8 / BD 16 Metropolis

[Ribs]

No, it does say 'The Masters of Cinema Series' on the spine of the outer box.

[Drucker]

That's a nice package. Seems definitive.

Famous last words.

[FrauBlucher]

This was the announcement? What are they taking Warner's queue. How many times can they release the same film.

[AK]

I can imagine the disappointment of the people who wished for FWWM. Quite not as remarkable an announcement, but since I never got around to buying it on Blu, I'll definitely get it now in such a good-looking package.

[rapta]

I'm waiting for the 4th release that will include Rintaro's version.
Joke aside, the inclusion of the 2001 version makes the package interesting, but I already have the 2 previous steelbooks. Hum...

EDIT : scratch that, the 2001 cut is DVD-only.

No gold bar, no sale.

Yeah, I reckon it'll turn out to be that the 2001 version is DVD-only. I can't see them re-encoding one of the Blu-ray discs to include that version, if this set really is 2xBD + 1xDVD. Still an upgrade from the previous release, but what's stopping them from doing a 95th Anniversary 4xBD edition - with that DVD disc upgraded to Blu-ray and the Rintaro version thrown in - and packaged in a life-sized replica of the Maschinenmensch's head?

Apart from the lovely packaging, that extra disc and whatever they add to the booklet are the only selling points of this set for those of us that own the Ultimate Collector's Edition steelbook. I think I'll pass on this and will get the Keaton set in October instead!

[AK]

I'm really just thrilled to see Eureka dipping their toes in the hard box + book LE format Arrow's been using for bigger releases this year. Just hope that it happening to be on a title they've releasef several times before won't hurt the sales if this is to be a pilot release of some kind.

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for the Keaton boxset.

[swo17]

Uh, Eureka was putting out hardboxes with books back when Arrow was still drawing naked ladies on all their covers.

[MichaelB]

Uh, Eureka was putting out hardboxes with books back when Arrow was still drawing naked ladies on all their covers.

Yes, they were very much the pioneers in this field as far as UK labels are concerned.

[AK]

Uh, Eureka was putting out hardboxes with books back when Arrow was still drawing naked ladies on all their covers.

Can't speak for Ribs, but my point was that they haven't been doing that recently. (Murnau, Keaton)

[rapta]

Uh, Eureka was putting out hardboxes with books back when Arrow was still drawing naked ladies on all their covers.

Can't speak for Ribs, but my point was that they haven't been doing that recently. (Murnau, Keaton)

Well my copy of the Keaton shorts set certainly included a hard outer box - perhaps you're thinking of the Limited Edition version of Man with a Movie Camera? Seems they now only use the thinner card stock for sets using only two Amaray cases (or less, in the case of Edvard Munch). For some reason the Keaton set had three inside, despite there being four discs which could've easily filled two cases instead, but it isn't clear if that was intentional or just an oversight.

I very much hope they'll do the same for the Keaton features set in October, so we will have matching sets. Also, a digipack is nice enough but I much prefer plastic media cases inside a box set - less risk of damage, and easier to replace if they do get damaged - and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that. Most of the time, at least.

[Ribs]

I was talking more the "one single title in an amaray with a book and a hard box." I'm not a huge MoC devotee so I may have been wrong in who was basing which release on whom but this set does bear enough of a resemblance to the Bird with the Crystal Plumage or Thing sets for me to think one played a part in bringing forward the other.

[AK]

Thanks for the correction on the Keaton set, rapta! I was speaking out of my ass since I was actually under the impression that it was one of those thinner cardboards.

[Ribs]

I believe MoC said at the time of the Keaton set's release that three cases meant a hard box, but two a soft box. Hence why they felt the need to specify here that it's in fact a hard case.

[rapta]

Sorry yeah just realised this new Metropolis set is actually an Amaray case not a digipack. Must've been looking at the wrong image before, or just got confused.

