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Post by hman on Aug 7, 2004 22:59:02 GMT -8
I finally watched the silent classic tonight. It was on a DVD triple bill along with Nosferatu and Phantom of the Opera. The film was pretty good and the 2 hour running time actually passed by relatively quickly for a silent film. There's a scene where they test out the android Maria in front of a bunch of men to see if she passes off as a human and she does some rather seductive dancing. I wonder if that created any sort of a stir.
There's a Hong Kong movie called "I Love Maria" and there's a female cyborg whose name (and design to a lesser extent) is a homage to this movie.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Aug 7, 2004 23:10:34 GMT -8
"Maria" has shown up many many places, in comics and other movies (I think she was even in "Bicentennial Man" although she may have been called "Galatea" in there at the end).
I'd like to watch this again.
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Post by hman on Aug 7, 2004 23:28:37 GMT -8
On the subject of silent sci-fis, did anyone here ever see "Women on the Moon" and "First Men on the Moon" (or whatever it's called)?
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Post by Gwangi on Aug 8, 2004 21:11:06 GMT -8
I've only seen stills from "Woman on the Moon" also directed by "Metropolis" Frtiz Lang. It does look interesting.
Is there a silent version of "First Men in the Moon"?. I have seen George Meiles classic "A Trip to the Moon", where the rocket lands on one of the eyes of the moon! Over 100 years old and it's amazing how they pulled off some of those effects.
As for "Metropolis", for my birthday a couple of years ago, I got the DVD. I enjoyed the movie, but unfortunatley, this was not the completely restored print. It was a cheaper version. I think I could enjoy the movie more if I could see everything, especially the city itself, in it's full capacity. Sci-fi movies to this day have felt it's influence. And it's inspired and influenced many diverse filmmakers from Ray Harryhausen to Kurosawa. Now, how many movies can do that?!
As for the seductive dancing, it did probably create a stir, and something that a decade later, would not be possible to see because of the strict Hollywood censor code that was now inplace.
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Post by hman on Aug 9, 2004 0:50:02 GMT -8
"A Trip to the Moon", that's what I was thinking of. Are these films available on DVD? Or are they lost to the ages? For information and a short clip from that "I Love Maria" movie, you can go here: www.badmovies.org/movies/ilovemaria/index.html |
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Post by Gwangi on Aug 12, 2004 13:24:35 GMT -8
"A Trip to the Moon" along with many other early silents are available on DVD. In fact, there are many packages of these silent shorts around.
Kino's "The Movies Begin - A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894-1913" is a package where among others "A Trip to the Moon" and "The Great Train Robbery" are included. Amazon and other sites have it for sale.
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Post by Gwangi on Feb 22, 2005 9:07:16 GMT -8
As for "Metropolis", for my birthday a couple of years ago, I got the DVD. I enjoyed the movie, but unfortunatley, this was not the completely restored print. It was a cheaper version. I think I could enjoy the movie more if I could see everything, especially the city itself, in it's full capacity. Boy, I wasn't kidding myself. I finally was able to view the KINO DVD and see "Metropolis" as it really is. I was completely blown away! Looking at the much clearer prints and seeing some restored scenes, it really is a visual feast and deserves all the accolades it has been given. Fritz Lang was probably one of those few directors who was able to use extravagant visual effects to help the narrative, but at the same time, did not let it take over and dominate the story. And Bridget Helm as the evil Maria was indeed quite seductive. |
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Feb 22, 2005 10:13:07 GMT -8
i should look this up. been years since i've seen it.
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Post by el-brazo on Feb 22, 2005 20:17:47 GMT -8
hman: > On the subject of silent sci-fis, did anyone here ever see "Women > on the Moon" and "First Men on the Moon" (or whatever it's called)? I have the Spanish DVD of Woman in the Moon ( Die Frau im Mond) and it's a beautiful film as well as a beautiful DVD; highly recommended to anyone who speaks German, Spanish or doesn't care. I heard that this film kind of invented the idea of a countdown right before launching a rocket.
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Post by Gwangi on Feb 23, 2005 15:43:02 GMT -8
On the DVD of "Metropolis" they have a documentary about all of the great German silents (horror, fantasy and sci-fi), but only slightly mention "Woman in the Moon" and the narrator described it as "just a science fiction movie". However, they did show scenes of the rocketship taking off and landing on the moon, and I was quite impressed! It really reminded me of the similar scenes in Harryhausen's "First Men in the Moon". I wouldn't doubt if Lang's movie served as some kind of inspiration. Though it is looked down upon, I have to watch "Woman in the Moon" one of these days. There's a scene where they test out the android Maria in front of a bunch of men to see if she passes off as a human and she does some rather seductive dancing. I wonder if that created any sort of a stir. Seeing it in it's restored and in a better quality version, that sequence was truly mesmerizing. Scenes like these are probably so alien to today's casual moviegoers that they would think it's pure amateurish filmmaking at it's worst, not even realizing or having any feel for the great German expressionism that dominated these films. |
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Feb 23, 2005 16:25:33 GMT -8
yes, we wouldn't want kids to know anything about the past these days, would we? those movies look odd, but that's a good thing, since so many movies these days have the same look to them.
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Post by Zone Fighter on Feb 23, 2005 19:55:42 GMT -8
I added Metropolis to my Netflix queue.
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Post by Zone Fighter on Mar 4, 2006 20:52:39 GMT -8
I just watched Metropolis. The version I have is 117 minutes. It's one of 9 films on a 3 disc set titled "Tales From The Future". I don't know what other versions have but this version had orchestral music (mostly strings) dubbed in.
Interesting movie. I imagine that the test of the robot would indeed have raised a stir.
I've seen photos of the robot and somewhere I must have seen the final sequence but the rest of the film was new to me.
The disc included a short documentary on Fritz Lang. According to the documetary filmingi Metropolis bankrupted the studio. It also which mentioned "Woman In The Moon". Said it was first film about space travel to use actual science. Also said it was not a commercial success, because it was a silent film when sound pictures were the rage.
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Post by Giganfan on Mar 23, 2006 11:27:32 GMT -8
I saw the newly-restored version of Metropolis for the first time back when TCM first premiered it. The next day, I went out and bought it. Excellent, Excellent EXCELLENT film!!! From start to finish, I loved it. Of course, that was probably the last time I saw the movie, so I think a fresh viewing is definately in order! ;D
From what I understand, there is still a large amount of footage missing from the film. Is this true, or did they fully restore it already? And, because that footage was missing, is that why, for years, there has been an alternate version floating around (the one that's sold by all of the bargain-basement DVD companies)? My facts are a bit foggy right now.
And since we're on the topic of silent horror movies here, there are two (actually more, but for now...) that I've yet to see, an am curious about. What are The Cat & The Canary and Der Golem like?
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