Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Film Pick of the Day: Giorgio Moroder's Metropolis at The Belcourt
Posted by Jim Ridley on Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 5:34 AM
Giorgio Moroder's Metropolis
Where: The Belcourt
When: 7 & 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25
In 1984, the battle raged: Either Giorgio Moroder had done the cinema a favor by assembling the most complete version yet of Fritz Lang’s silent 1927 masterpiece — or the composer-producer had Cheez Whizzed all over Lang’s work and memory by adding garish color tinting and a bombastic synthpop-of-tomorrow score featuring Freddie Mercury, Adam Ant, Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benatar and other paragons of subtlety. For many people, Queen’s nutty Lang-derived “Radio Gaga” video was as close as they wanted to get to the project — and yet a rabid cult reveres this version above the others, Billy Squier and all. Long unseen due to rights entanglement, the notorious “Moroder version” screens on digital at The Belcourt for one night only — which now has us dying to see Paul Schrader’s Moroder-scored Cat People remake on the big screen again.
