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The 1933 Fritz Lang film is two hours of gripping horror and suspense.While M and Metropolis are far better known Lang films, this work is not to be missed.
Follow Ups:
... Lang's Spies ('28) and, to a lesser extent, Woman on The Moon ('29) - Note: Spies in this extended restoration is also gripping; Woman on The Moon is a bit slow and plodding, the moon science being a bit dated, but extremely accurate given the context of the times when the film was made. Both are excellent and available from KINO.AuPh
After a short list of films I want to get out of the way, I'll be hitting a bank of more than 300 films in my netflix queue that I've arranged chronologically. Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Nosferatu, Nanook of the North, the Last Laugh, Battleship Potemkin.... Mabuse is 16th on the list so far--I keep adding to it.For anyone else looking to do the same, netflix has a lot of their films incorrectly dated.... Nosferatu, for example, came out in 1922, not 1929.
You will enjoy it, I am sure, but Lang has that very negative emotional effect on me. Watching Metropolis or Mabuse produces such dehumanizing effect that after the film ends I am not looking for another one. The opening scenes of Mabuse, with that huge all-dominating machine shaking the whole building is so full of horror that it is capable of inducing strong depression.The fact it is done so incredibly well makes it even more depressing. So the overal effect of the film is bone-chilling in the extreme, and there is hardly any overt violence happening there.
This is something the schlock movie makers like Spielberg should have watched before making the SPR kaka. There is much more horror in one minute of Mabuse than in the whole of the SPR.
by Joseph Goebbels; he refused, and left for Hollywood via FranceThe gap being later (in)famously filled by Leni Riefenstahl
Hitler was a fan of Wagner (Siegfried and Niebelungen) and viewing Metropolis with it's dehumanising themes; Reich propanganda would have appeared to be a seamless progression for Lang (!)Bravo to him for not taking that offer up; but his early films are unwittingly the very model of what would later become fascist ideological cinema
I'm sure Lang later cringed at how prophetic he'd been, and how his art and vision was subsequently hijacked by the Bad Guys
I think it's impossible to remove any appreciation of Langs "German" films from the events that unfolded later, and yes, that's depressing...Grins
From the early 1920's his most extravagant productions, Die Nibelungen, Metropolis, Spies, Woman in The Moon, etc., were the shared visions of Thea von Harbou & Fritz Lang. Indead, von Harbou novelized several of these seminal works around the time that the films were released; apparently they were best sellers in Europe.This shouldn't take away from the brilliance of Lang's early work or suggest that Thea von Harbou's eventual membership in the Nazi Party should obscure or detract from the groundbreaking accomlishments of either artist, but awareness of the history and ideologies involved are relevent to understanding the cultural themes highlighted in these great films.
AuPh
?I'm ashamed to say I've never even see Metropolis before--not all the way through, at least. I'll ge getting quite a film education this year.
Netflix is a godsend.
Unfortunately, I have only read about them and seen several still photographs. As a fan of both Wagner and Lang, I am curious if you have seen them and your thoughts on them if you have.
I have both os them. The sslaying of the dragon in "Seigfreid" is a stunner, particularly when considering when it was made.
No, haven't, and I do have that difficulty with Wagner and his music. There was a period in my life when I admired it greatly, now I find it tedious and way too pretentious. Perhaps internally I am much more an Italian/French kinda guy than a German, but it almost irritates me.
But I'll gladly take his tediousness and pretensions for the beauty in his work.My wife, on the other hand, prefers a lighter touch. While Rachmaninoff is her favorite, everytime I put on Offenbach or Bizet or another French composer, she comes into the den and wants to know what I am playing. This doesn't happen when I play Wagner!
BTW, Victor, your comments on Lang's work and its effect on you were really something. I agree, Lang has a gift for portraying horror. But not just the dehumanizing sort. I can't think of a scarier moment in films than the one in "M", where Peter Lorre is standing next to the little girl with the balloon in front of the store window. Much more frightening than anything in today's "horror" films.
People often mention Hitchcock when discussing the master of horror, but Lang was head and sholders above, of you are just talking about bone-chilling creeping down your spine horror, and you are right, there are actually several moments in the M that define the ultimate gripping fear, like the scene with the open door with no one behind.And I know I perhaps mention the SPR too often, but since to way too many it represents something that it simply ain't, I think the comparisson is valid and called for. SPR is desperately trying to be horrific, but is in fact nothing but unpleasant and just amateurishly silly in many spots.
... beautifully done and arguably free of grey poupon! ;^)
The films are extraordinary. A must in their sheer beauty.
As for Wagner. Just the same.
My best friend surprised me with a visit Saturday. After enjoying dinner, we retired to the den and I began playing for him some of the music I was listening to, without first telling him what it was. When I put on the opening to "Rheingold," he sat back on the couch and listened with eyes closed. Four minutes into the opening, about a minute before the Rhine maidens begin singing, he looked at me and asked, "What is this music the start of?!" He was absolutely amazed at what he was listening to. Distance had shielded him from my enjoyment of Wagner, but now he has been exposed! And now, like a junior high school student given their first dime bag, he wants MORE!Thanks to everyone for their comments on Lang's films. I understand that, while drawn from the same sources as Wagner's work, they are different in many ways. The conversations here about Lang have inspired me! I will order them this week!
I wrote the sheer beauty thing for Fritz Lang film but not, hélas, for Wagner music.
I agreed in fact with Victor on his judgement on him.
At first I was a admirer of Wagner in my younger years. And some pieces of his music I still would love if I did not knew what kind of man he was.
Barenboim is one of his more ardent supporter this days.
Still his music is at best spectacular.F.Lang is a cultural must.
I saw the ambiguity in your statement as it was worded but hoped for the best!Wagner the man, by most accounts, abominable in many ways.
Wagner the artist...one of the giants.But I understand your position.
And Lang? Well, there we agree!
Yes Lang no doubt is one of the greatest.
His " M " is so strong and so intelligently made. A parabole that defy times.
As for Wagner even his early admirer Nietsche left him, in horror.
But still one little piece of music I still like...the monk entrance...
Of course, his famous quote about seeing the Ring at Bayreuth was, "The best singing I have heard since the night the orphanage burned down."But he considered the monk's entrance to be so good as to justify following performances of it around the world. Which he found himself in the position of doing in the late 1880s and early 1890s!
Oh, I did not knew that story but I also very little on MT! Yet this little piece of music make it hard for me to forget all about this man.
And it is the old question: Must I know what the man was to appreciate his work?
My answer would be there is a limit, but every one must decide when it start to hurt....
I was going to go for Tokyo Story, by wanted something a little less somber.I love Langs work, but was not familar with the Dr. Mabuse series. Very gripping and well acted throughout. The GF loved it too!
I picked up the 2-DVD set which has many extras including the French version filmed at the same time, same set, but with different actors and editing. Recommended to all!
John
... and highly recommended.
.
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