Metropolis begins its centenary in Lyon with a new live score
The Lumière Festival pairs the restored silent film with Don Davis and the Orchestre national de Lyon, linking a 1927 landmark to the year its story imagined.
The Lumière Festival opens a centenary celebration of Fritz Lang's Metropolis on 15 October with a film concert at the Auditorium de Lyon. The Orchestre national de Lyon will perform a newly commissioned score, The Centenary Symphony, composed and conducted by Don Davis. The organiser describes the evening as the first concert performance of the work.
The date has an unusual connection to the film. Metropolis was filmed in 1925 and 1926, released in 1927, and set in a futuristic city in 2026. Presenting it now turns a familiar science-fiction date into the present, while the approaching release centenary provides the institutional reason for a new score and international commemorations.
A silent landmark meets a newly commissioned score
The festival identifies Metropolis as a landmark of German Expressionism and silent cinema. Its vast industrial city, split between elite planners and underground workers, helped define the visual language of later science fiction. That historical status does not make every element timeless, and modern screenings can also prompt discussion of the film's politics, labour imagery and surviving versions.
Davis is best known in cinema for composing the scores to the Matrix trilogy. For this project, the Europäische FilmPhilharmonie commissioned an original orchestral work rather than reusing an existing soundtrack. The National Orchestra of Lyon will play under the composer's direction, making the music a live interpretation rather than background playback.
A live performance is not the same as a recorded screening
The Auditorium lists a 2 hour 30 minute programme plus a 20 minute interval in its main hall. The festival says the screening uses the 1927 film, and Lyon's visitor office specifies a restored long version. Tickets were advertised at €25, or €22 for accredited festival participants, subscribers and people under 26, subject to availability.
A film concert changes the conditions of viewing without changing the underlying images. Tempo, orchestral colour and the conductor's synchronization can alter how tension and scale are felt. WHIF has not attended or reviewed this performance, so the article does not claim how the premiere sounds or how the audience responds.
The event matters as both preservation and new creation. A nearly century-old film remains accessible because archives, restoration work, rights holders, venues and performers coordinate around it. Lyon's premiere adds a contemporary score to that chain and starts a centenary year in the same calendar date the film once treated as the distant future.
Sources & context
Reporting and reference material used for this article. Context sources do not independently confirm every news claim.
- Lumière Festival ↗Primary organiser source, accessed 15 October: date, centenary framing, commission, performers and film history.
- Auditorium de Lyon ↗Primary venue source, accessed 15 October: hall, duration, interval, prices and co-production details.
- Lyon Tourist Office ↗Independent visitor-information context, updated 23 September: restored long version, year-setting connection and practical details.
Written for WHIF from the linked material. This article does not claim on-the-ground reporting. Our editorial standards.