Metropolis: Film with Live Music

On 10 January 1927, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis premiered in Berlin, unveiling a vision of the future that has resonated through cinema, design and popular culture for a century. One hundred years to the day, Northern Silents marks this landmark anniversary with a special live-scored screening here in Manchester.

Lang’s vision of a towering future city, divided between the privileged above and the workers below, remains one of cinema’s most influential achievements. But Metropolis was a flop in 1927, and, shortly after its Berlin premiere, the studio brutally cut out a quarter of it, leaving the plot a confusing mess. The missing forty minutes was never seen again, until – miraculously – in 2008 almost all the missing scenes were found in an attic in Argentina, and the film was painstakingly pieced back together.

For this centenary screening, Frame Ensemble will create a live, improvised score. No two Frame performances are alike: each score unfolds spontaneously as the musicians respond to the images on screen and the atmosphere in the room. The result is a singular experience in which sound and image are vividly alive.

Jonny Best piano

Susannah Simmons violin

Liz Hanks cello

Trevor Bartlett percussion

Length: 2 hours 30 minutes + interval

Film rated PG

A film from the holdings of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung (www.murnau-stiftung.de) in Weisbaden