Kino to bring METROPOLIS to Blu-Ray in 2009 (1 Viewer)

[Keith Paynter]

Wow.

Blu-ray.com - Metropolis Coming to Blu-ray in 2009

I am speechless. This is simply one of the best standard DVD restorations out there. To see a classic of this type committed to BD is nothing short of spectacular.

Of course, date specifics would be appreciated, but that it is coming at all is very welcome news, indeed.

 

[Jim_K]

Oh this is excellent news.

 

[Travis Brashear]

What would make this release sheer perfection would be if they finally released the film at 20 fps, rather than the "Keystone Cops" rapid-fire 24 fps the SD DVD is in...or, at the very least, offer both in the same package and let the viewer decide. In spite of Blu-ray's massive storage capacity, though, I'm not holding my breath...

 

[MatthewA]

Is it possible to do a Blu-Ray at 20 fps?

 

[Jim_K]

The frame rate is a matter of contention. The Murnau Foundation backs 24fps which is how it was reportedly shown at the premier. The restoration theatrical run in 2002 was at 20fps which feeds the fire of the controversy.

I'd support both versions on the disc but yeah don't hold your breath. Honestly the 24fps rate is fine with me if that's all we get.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Split the difference - 22fps.

Seriously though, this is very exciting news! Hopefully other Kino titles they've given the deluxe DVD treatment - Nosferatu, The Black Pirate, Queen Kelly, etc. - will follow shortly behind.

And maybe a remaster of the Keaton silents! (One can dream, can't they?)

 

[Kris Z.]

Unfortunately Blu-ray doesn't support arbitrary framerates, I believe it's just 24p, 50i (25p via 2:2 pulldown) and 60i (30p via 2:2 pulldown). So the options are basically 24fps, 15fps (if you duplicate all frames in a 60i stream) or some type of frame interpolation/conversion which will results in ghosting and/or interlacing artifacts.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Sold. This will really show off the quality of the 2K restoration. Hopefully they'll include the music score in PCM 5.1.


I think BluRay can handle different framerates. If 22fps can be used via 480i, I assume they can do 22fps at 1080i. 20fps would be too slow, but 22fps looks visually right from examples I've seen.

As for Keaton silents, the 1080p sourced remaster of The General on DVD from MK2 and Image (the one with the Alloy Orchestra score) looks almost like a new film. Sherlock Jr and Seven Chances seem to have excellent 35mm sources from how good Kino's releases look.

David Shepard had The Hunchback of Notre Dame '23 remastered in 1080p for the recent DVD, but it was sourced from 16mm prints since that's all that survives. Criterion has HD masters on hand for The King of Kings, Pandora's Box, and the Paul Robeson silents they released. MK2 remastered all of Chaplin's films (his estate-owned from after the Mutuals) in HD, plus 2K on Modern Times.

I'm hoping that people will give silents a chance on BluRay. Many have excellent image quality on the film elements used for restorations.

 

[Brandon Conway]

I just picked up There Will Be Blood the other day and noticed it had a silent short film about oil from the early '20s in HD. I'll have to throw that in to see how it looks as I believe it's the first silent film in HD on BD.

 

[Travis Brashear]

I own a bootleg of the 20 fps version, as well as Kino's original, and can honestly say the 20 fps version is far, far preferable. I, too, will "take what I can get" (and if these observations about 20 fps material on Blu-ray hold to be true, I may have to) but an official presentation of the 20 fps version would be divine.

 

[Ray_R]

Bought!

Now where's Nosferatu; The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; Der Golem; Douglas Fairbanks silents and Buster Keaton silents?
Harold Lloyd was released by a different company, right?

 

[Brandon Conway]

Correct. The Harold Lloyd estate has an exclusive deal with New Line.

 

[justinslot]

I'm sure it's too much too ask for the Moroder version as an extra or something.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

It'd be nice if it were remastered to get rid of the ghosting that plagues the R1 discs; last we heard, Kino didn't have access to the proper master used in R2, but maybe they can swing something for the BD version.

20 fps works much better as the theatrical run demonstrated---even then some action is undercranked, but appropriately so.

 

[Kris Z.]

Actually wasn't the same 25fps PAL master used for the Kino edition, and the ghosting was due to the fact that instead of slowing it down to 24fps for NTSC it was frame interpolated?

As mentioned earlier, a 1080p edition running in 24 or 25fps should be perfectly doable, but if you want 20fps or something similar you're going to run into some problems.

 

[oscar_merkx]

I am def sold

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The Moroder version would have to be licenced from Moroder, or whoever the ultimate rights holder is on the version (it was released theatrically in North America by Cinecom, an indie that no longer exists).

 

[justinslot]

Yeah, knew it was too much to ask for.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

It would probably be easier if this was Criterion rather than Kino.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

The Moroder version was made when the film was in the public domain. Now that the original copyright has been reinstated, the Moroder version will probably only exist in bootleg form from now on. The only way around this would be if something could be worked out between the two parties, an unlikely scenario.