Film: [M is the Murderer] Director: Fritz Lang Starring Peter Lowe, Alan Wiedeman, Inge Landt, Otto Vernick Release Date: May 11, 1931 Memorial Reason: K
The film was originally titled "The Murderer Is Among Us", and was renamed because during filming, a stalker used chalk on his hand and made an M mark on the back of the murderer, which impressed Fritz Lang. At the same time, because of the suspicion of innuendo hitler and the Nazi Party, Fritz Lang was afraid of getting into trouble and eventually changed to "M is the murderer".
▲ The original title proves that people have a deep-buried horror in their hearts, and its root cause is because the real murderer is actually hiding in the crowd
Reality is the "real culprit"
Fritz Lang is planning filming in an unpredictable environment. It was 1929, the year Hitler was released from prison. Subsequently, the Nazis' power grew to become the largest party in Germany. In the film, the gendarmerie police, as the state apparatus, use the threat of child killing to suppress the people at the bottom of society and mobilize the army to control the terrorist situation.
▲ The gangster leaders in the film are similar to Hitler in terms of clothing and behavior, and the film was banned by the Nazis in Germany in 1934, which is more or less related to this (pictured is still)
Fritz Lang keenly observed the turbulent situation in the country, the escalating contradictions between the government and the people, and deliberately involved the gangs in the plan to capture child killers. The gang leaders have the majesty of a ruler and the cruelty of an executioner, an overriding force, and they have hitler's shadow in them.
▲ In one scene in the film, the camera enters the room from the outside through the glass, which was also quite experimental at the time (pictured is [M is the murderer] set)
In the film, the conspicuous handbook held by the gang leader has a special meaning, symbolizing the bundle stick (Latin, fascis), a symbol of power and fascism.
The film is based on true events, and Fritz Lang decided to make the film at a time when serial killers were rampant in Germany
Fritz Lang asked himself, what exactly made these people do this beastly behavior? The film sets the murderer as a child killer, but the prototypes available in the real world are actually not child killers, and the director deliberately set it up in such a way that it is more shocking and more humane.
Peter Lowe
Peter Lowe starred in "M is the Murderer" by chance, and made a splash with this debut. Unfortunately, Lo, a Jew, then had to leave Germany to prevent Nazi persecution.
▲ Peter Lowe on the screen is used to appearing as a villain killer. But in reality, his experience is far more complicated and tortuous than that of a killer, except that his luck is always much better than his character (pictured is Peter Lowe's promotional photo when [M is the murderer])
German Expressionism
The film is the first serial murder film in the history of cinema, boldly showing a distorted, isolated society. In addition to alluding to the Nazis, the film echoes the "law and order" that the Western world began to emphasize in the 1930s.
▲ The film's achievements in photography skills are also quite commendable, and the textbook parallel montage is skillfully used (director Fritz Lang in the bottom left)
▲ The montage passages in the film dealing with the police's pursuit of the murderer are particularly delicate. When it was screened in the United States in 1933, people mistakenly thought it was a documentary, and it became a textbook for american police schools (stills pictured).
▲ Small space, surrounded wide-angle lens, shaky picture, sharp angle photography and hazy lighting, the "expressionist" style is vivid (pictured is [M is the murderer] clip)
This film not only influenced hitchcock, John Ford and other major directors, but more importantly opened up a new way for American crime fiction creation. But Fritz Lang admits that he was heavily influenced by George William Brecht's [Three Cent Opera], saying, "Is there any filmmaker of Brecht's contemporaries who is not influenced by him?" ”
Fritz Lang explains the ending: it is not possible to punish one crime and commit another crime at the same time, and public crimes should be prohibited (pictured here is the CC release of [M is the murderer], including Fritz Lang in the tidbits)
This is also the alarm bell and criticism given by Fritz Lang about the various atrocities that the Nazis will commit in World War II.
Source of the article: Watch Movie APP