Amazon Link

Anyone hear anything about this set? Metropolis seems to be the same disc previously released, but the rest are new(from Kino at least). Are they approaching the quality of the Metropolis release? I own Spies on a crummy budget dvd but held off on Kino's Metropolis disc, and that Woman in the Moon has been on a must-see list of mine since catching the restored Metropolis(the first time I truly enjoyed it).

Lang's silents have always been worth seeing imo. Anyone know how these discs are?

They all seem to be solid restorations. SPIES reportedly has a lot of 'extra' footage (i.e stuff that has been missing from other versions for a long while) and the others seem to be of similarly high quality. I remember David Shepherd did a great interview a couple of years back (maybe at Digitally Obsessed) and he mentioned in passing that Kino had a substantially bigger budget to work with on a couple of their restorations than he did. Whether or not that applies across the board, the general rule seems to be high quality restorations where possible. I want to pick up their THE LOST WORLD disc shortly.

Some Food for Thought:

If you are all-region capable, you should know about the following Fritz Lang releases from Eureka (UK), as part of their so-far excellent Masters of Cinema series:

* A re-issued Metropolis, which will contain the original German intertitles, and which will run at 25 frames per second (fps), as opposed to the R1 Kino which runs at 30 fps. (Additional info on the controversary of the correct projection speed can be found at The Laser Examiner.)

* Spies. This is tentatively scheduled for March 2005

* Die Nibelungen scheduled for late 2005


Whereas Eureka's MOC releases tend to be loaded with extras (see reviews of their first two releases, The Holy Mountain and Michael), Kino's Spies will be barebones.

Thanks for the tips and that great link, Brian. I do have all-region/PAL capability, but I'm interested in this set mainly for the Metropolis and Woman in the Moon. I've picked up and put down the Kino Metropolis disc at the store too many times to count, because I want that fantastic score(felt that disc was a bit pricey, but got in on a deal for the boxset at deepdiscountdvd). The reorchestration of the original score is the main selling point for me(aside from the films, of course).

I'm no expert in the framerate debate, but I assume the Kino Metropolis was at the same framerate as when their cut was shown on Turner Classic Movies, in which case I'd be happy with it.

My Kino R1 NTSC Metropolis DVD (118 minutes) runs the same length as the PAL versions (118), despite what the outside of the Kino R1 box lists (124 minutes).

That took me by surprise when I first got the disc...perhaps it was done to keep the score at the correct speed?

Nah, it just means Kino was too cheap to do a proper time-corrected PAL-->NTSC conversion and transfered the PAL master straight.

I've got Metropolis & Die Nibelungen, so I was a bit upset to hear that I might have to buy the boxset to get the other two - luckily it seems that those titles will be released individually as well :)