This film has had several different scores written for it and different types of music for it.
Which score/music version is the best to watch this film with for the greatest emotional impact?
I heard The Alloy Orchestra recently did a score for The Complete Metropolis that's pretty good.
The one by Gottfried Huppertz. It was written back in 1926, and played at the original release. It has been recorded twice, once for the 2001 restoration, and again, for the 2010 restoration. No other score for the movie has come close, and it stands today as one of the all-time greatest musical scores.
Courage, men! We've not sunk before, and we'll not sink now!
I agree, but I don't know why he uses a variation on the French National Anthem during the climactic workers' revolt. I understand the symbolism, but it pulls the movie into reality too much for me.
"What do you want me to do, draw a picture? Spell it out!"
The first time I saw it in the early 2000s was with a moderately contemporary score by Bernd Schultheis, but I don't think it's available. That one was pretty good. However, I just watched the restored version with the original Huppertz score, and THAT one just fits like a glove!
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Hmmm?
I must say I found the Alloy Orchestra's score of the film superb. I had the fortune of seeing them play live along with the film, most fun I ever had at the movies.
F-ck it dude, let's go bowling.
Seeing a movie with a live orchestra is always another league...
I could still eat myself alive for missing the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (who performed on the 2010 DVD) when they came to my town with the reconstructed version of Metropolis in December...
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Hmmm?
Not the 1984 version with terrible 80's music. The scene where Rotwang chases Maria is butchered by the music. Unfortunately it seems to be the only version I can find.
shareGottifried Hupertz score is one of the best orchestrated compositions for this movie and makes the world integral.
Not the 1984 version with terrible 80's music
I can't imagine anything else besides Hupertz score. I've looked around briefly for a CD of it - is one such available?
Great themes!
A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five! - Groucho Marx
I've looked around briefly for a CD of it - is one such available?When I originally posted this comment, there was no CD release of the score. I have edited this comment because there now is one. Here it is:
I've just watched this with a score by Peter Osborne, a bit synth-y, but to my inexperienced ear it worked OK - what do others feel about this version of the music? I've not got much of a clue about silent film as a 'genre' (that's probably not the right descriptor but you know what I mean), but am trying to take in some of the classics and important films from history that don't see, to get much airtime - but that means I approach it with ignorance and might make mistakes I suppose.
I didn't realise that there was such a lot of weight given to the appreciation of the score that went with the film - I just found it on youtube and went from there. The score I got was the one I just happened to find, I didn't make any effort to look for a particular version. But now I'm left wondering whether I've seen this in an inferior version, and whether that is enough of an issue to make me want to watch it again with the 'correct' soundtrack, assuming I can find it.
Anyway, let me know if anyone is familiar with the Osborne sundtrack, and what you think of it.
Seeing "Metropolis" fully restored and with the original score by is definitely worth re-watching it for. Gottfried Huppertz's score is a great musical work and very significantly enhances the experience of the movie. It matches and enhances what's happening on screen, and contributes to the mood and emotion of the movie.
I'm not familiar with the Peter Osborne score, but here are a few mentions of it I was able to find in reviews:
A new music score (written in 1998) has been contributed by one Peter Osborne - and a rather cheesy new-age offering it is, too, though of course you can always turn the volume down and provide your own soundtrack if you’re feeling innovative. Audio is in stereo, and presents the rather bland incidental music well enough.
A poor quality picture, with crappy music (sounds like the music on a cheap American documentary about something really boring, where they've paid someone to sit at a cheap synthesiser and knock up some music in a hurry). It sounds crap, it's not interesting, it doesn't fit in with how music was written to accompany silent films, nor does it suit the scenes of the film it goes with. It's only there so that the film's not silent. The new musical soundtrack is credited to Peter Osborne, with a copyright date of 1998. It's 139 minutes long, according to the box.From what I've read, the Peter Osborne score is for an old unrestored Eureka DVD release that is missing a nice-sized chunk of the movie and is an overall very poor release. This is the release in question:
Great, thanks. That's very helpful - if not a little disappointing. I did wonder if I'd picked up a shorter version, as I noticed later that the synopsis for this on IMDb mentions a decathlon scene, and there isn't one in what I watched.
