Techotic

Three long-lost original cuts of the German classic 1927 silent film “Metropolis” was found in the Museum of Cinema in Buenos Aires. The cut include 20 to 25 minutes of additional footage that will be added to the existing director Fritz Lang’s original vision. But around five minutes of the original were probably still missing.

Three reels, edited out and long thought lost, were part of the discovery of the film that depicts a 21st century world divided between an underworld working class and the above-ground thinkers who control them.

A DVD of the version was brought to the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation in Wiesbaden, Germany, for analysis. Researchers at the foundation, which owns the rights to “Metropolis,” confirmed that the scenes were original.

With its cold, monumental vision of a vast mechanized society in the middle of a tumultuous class struggle, “Metropolis” forged a template for generations of science fiction cinema, and its enduring influence has been cited on films from “Blade Runner” to “Fahrenheit 451″ and “Star Wars.”

[via dw world]