M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Moerder runtime:108 min.
Seymour Nebenzal This film is nothing
less than a masterpiece. It is a highly structured and stylized film about a
serial killer. It created the serial kill genre, which includes such entries as
Psycho and Silence of the Lambs.
Alfred Hitchcock (the director of Psycho) was a disciple of Lang as were
Jacques Tourneur (The Leopard Man (1943)) and Michael Powell (Peeping Tom
(1960)). M was not only the originator of the genre, but arguably remains it
preeminent entry...
Highly recommended for those in the mood for a Hitchcockian-style thriller
with a great performance by Peter Lorre and great story-telling technique by
Fritz Lang
Keywords: Film-Noir; Thriller; Fritz
Lang
Director: Fritz Lang Producer: Seymour Nebenzal Production Company: Nero-Film GmbH
(Berlin) Audio/Visual: sound, black &
white Language: German with English
subtitles
Downloads: 30,384 Batting
Average: 30.01% Average rating:(13 reviews)
- December 20, 2005 Subject: More than Five Stars In this first sound motion picture, M, Fritz Lang constructs a shadowy,
ominous background, arresting the film’s fright through the deep darkness,
through the faltering, whistled replication of a motif from Grieg’s Peer Gynt,
and through the every day details his camera converges on while terrible things
are occurring out of frame. Preserving the macabre particulars of the child
murders in many senses indicts the audience, concerning their thoughts of what
is happening and thus dispersing the culpability and terror of the film’s
anti-hero, Hans Beckert. M has had a incredible cinematic influence, on
thrillers, on the genre of film noir, and on portraits of psychosis, but the
film was almost quashed by Nazi authorities, as they did not care for the
implications of its original title, Murders Among Us. After all, while the
storyline of M draws its roots from real-life child murderer Peter Kärten,
"the monster of Dusseldorf," Lang’s most savage indictment is
reserved for the mob thinking whipped up by the indistinguishable corrupt police
and organized criminals. Lang’s figurative condemnation of fascist mobs
prompted Nazi death threats, and, eventually, Lang immigrated to America to
continue his film career. While M may be docile by today’s thriller standards,
its dismal depiction of the gamut of cruel mentalities remains as dangerous and
recent today as it did upon its release.
This is certainly a masterpiece of low-keyed expressionism, in which fear
permeates every brick of the dark alleys and crumbling buildings which form its
background. Direction is great, cinematography is superb and performances leave
great impact.
Manavkaushik at hotmail.
Reviewer: repete86
-
- December 16, 2005 Subject: Quite possibly the single
greatest film ever made! After seeing this, all I can think is "wow." I'll say it again.
"WOW!" Impeccably directed by Fritz Lang, and starring a young and
plump Peter Lorre, M is perhaps the single greatest film I have ever seen. Lang
created two film genres with this one film: Film-Noir, and the
Crime/Psychological Thriller. The origins of Film-Noir can clearly be seen in
this, as are the remaining traces of German Expressionism, brought about by the
director that helped pioneer both movements.
M is about the search for a child murderer in Berlin, and as the story, and the
search progress, the high profile murderer begins to inhibit the lives of
everyone from the Police, to the criminals, to innocent bystanders who are
accused of being the murderer for even the slightest contact with any child.
The most startling thing about this film is it's use of sound. M was Germany's
first talkie, and is evident by the primitive sound recording. Characters can
often be just barely heard (thank God for the subtitles), but regardless of the
limitations of the technology in the medium, the use of sound is advanced even
by today's standards. This film featured the first scene where two different
parties are talking about the same thing, and the conversation is continued
between the two groups (for the dramatic touch, the two parties were the Police,
and the Criminals both intent on finding the murderer to save their reputation).
It was also the first talkie to have a person heard off screen while an image
unrelated to the dialog is displayed on screen (as seen early in the movie when
Mrs. Beckman is heard calling for her child Elsie while an empty attic, an empty
chair, and an empty stairway are shown). While Lang used sound heavily to
enhance the mood and feel of his film, he also went without it (complete dead
silence) on occasion to increase tension and create a paranoid mood.
Other cool tricks used by the Fritz Lang include heavy use of shadows (largely
in the style of the yet to come Film-Noir genre), and the use of setting to
create darker moods (evidence that Lang was at the head of the German
Expressionist movement).
This is a must see film. Without this film we would probably not have the modern
psychological/crime thrillers like Silence of the Lambs, and Se7en.
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