Metropolis + Radiohead

My first experience with Fritz Lang's Metropolis was in 1998 when a coworker lent me his VHS copy of the film. If I remember correctly, it was the first silent film I ever saw. The version of the film that I saw that day remains somewhat of a cultural oddity. It was the restored version from 1984 which was scored by Italian composer Giorgio Moroder. Moroder's idea at the time was to score the film with contemporary pop music. Being that it was the early 80's, that meant the likes of Adam Ant, Loverboy, Pat Benetar and Queen, among others. I thought it was a great idea, just badly executed. I loved the visuals of the film so much that I became sort of obsessed with it, although I longed for a score that matched the grandeur of the visuals.

A couple years later I bought my first DVD player and I picked up a cheap public domain version of Metropolis. I can't even recall if this version contained the "official" score, but as I was watching it I still was unimpressed by the music. Even though I didn't feel that Moroder's score was particularly appropriate for the film it still injected a bit of energy to the overall experience of the film. I began to wonder what someone would do with the film today if they had the opportunity to score it with popular music. At this point a little seed of an idea began to form in my head. My musical obsession at the time was Radiohead. One night I decided to watch Metropolis with Radiohead's "Kid A" on the speakers instead of the DVD's score. It just fit perfectly - not only the cinematic grandeur of the music but also the themes expressed in the lyrics. I felt like I was on to something but I lacked the equipment or the skills to make it happen. I settled for making a mix CD to accompany the film.

In 2002 a restoration of Metropolis was undertaken and it was released in theatres and later on DVD. I had the opportunity to see it on the big screen and it was one of the best cinematic experiences of my life. My excitement was renewed about a year later when I acquired the film on DVD. I still felt the frustration that the original score was underwhelming and I held onto the idea that some day I would do something about this.

A couple more years passed. Radiohead had released a few albums during that time although my excitement for the band had waned over the years. Not long after their last album, "In Rainbows", was released I sat down to watch Metropolis again. And again I was unimpressed by the music. This time, with Radiohead's new music fresh on my mind and a little more confidence in my editing skills, I was inspired to finally start working on the project that I had conceived of nearly eight years before.

To my surprise, it didn't suck. A lot of the times I felt like the film was scoring itself. By now I had a lot more of Radiohead's catalog to work with. There were a few scenes/song connections that I had had in mind for years and it was a pleasure to finally bring them to life. I felt like I had discovered the cinematic equivalent of chocolate and peanut butter and it really didn't take that much effort to put them together. I didn't edit a single frame of the film to fit the music and rarely did I even have to edit the music. There are a couple instances where I looped or layered tracks to fill a hole or create something new but for the most part I was astonished at how well things fit naturally. I generally wasn't paying much attention to the content of the lyrics and chose to focus more on the feeling of the songs, but if you are familiar with the lyrics there are a lot of strange coincidences that match up with what is happening on screen. And of course, one of Radiohead's most famous songs is "Paranoid Android." I was able to find a pretty appropriate use for that one.

In the end I was pretty pleased with the result. About a year ago I showed it to some friends and they encouraged me to post it to the internet and even send a copy to Radiohead. I'm just now getting around to doing the first part of that suggestion. Here is the entire project available for viewing on Vimeo.com. If you haven't seen this I hope you enjoy the film and music in a different context.

Metropolis + Radiohead part 1 from Chris Ayers on Vimeo.

Metropolis + Radiohead part 2 from Chris Ayers on Vimeo.

Metropolis + Radiohead Part 3 from Chris Ayers on Vimeo.

Metropolis + Radiohead part 4 from Chris Ayers on Vimeo.

Metropolis + Radiohead Part 5 from Chris Ayers on Vimeo.

Metropolis + Radiohead Part 6 from Chris Ayers on Vimeo.