Take Five! TC Film Festival Returns

By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor

When the curtain rises on the fifth Traverse City Film Festival, held July 28 through August 2, this moviegoer will skip down the sidewalks like Tom Hanks in Big (showing Saturday night at the Open Space), but with a fistful of tickets in one hand and a box of popcorn in the other.

Among this year’s personal picks is Metropolis, the 1927 science-fiction silent film classic by German director Fritz Lang. The film explores themes of class struggle and prejudice, rebellion and sacrifice, set against an Art Deco city of skyscrapers (where the upper classes live in luxury and think and plan) and a steamy, seamy world beneath (where the working class labors).

The symbolism and stylistic devices found in the movie are signatures of the early 20th-century German Expressionist period, whose artists (including filmmakers) combined surreal imagery and intense emotion, usually angst (think “The Scream”). German filmmakers who fled their homeland during the rise of the Nazis brought their dark and moody film styles (Fritz Lang’s “M,” for one, starring Peter Lorre, and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu) with them, giving birth to 30 years of Hollywood film noir and America’s love affair with the horror genre (beginning with Dracula, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man).

The original version of Metropolis was first shown to a theater audience in Germany in 1927. At 153 minutes, the film was considered too long (and in the States, too controversial) and was edited to various lengths for subsequent viewings. A 220-minute uncut print of the film was found in Argentina last summer (81 years after its premiere) and is currently being restored for what is hoped will be a public viewing in February 2010, at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The version shown at the State Theatre on Sunday runs 117 minutes and will include Gottfried Huppertz’s original score performed live by Bay City, Michigan’s Bijou Orchestra. Led by Artistic Director/Conductor Leo Najar since 2003, The Bijou Orchestra performs old music as it was originally printed from the Golden Era of theater (1890-1930) for hotel and salon orchestras. (Listen to the orchestra on YouTube.)

The movie’s special effects have influenced generations of filmmakers. Blade Runner’s special effects supervisor said he used stills from Metropolis to design the cityscape in the 1982 Ridley Scott movie. It’s said that the concept artist for Star Wars was asked by George Lucas to model the droid C-3PO after the robot in Metropolis. And, the design for the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars is said to be modeled after a building in Metropolis, and Lucas gave Scott permission to stand the original model of the Millennium Falcon on end for use as a building in Blade Runner.

This is a seminal movie for science fiction, film noir and horror fans. If you miss the Sunday showing, your only recourse is to head to Berlin next winter or wait for the DVD release by American distributor Kino. For the fortunate 530 with tickets … put out your hand and “Gimme five!”