Episode 8: And Now…METROPOLIS!

Metropolis was an attempt by Universum Film (Ufa) to stave off bankruptcy in the days of Weimar Republic Germany, Unfortunately, the film ended up bankrupting Ufa anyway. American film distributors were interested in distributing Metropolis in the US as a means of getting their hands on the import certificates that would allow the US studios to distribute films in Germany. American film distributors cut about a quarter of the film out right off the bat because they believed that American audiences wouldn’t sit through a two and a half hour film. For decades, large chunks of the film were thought lost forever, as it was cut and recut for art film houses and TV. Around 2001, a newly restored print of Metropolis, which included pretty much everything except that quarter cut out by the American distributors, was entered into UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register as a significant cultural artifact of the 20th century ("without doubt famous testimony of German silent film art, a testimony that made history"). In 2008, a copy of the complete film was discovered in Argentina; however, because it was a “safety print” made when a negative started to disintegrate, there are still some sections of the film that are deemed too damaged to be restored…for now. The most complete version of the film, including the original score written for the movie, was released around 2011. Metropolis is now in the public domain thanks to its age. Hitler loved Metropolis, and it convinced him to send Goebbels to recruit Lang for the Ministry of Propaganda–and Lang left for America.