The descriptions of the music you offered are both reasonable interpretatons of it, if perhaps in the case of the second one, a little harsh. I think this from the first one is fair.
... presents the rather bland incidental music well enough.
Do you know if this sort of situation is common for silent cinema? ie is it always the case that there is a score that best matches it - or is it only with some of the more notable works that I need to worry about that?Most silent movies had no actual score, and the pianist, organist, or orchestra in the theater would just play a selection of classical or ragtime music or something of that nature. It was generally big-budget movies like "Metropolis", "Alexander Nevsky", "Die Nibelungen", etc, that had scores.
So, I just rewatched it, 150 mins, with the Huppertz music, as by happy coincidence Mubi.com, (which I accidentally subscribed to by not cancelling my trial period in time) are currently showing it. And it's a far, far, far superior film like that than in the version I saw before.
Yes, the scenes I missed in the other version added some, but I'm not sure how much I can be sure to what extent without doing a side-by-side comparison. I spotted a few, but may not have picked up on all of it.
Yes, the restoration of the film was so much cleaner, but you cut a lot of slack for the blemishes in old films anyway, so that was not so much of a boost - especially as there were still some really grainy sequences in it. No problems there.
It was quite simply the music that made the bulk of the difference. From the opening sequence, with the machinery pumping away, the music wasn't just there, it was a part of the film - a vital part really. It was like the voice that the silent film lacked. Outstanding.
Clearly I don't need to tell you about the music as you gave me the motivation to watch this again, but I thought you'd like to know what a difference it made to me - and for the benefit of any future doubters.
Thanks for your input on this for me.
Don't you just hate pretentious stuffy people. Giorgio Moroder score is good fun for a change.
Only those with no valid argument pick holes in people's spelling and grammar.
In 1978 the BBC recorded music & effects for METROPOLIS & it was shown in USA on PBS. I still have it. Its the best music Ive seen much better than 19th century huppertz. Huppertz is too old fashioned. BBC got it right & others that have seen it agree with me. Its speed corrected 126 min.
shareI've got to agree with everyone else on Huppertz; if there was a Like button on here, I'd have liked all your posts. The man was a goddamn musical genius.
shareNo, screw all soundtracks except the original by Gottfried Huppertz, best silent movie soundtrack ever made, all others do not fit or are mostly bad.
For fans:
The 1984 soundtrack by Synth Disco & Pop legend Giorgio Moroder is good too and fits to his 80s reconstruction with tinted images but is not as good.
A small silent film club is screen it . I was so excited, then i found out they are screening the 1984 version:(.
Fur fucks sake .
My favorite version is one I can't find anywhere today. i don't even know what it is called but it's likely from the 90s when I saw the movie on TV for the first time.
It was a continuous song that played for the whole movie. The style is hard to describe, but it was atmospheric synth music. No orchestral instruments, no singing and no techno beats. It was very fitting for the movie.
I checked the Wikipedia list of alternate soundtracks from before 2000 and none of them seems to be it:
In 1975, the BBC provided an electronic score composed by William Fitzwater and Hugh Davies.[45]
In 1978, Australian composer Chris Neal created an experimental score for the film. It was performed live around Sydney throughout 1979.
In 1984, Giorgio Moroder restored and produced the 80-minute 1984 re-release, which had a pop soundtrack written by Moroder and performed by Moroder, Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler, Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, Cycle V, Loverboy, Billy Squier, and Freddie Mercury.
In 1991, the Club Foot Orchestra created an original score that was performed live with the film. It was also recorded for CD.
In 1994, Montenegrin experimental rock musician Rambo Amadeus wrote his version of the musical score for Metropolis. At the screening of the film in Belgrade, the score was played by the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1998, the material was recorded and released on the album Metropolis B (tour-de-force).[46]
In 1996, the Degenerate Art Ensemble (then The Young Composers Collective) scored the film for chamber orchestra, performing it in various venues including a free outdoor concert and screening in 1997 in Seattle's Gasworks Park.[47] The soundtrack was subsequently released on Un-Labeled Records.
In 2000, Jeff Mills created a techno score for Metropolis which was released as an album. He also performed the score live at public screenings of the film.