Fritz Lang’s Restored ‘Metropolis’ Gets Trailer & Theatrical Release Dates

It only took 83 years. But thanks to a miraculous discovery of a 16 mm print in an Argentinian film archive, featuring nearly half an hour of never-before-seen footage, Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” is now back to nearly exactly the director’s original cut.

Cinephiles rejoice and anti-b&w/silent movies take note — this is one you probably should give a shot. Way ahead of its time, “Metropolis,” chronicled a futuristic city in which the underclass workers stage a rebellion against their upper class bosses. At the time, the film’s special effects were a marvel, and even today, they remain impressive and influential. Lang’s vision can be seen in nearly every sci-fi that has followed and the story is on that remains timeless. The original film ran about 2 1/2 hours, but after the film’s premiere, “Metropolis” was never seen in its proper form again. From being projected at the wrong speed, to being mercilessly edited by theater owners wanting a shorter runtime, the film hasn’t been seen in its original form in over eight decades. The newly found footage restores the film almost completely to its originally intended length and edit (some edits of the film had sequences out of order). Thankfully, decades later, we can now enjoy the original cut in all (well, most) of its glory.

In advance of the restored “Metropolis” hitting DVD and BluRay later this year, Kino will begin a theatrical rollout of the film across the country. We think the film is best experienced theatrically and we definitely encourage readers to check it out should it hit their town.

After the jump we have the trailer and rollout dates, with Kino promising that more will be added soon: