Like all good movie nerds, I go through odd phases of getting into silent era cinema, and finding new thrills in the oldest of cinema.
But the only silent films I've seen multiple times are the horrors and the fantastical. I'll ride and die for the painted shadows in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and will drop everything for a bit of Nosferatu in the night.
And the one I've seen the most is undoubtedly Metropolis, Frtiz Langs' masterpiece, but I'm not sure if that really counts, because the only version I have seen is the one by Giorgio Moroder from 1981, with the bitching pop soundtrack featuring Freddie Mercury, Adam Ant, Bonnie Tyler and Pat Benatar.
Purists would obviously sneer that Moroder's version is far from the true version, and while a lot of the music has inevitably dated, it's still my preferred method to indulge in some Metropolis.
I just think it's deliciously sacrilegious to fuck with the classics like that, and nobody is going to love all your needle drops, so just go with it.
It does always leave me with the wish that more modern pop stars would start doing new soundtracks to accompany silent masterpieces. Get Wet Leg to do some songs for a Harold Lloyd film, or Drake doing a soundtrack for Sunrise, or Sharon Van Etten on Intolerance. Find something new for everybody.
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