I sound the horn this morning for the upcoming Film Preservation Blogathon over at my Topics/Questions/Exercises berth at The Auteurs’ Notebook. I’ve gotta figure out just what to do for it, as I’m on deck to contribute.
Who’s gonna try to watch the live-streaming restored Metropolis this afternoon? Roger Ebert, the scum (see previous post), has the details over at his place. I’m in like Flynn, or Professor Rotwang, as the case may be.
UPDATE: Okay, so what’s going on at the European TV concern Arte is not a live stream of the restored Metropolis per se. Rather, some guy with a camera is on the Pariser Platz in Berlin with a video camera, where the Berlin FIlm Festival is having an outdoor screening of the film. So what you get is a static shot of a hearty, chill-proof crowd watching and chatting as the film plays on a screen in the distance—about a football field away, I’d say. In a recent comment Lazarus wonders if one should really want to watch a streamed version of the film, and of course such a presentation would hardly have been ideal…and by the same token the opportunity to have a gander at the new footage seems irresistible. This presentation, however, is highly resistible. I’ll see how long I can stick with it…
Warm thanks to you, Mr. Kenny!
I, too, am sorta kinda on deck for that blogathon, and I, too, don’t know what to write about. Broadly, yes. Specifically, no.
Just curious, is streaming this film really going to be the way people want to see this cut for the first time? At least those in the major cities should have an opportunity to see a theatrical print.
I’m a little surprised, Glenn.
You are more correct than you knew, Lazarus; see update above. Of course I never meant to imply that such a presentation was ideal or even particularly desirable. I did figure that “Metropolis” nuts—myself being one of them—would maybe want some kind of taste of the new footage before experiencing it in its theatrical glory.
Sounds to me like Ebert should have done his research. He IS scum, after all!
Laz & Glenn hit on something that will become more and more an issue for cinema and 21st c. culture generally – as “streaming” supplants cable as the preferred means of video delivery (not today, but largely discussed at the next step), suffice it to say not only are we not gonna get Blu-Ray quality with IP-based video anytime real soon, but people are going to take Sally Potter et al.‘s bait and start watching Metropolis &c. on their iPhones or other handhelds. I mean, I think we might all agree, blecchhh – and this coming from a cinephile whose dayjob regularly involves streaming. OK, I guess, for representing the experience of seeing large screens a football field’s distance away, but even the iPad is just not gonna make Raoul Coutard &c. leap from the screen. And yet, pristine prints of Lang &c. are unlikely to be screened even in major cities at this point. And yet and yet, here we have a streaming “event” more about fundraising for cinematic preservation, while using the tools that upend and subvert such restoration…
The cinephilic, remorseful dilemma of the cinephilic wage slave.
When I went to university in the mountains of NC back in the very early 90s I took bagpipe lessons. I saved up and bought a rather nice set and thought it deserved a name, like ‘Lucille’ or ‘Blackie’. In a film studies class I was taking, I saw ‘Metropolis’ for the first time and came up with the perfect name for me pipes, Rotwang!