at Internet Archive
After seeing this, all I can think is "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 Lambe, and Se7en.10/10
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