“Metropolis” and More DVDs; “Marlene” and More Events
Horst von Harbou, still photographer on the set of Metropolis (1927) and brother of screenwriter Thea von Harbou, and so, brother-in-law to Fritz Lang, made that photograph up there in 1925 during a break between takes on a day that Lang was filming the flooding of the workers’ city, one of the sequences in Metropolis that, for decades, we all thought we’d never see as Lang intended. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, from the left: Cinematographer Günther Rittau, Lang, Brigitte Helm, American theater-owner Samuel L Rothapfel, an unidentified fellow, cinematographer Karl Freund and his assistant, Robert Boberske.
The photograph is one of 17 currently on view at the Villa Grisebach in Berlin, where the entire set will be up for auction starting on Thursday. For what it’s worth, the set of gelatin silver prints is expected to go for between 5000 and 7000 euros, that is, somewhere around $7000 to $9700. 17 also happens to be the age of Brigitte Helm when she was cast as the two Marias; the set was a gift to Helm from Lang and Thea von Harbou and is now being sold by her estate (she died in 1996). Definitely worth a browse…