Restored classic film ‘Metropolis’ to screen at Aeronaut Brewery on Sunday, April 17
Landmark early sci-fi fantasy movie, with half-hour of rediscovered footage, to be shown with live music

  
SOMERVILLE, Mass.—A silent film hailed as the grandfather of all science fiction fantasy movies will be screened with live music on Sunday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler St. (near Union Square), Somerville, Mass.
This special screening with live music is open to the public and is part of the Aeronaut’s commitment to showcase local music, art, and performance.
Admission is $10 per person. Tickets are available online at http://www.eventbrite.com; search on “Aeronaut Brewery.”
“This is one of the great all-time classics of cinema, and we’re thrilled to present it so fans can experience it with an audience and live music,” said Aeronaut spokesperson Christine Holmes.
Original music for ‘Metropolis’ will be performed live by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer and silent film accompanist who performs at venues around the nation.
‘Metropolis’ (1927), regarded as German director Fritz Lang’s masterpiece, is set in a futuristic city where a privileged elite pursue lives of leisure while the masses toil on vast machines and live deep underground.
The film, with its visions of futuristic factories and flying cars, 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 Aeronaut aims to show silent movies as they were meant to be seen—in high quality prints, on a large 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 Aeronaut 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. By the time it debuted in the U.S. later that year, the film was only about 90 minutes long.
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.
In 1984, the film was reissued with additional footage, color tints, and a pop rock score (but with many of its intertitles removed) by music producer Giorgio Moroder. A more archival restoration was completed in 1987, under the direction of Enno Patalas of the Munich Film Archive, in which missing scenes were represented with title cards and still photographs. More recently, a 2001 restoration combined footage from four archives and ran at a triumphant 124 minutes.
It was widely believed that this would be the most complete version of Lang’s film that contemporary audiences could ever hope to see. But, in the summer of 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 not merely a few additional snippets, but 25 minutes of “lost” footage, about a fifth of the film, that had not been seen since its Berlin debut.
The discovery of such a significant amount of material called for yet another restoration, a 2½-hour version that debuted in 2010 to widespread acclaim. It’s this fully restored edition that will be screened at the Aeronaut.
” ‘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.
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. Rather than focus exclusively on authentic music of the period, Rapsis creates new music for silent films that draws from movie scoring techniques that today’s audiences expect from the cinema.
Upcoming programs of silent film with live music at the Aeronaut include:
• Sunday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m., ‘Sherlock Jr.’ (1924) and ‘Three Ages’ (1923); double feature of two of Buster Keaton’s best feature comedies. Timeless visual humor at its finest!
• Sunday, June 12 at 8 p.m., ‘The Kid’ (1921) starring Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan. Father’s Day screening of Chaplin’s landmark film about the Little Tramp raising an orphan boy.
The restored ‘Metropolis’ will be shown on Sunday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler St. (near Union Square), Somerville, Mass. Admission is $10 per person. Tickets are available online at http://www.eventbrite.com; search on “Aeronaut Brewery.” For more info abuot Aeronaut Brewing, visit http://www.aeronautbrewing.com.
For more information on the music, visit http://www.jeffrapsis.com.
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
IMAGE CAPTIONS:
PHOTO A:

Industrialist Joh Frederson (Alfred Abel) looks on as scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) outlines his vision for a human-like robot in ‘Metropolis’ (1927). The landmark science fiction film will be screened with live music by Jeff Rapsis on Sunday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler St. (near Union Square), Somerville, Mass. Admission is $10 per person. (Courtesy Photo)
PHOTO B:

Wealthy heir Freder Frederson (Gustav Fröhlich) rescues a collapsed worker in a scene from ‘Metropolis’ (1927). The landmark science fiction film will be screened with live music by Jeff Rapsis on Sunday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler St. (near Union Square), Somerville, Mass. Admission is $10 per person. (Courtesy Photo)
METROPOLIS_POSTER:

A poster of the original German release of Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ in 1927. The landmark science fiction film will be screened with live music by Jeff Rapsis on Sunday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler St. (near Union Square), Somerville, Mass. Admission is $10 per person. (Courtesy Image)