'Metropolis' (1927), an epic adventure set in a futuristic
world, will be shown on Wednesday, April 5 at 7 p.m. at the Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, N.H.
The screening will
feature live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based
composer who specializes in creating music for silent films.
Tickets are $10 per person general admission, and are available online
at www.palacetheatre.org
or at the door.
'Metropolis'
(1927), regarded as German director Fritz Lang's masterpiece, is set in
a society where a privileged elite pursue lives of leisure while the
masses toil on vast machines and live in poverty.
The film, with
its visions of futuristic factories and underground cities, set new
standards for visual design and inspired generations of dystopian
fantasies from Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner' to Terry Gilliam's
'Brazil.'
In reviving 'Metropolis' and other great films of
cinema's early years, the Rex Theatre aims to show silent movies as
they were meant to be seen—in high quality prints, on the big screen,
with live music, and with an audience.
"All those elements are
important parts of the silent film experience," said Rapsis, who will
improvise an original live score for 'Metropolis' on the spot. "Recreate
those conditions, and the classics of early cinema leap back to life."
In
'Metropolis,' the story centers on an upper class young man who falls
in love with a woman who works with the poor. The tale encompasses mad
scientists, human-like robots, underground spiritual movements, and
industrial espionage, all set in a society divided between haves and
have-nots.
The version of 'Metropolis' to be screened at the Rex Theatre is a newly restored edition that includes
nearly a half-hour of missing footage cut following the film's premiere
in 1927.
The lost footage, discovered in 2008 in an archive in
Argentina, has since been added to the existing 'Metropolis,' allowing
plot threads and characters to be developed more fully.
When
first screened in Berlin, Germany on Jan. 10, 1927, the sci-fi epic ran
an estimated 153 minutes. After its premiere, the film's distributors
(including Paramount in the U.S.) drastically shortened 'Metropolis' to
maximize the film's commercial potential.
Even
in its shortened form, 'Metropolis' became a cornerstone of science
fiction cinema. Due to its enduring popularity, the film has undergone
numerous restorations in the intervening decades in attempts to recover
Lang's original vision.
The restoration work has continued in
recent years. In 2008, the curator of the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine
discovered a 16mm dupe negative of 'Metropolis' that was considerably
longer than any existing print.
It included 25 minutes of "lost" footage, about a fifth of
the film, that had not been seen since its Berlin debut.
The
discovery led to a 2½-hour version that debuted in 2010 to widespread
acclaim. It's this fully restored edition that will be screened at the Rex Theatre.
" 'Metropolis' stands as an stunning
example of the power of silent film to tell a compelling story without
words, and reach across the generations to touch movie-goers from the
real future, which means us," said accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who provides
live music for silent film screenings throughout New England and
beyond.
To accompany a silent film, Rapsis uses a digital
synthesizer to recreate the texture of the full orchestra. The score is
created live in real time as the movie is screened.
CRITIC'S COMMENTS on ‘METROPOLIS’
“'Metropolis' does what many great films do, creating a time, place and characters so striking that they become part of our arsenal of images for imagining the world.”
—Roger Ebert, 2010, The Chicago Sun-Times
“If it comes anywhere near your town, go see it and thank the movie Gods that it even exists. There’s no star rating high enough.”
—Brian Tallerico, Movieretriever.com
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