Metropolis Review

Shortly after its German premiere in 1927, Fritz Lang’s sci-fi classic was cut by a quarter; the longer version was thought lost, but miraculously turned up in an Argentine film two years ago. Astonishingly, the scissor-men didn’t just trim dull scenes — this restores actual plot material (the story makes sense, which it hasn’t for decades), fleshes out many of the characters and adds heroic saving-the-orphans-from-the-flood action beats which makes for a more exciting, satisfying finish. The restored footage is in rougher shape than the rest of the film, which looks so pristine it’s a discovery in itself — and it remains one of the cinema’s most visually amazing films: the 2001, the Blade Runner, the Avatar of its day.