Like you say, Ribs, it is a nice looking set and I'd love to see them do something like this for a fresh MoC title. However, I'm not entirely sure you could credit Arrow with this kind of presentation, as this is pretty similar to Eureka's initial editions of The Passion of Joan of Arc, is it not? I think the only thing they may have picked up from Arrow is the blown-out pack shot showing all the separate elements of the release in one image. In other words, better visualisation of their product when it's being announced (also "limited edition", "webstore exclusive").

Thanks for the correction on the Keaton set, rapta! I was speaking out of my ass since I was actually under the impression that it was one of those thinner cardboards.

Hehe, no worries I would've jumped to the same conclusion if I hadn't pre-ordered that one. I remember the surprise when the Man with a Movie Camera LE started showing up and people hadn't realised it was going to be in the thinner card case, and then the same thing happened when the Murnau set was released (I haven't got that one yet, but did sell my DVD copies of Schloß Vogelöd and Phantom/Großherzogs).

I guess it makes financial sense for them to do it like that for smaller sets, perhaps ones that might not sell as well as Keaton, Imamura, Mizoguchi etc. I'm assuming the upcoming Keaton set will be three discs across three cases, so should be a hard outer box. Wise of them to squeeze the Lubitsch one into one case though, and same for the Pabst double-bill. I suppose they might've taken Arrow's cue on things like that, although Criterion have been doing the same for years.

[Orlac]

Ooh, nice cover art! Finally a Eureka BD of this film with the robotrix on it!

To make a totally definitive set (assuming they never find any more footage), I recommend they include the 1927 US version with its bizarre Channing Pollock intertitles.

And I see Eureka is pretending their "Director's Cut" 90's abomination never happened...

[agnamaracs]

Does anyone know if the new big one is region free or B-locked?

[Drucker]

No reason to believe this is ever anything but region B. Kino's region A is still available.

[eerik]

Does anyone know if the new big one is region free or B-locked?

Region B locked. Can confirm from personal testing.

[Orlac]

I recently saw the BBC 1970s presentation of Metropolis, which I aquired years ago as a bootleg from a rather eccentric collector. Halliwell's called it, in 1982, the most satisfactory version.

It is mostly an aggressive assault on the ears of bizzare noises - think Eraserhead meets Doctor Who and the Sea Devils, with a touch of Texas Chain Saw Massacre - but for me, who knows the film primarily through the Moroder and 2010 restorations, it provided an opportunity to see the American script as written by Channing Pollock, which is starting to fade in the collective memory. Interesingly, there are lots of extra dialogue snippets here that were not in the Moroder version. Pollock's renaming of the characters (John Masterman, for instance) is rather trite, but the Moroder version was too ruthless in dispensing with dialogue.

Talking of which, has anyone found an attribution for Lang's alleged quote of "I experience with my eyes and rarely with my ears, to my constant regret", PRIOR to the Moroder intro?

[EddieLarkin]

Talking of which, has anyone found an attribution for Lang's alleged quote of "I experience with my eyes and rarely with my ears, to my constant regret", PRIOR to the Moroder intro?

It's taken from the intro he wrote to Lotte Eisner's 1976 book.

To begin with I should say that I am a visual person. I experience with my eyes and never, or only rarely, with my ears - to my constant regret. I love folk songs, but nothing would ever induce me to go to a concert or an opera.

[Orlac]

Talking of which, has anyone found an attribution for Lang's alleged quote of "I experience with my eyes and rarely with my ears, to my constant regret", PRIOR to the Moroder intro?

It's taken from the intro he wrote to Lotte Eisner's 1976 book.

To begin with I should say that I am a visual person. I experience with my eyes and never, or only rarely, with my ears - to my constant regret. I love folk songs, but nothing would ever induce me to go to a concert or an opera.

Super, thank you!

[Orlac]

For those needing a cure for insomnia, here is Eureka's original VHS release - the "Director's Cut". (It's actually a very truncated print being played in super slow-motion to what sounds like telephone hold music!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j6XEc8KXgc

[Stefan Andersson]

4k restoration to premiere January 2027; monies granted for restoration and digitization (=new master?):

https://www.ffa.de/pressemitteilungen-d ... laeumsjahr