"M" (1931) Fritz Lang - 80th Anniversary Restoration (1 Viewer)

[alrof]

Hi Torsten,
I have a couple of questions.
Firstly, do you know if the English version on the MOC blu-ray restored? If not, do you know if it will be?
Secondly, I understand that this 80th anniv. resto is still not quite complete. What is missing still exactly, and can the British version be used to supplement this, or does it have different takes/actors for those instances?
Thanks

 

[Torsten Kaiser]

Originally Posted by alrof
Hi Torsten,
I have a couple of questions.
Firstly, do you know if the English version on the MOC blu-ray restored? If not, do you know if it will be?
Secondly, I understand that this 80th anniv. resto is still not quite complete. What is missing still exactly, and can the British version be used to supplement this, or does it have different takes/actors for those instances?
Thanks

The 1932 UK release version is (due to "wishes" of the British producers) in some segments very different to the original, i.e. scenes were cut, altered in narrative and some shots were re-taken on a completely different (inferior) settings/background and partially with different (British) cast. There was a similar approach with the French version of 1932, "Le Maudit". Fritz Lang had no say or hand in both alterations, and was furious at the changes made, but hd no power to prevent it.

The UK 1932 issue that was discovered in the 1990s at the BFI is not restored in any shape or form. The video transfer presented on both the Criterion and the MoC Blu-ray Discs is that of the BFI made to Standard Definition 1"C then and later to Digital Betacam, which is what both CRI and MoC got. The signal was upscaled on their BD editions. The video transfer reflects in both picture and sound the "raw" status of the film elements; many sequences are barely audible, the picture is often plagued by large portions of oil stains that cannot be removed. It is an object for study, but certainly did not help us re: our restoration.

We did include the segements of the UK 1932 version, which are different to the original, in the comparison segment on Disc 2 of the 80th Anniversary BD edition (issued by Universum Film). We also included the varying segments of LE MAUDIT.

 

[alrof]

Thank you for the very detailed reply.
Also, a aquestion just out of interes (and somewhat off-topic). What is your opinion in relation to the city girl and sunrise retorations? I have them both and think they are stunning, but obviously you may have a more technical opinion?
Thanks again.

 

[roccob]

Hi,


I've only recently found out about this particular release (I was aware of the Criterion and MoC releases) and it looks very impressive!
However: on the DVD Beaver review the screenshots seem to show some cropping of the image (both on top as on the left) as compared to the other two releases: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_reviews54/m_blu-ray.htm

Did the image stabilisation cause this? Or have the screenshots not been taken at exactly the same time?

Thanks!

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I watched the Criterion disc last night. One of the documentaries mentions that the last two lines of the film (spoken by Elsa's mother) are missing in all known prints. Have those last two lines been restored in this German release now?