Opera glasses needed... AT A MOVIE? ;(
Geh... this is disappointing. When I saw @ebertchicago Tweet yesterday about an almost completely restored version of one of the quintessential films of all time being livestreamed from Berlin, the tired, worn-out film-buff in me perked up and got even excited a little. Today, I found the link in Roger Ebert's blog again and set up my laptop to stream to my big HDTV (It's streamed in HD, after all!). As I did, I saw the tail-end of a docu about the film's restoration. It was in German with French subs so I didn't have much to understand. But that was only briefly. Then the docu ended and I was "treated" to a wide shot of a crowd, outside in the cold, watching the restored "Metropolis" on a big screen (see the pic attached to this post). Now, I assumed that once the movie got going a bit we'd, oh, I don't know, GET A CLOSER SHOT ON THE MOVIE!!
It did not happen. I've seen bootlegs that looked better than this.
What a disappointment!! They could have created serious buzz about this, not to mention introduced the film to scores of young, tech-savvy film geeks. Now I'll resent the DVD when it's finally released and will probably Netflix it first to make sure it's worth buying. Then I'll wait for it to go on sale at Best Buy. I understand they probably figured streaming a direct feed would be enough for some people and that it might deter sales of the future DVD somewhat. But gimme a break, man--this is no way to expose the world to the original "Metropolis" and the near-hour of previously lost footage!! You'd think the Germans and the French would understand how to present one of the most cinematically important events in history to the world.
Just when I thought the movie-buff in me was climbing out of bed for a while, he's flopped back down and has just started snoring again...
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