I remember seeing the first clips of Fritz Lang's Metropolis on the national TV channel when I was around seven. I was too young to understand what it was that I saw, but the images of the Tower of Babel and of the maschinenmensch stayed with me for a long time. I finally saw it completely in my mid-teens, and I was exhilarated, in awe. It was sci-fi and dystopia and fairytales and wonder all wrapped in one inspiring movie. I cherished the experience, and I was in love with the movie.
Then I found out in the late autumn of 2008 that a 16 mm reduction negative of the original cut of the film, which runs over 210 minutes in length, had been discovered in the archives of the film museum Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I geeked out.
