These are both very important and influential films - seems a perfect fit for Criterion. Given also that Criterion has a couple other Fritz Lang titles in their collection, Metropolis especially is a glaring oversight.

Anyone know why we haven't seen these titles, or have any info regarding a possible criterion release?

Becasue Criterion doesn't own the rights.

well since they are both public domain titles it could be done....but finding the proper elements is hard... and the good people at kino did a great job with both...so the need isn't there. i guess they would rather focus on titles currently unavailable

Are you implying the Kino restored version of METROPOLIS has failed you somehow?

I know, I guess my question is why haven't they worked harder at AQUIRING the rights... judging by the numerous cheapo releases of these titles (Madacy, etc) I thought they were in the public domain?

Not at all. The transfer is fantastic. I would like to see more special features though (not saying the existing ones on the Kino are anything to sneeze at)

Also, there is much speculation as to what is the DEFINITIVE release of Nosferatu. I think Criterion could really fill the gap here.

Fair enough...if Kino's fails me at all, it's only in terms of the frame rate apparently still being to fast...

Biggest complain I have about the Kino version is the awful commentary.
Picked up the Eureka edition for the slower frame rate. But it too has that same darn commentary.

What? The Kino version has a commentary? I thought it was an alternate tracks for those who didn't look at the screen.

Criterion was too busy putting together discs of true masterpieces...like Armageddon.

Pretty happy with my Metropolis disc, but a Criterion Nosferatu would be great.

Metropolis is not in the public domain in the US. It had its copyright restored in the mid-1990s, along with a large number of other foreign works.

DJ

then why so many PD copies floating around?

I think maybe the Nosferatu vampire dude creeps the criterion people out too much. Like he does me. That guy is not right.

Find me a major US etailer that has any "public domain" copies of Metropolis in stock (and not as a used product available directly from private sellers).

That aside, this issue still arises for other films. The reason pseudo-PD copies still float around is typically the difficulty of enforcement. The rights holders for these films with restored copyrights are necessarily foreign. Taking action against copyright infringers in your own country is expensive enough; doing it across an ocean is usually just not worthwhile.

DJ

gotya...i just see these everywhere in stores like tower records, borders, and the dollar bins at target and dollar stores....

i know madacy has released it a few times...thats wacky

As Cameron said, Best Buy always seems to have a few versions floating around. Why is it the government can help out the RIAA and MPAA go after a few Joe Schmoe's making personal copies for their own use, but widespread abuse like this goes unchecked?

(Rhetorical question...)

I'd just like to see Kino to get Transit Film to license them a 20fps version with the score re-edited to fit that version. And hopefully something actually mastered for NTSC instead of the blurry, less detailed DVD that's already out.

Copyrights can't be restored, except under very rare circumstances. The most common example would be when the musical score of a film was still under copyright even though the film itself fell into public domain. Then one would either have to license the music or remove it.

New copyrights can be issued for a film, but only for changes. For example, adding a new score, re-editing the film, or changing the intertitles of a silent film would make your new version copyrightable. A really massive restoration of the material can also be copyrightable. However, this new copyright extends only to the new work done, or to the restored print, not to the original material.

Amazon has one copy:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg.../-/B000065Q9N/

http://www.copyright.gov/gatt.html:

"In 1996, copyright was automatically restored in certain foreign works that were then in the public domain in the United States but were protected by copyright or neighboring rights in the source country."

Metropolis is one of those works.

I'm not talking out of my ass on this issue, but thanks for the attempt at a lesson, anyway.

DJ

I hadn't heard of that provision, thanks for the info.

According to what I could ascertain, with the restored copright, Metropolis should return to the public domain in the US in 2022.

Also found this link to German copyright law, which seems much more generous in copyright terms than the US:
http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/UrhG.htm#65

Where does Nosferatu fit though? Since it was originally a copyright infringement on Bram Stocker's Dracula, I doubt it was ever eligible for copyright. So that film would still be in the public domain, right?

But the correct (or at least slower) frame rate is on this edition? The frame-rate is also my only big issue with the Kino release... had no idea that Eureka had released a different transfer!

I would love a Criterion Nosferatu!

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but the fact that something is in the "public domain" can actually HURT Criterion's chances of releasing it.

I've lost track of the number of people I've seen on this very forum that look at the Criterion editions of, say, the British Hithcock films and say "Fuck that -- I'm not paying $30-40 for something that I can get for $3. The budget edition is good enough."

If there are a zillion copies of something (ala Nosferatu) out there -- including some extremely decent ones from Kino and Image -- I don't think there's much incentive for Criterion to invest the time, money, and effort into producing their own edition.

Even works that infringe on other copyrights are copyrightable themselves. There is no such bar to copyrightability. Even if the producers of Nosferatu could not exhibit the film because it infringed on Stoker's novel then, theoretically, even the Stoker estate could not exhibit the film, either, becase they would be infringing on the producers' copyrights.

Anyway, Nosferatu fell into the public domain decades ago. Once the Stoker estate won their infringement suit against the producers of Nosferatu (and many of the existing prints at that time were destroyed), they surely didn't bother to secure the necessary copyright renewals in Germany or elsewhere. Nosferatu likely fell into the public domain in the US in 1950. Even if Nosferatu had had its copyright renewed in 1950, it would have finally expired and fallen into the public domain in 1997 (having missed the enacting of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act by one year).

DJ