METROPOLIS new Berlin School live soundtrack. Improvised no pause 2hr jam added to Fritz Lang's film

0:00 Music Curtains
4:34 Music Prologue
28:27 Music Act 1
44:20 Music Act II
1:05:25 Music Act III
1:30:49 Music Act IV
1:44:49 Music Epilogue

Intro: One of my all time favourite films which has returned to Public Domain. I also think the imagery speaks for itself so I removed the many text plates that in my view break the flow, the story is not hard to follow and sometimes it is best for the viewer to lose themselves in those images and create their own interpretation.

Restored version: Most of this film has been lovingly restored and even enhanced by Martin Koerber, Frank Strobel and Anke Wilkening - there are some moments which look too far gone to restore, but it still flows.

The music: I always thought the whole 2 hour film would love a from a more, sci-fi music soundtrack (which has likely been done a few times already), but more driving vs sleepy textural and completely separately I did a live stream 2 hour long improvisation last weekend, on relatively simple equipment - but when I played it alongside the film, it just seemed to gel. OK there are some sections that would benefit from some musical editing, but I really wanted the flow to stay in both the film and music, so you are carried along with it. The equipment here is Analog Four mk2 running sequences and synth sounds including drums, but also sending polyrhythmic and polymetric CV clocks to two other mono sequencers on the rack, controlling the ModelD and Neutron analog synths. When I do lives I have a separate recording too so this is the remastered audio.

About the film from Wikipedia : "Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction drama film directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang from von Harbou's 1925 novel of the same name intentionally written as a treatment, it stars Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, and Brigitte Helm. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studios for Universum Film A.G. (UFA). The silent film is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction movie, being among the first feature-length movies of that genre. Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–26 at a cost of more than five million Reichsmarks, or the equivalent of about €19,000,000 in 2020.

Made in Germany during the Weimar period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city master, and Maria, a saintly figure to the workers, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes in their city and bring the workers together with Joh Fredersen, the city master. The film's message is encompassed in the final inter-title: "The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart".

Metropolis met a mixed reception upon release. Critics found it visually beautiful and powerful – the film's art direction by Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, and Karl Vollbrecht draws influence from opera, Bauhaus, Cubist, and Futurist design, along with touches of the Gothic in the scenes in the catacombs, the cathedral and Rotwang's house – and lauded its complex special effects, but accused its story of being naive. H. G. Wells described the film as "silly", and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls the story "trite" and its politics "ludicrously simplistic". The film's alleged Communist message was also criticized.

The film's long running time also came in for criticism. The film was cut substantially after its German premiere. Many attempts have been made since the 1970s to restore the film. In 1984, Italian music producer Giorgio Moroder released a truncated version with a soundtrack by rock artists including Freddie Mercury, Loverboy, and Adam Ant. In 2001, a new reconstruction of Metropolis was shown at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2008, a damaged print of Lang's original cut of the film was found in a museum in Argentina. After a long restoration process that required additional materials provided by a print from New Zealand, the film was 95% restored and shown on large screens in Berlin and Frankfurt simultaneously on 12 February 2010.

Metropolis is now widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, ranking 35th in Sight & Sound's 2012 critics' poll. In 2001, the film was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, the first film thus distinguished."