Fritz Lang

By: Black Irish

“People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that’s a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

For Lang, film is what is outside, within and between us. Often dealing in issues regarding personal will or innate compulsion and how both relate to individual ‘destiny’, not in a supernatural sense but one that nonetheless, at times, holds a mystical quality. In the world of his films, characters occupy a morally ambiguous zone, where within each person resides an equal predisposition towards innocence as well as brutality. The protagonist may often be innocent, even naïve, and an idealist but outside pressures of society [gossip, anger, class, and so on,] as well as a potential for violence fight against them. While violence is a common factor, he is careful to show that it always stems from something else, be it panic or passion. Lang is both Romantic and Modernist. His interest in the former results in his fascination with psychological motivation and depicting individuals as bound by mysterious, unseen forces to people or places. The latter is manifested in his style, in his sense of space and composition he has the eye of both a dreamer and documentarian that places individuals in context of others and setting as though they were part of some cosmic puzzle. All this seems to suggest, by him, that what we are is a combination; of the elements and people around us, as well as what’s inside of us and our ability to control it.

M (1931) – The spectre of Becker hovers over the city, but hardly present during the majority of the first three-fourths of the film. Like the police, we begin from a given point [the apartment block where the mother of one of the soon-to-be victim’s lives,] and slowly radiate outward. Out along the streets, into the bars and beer halls, police offices. It’s a cross-section of a city in panic. Lang is determined more in showing the mindset of mass hysteria than in the one who has provoked it. Thus, for the public as well as the audience, Becker is an unindentifiable monster. The investigation takes a unique turn when the police have stepped on the toes of the criminal underworld just one too many times. The leaders begin to meet and make their plans simultaneously as the police are stupified as to their next move. All responsibility has now been effectively put into their hands. It isn’t until he is caught and placed into a kangaroo court that Becker finally has a chance to respond to his crimes. In a daring moment, he not only attempts to ‘defend’ his actions as innate and uncontrollable but accuses the underworld for committing crimes they can control.

You Only Live Once (1937) – As in Fury, the smug and righteous air of American morality hovers about the film like the gas in the armored car robbery. Eddie Taylor, like the frogs he mentions, is something to be attacked and torn apart. Considered a good man by a few, society is unwilling to collaborate with his desires to have a better life. Is his marriage to Jo an attempt at happiness or an unintended burden? Eventually Taylor is wrongfully accused of a crime and sentenced to death. His rage and scorn built up ‘til he attempts to escape, distrustful of his pardon [when the real culprit is found] and leading to murder. He, as well as Jo, are forced to go on the run accumulating the blame for numerous crimes along the way as public scapegoats. The connection only grows stronger between them and by the end manage to escape the judgment of public for good.

Ministry of Fear (1944) – Just released from an asylum, Stephen Neale enters immediately into an environment gripped by anxiety and paranoia upon winning a cake, ‘with real eggs,’ at a seemingly harmless charity event which is later stolen by a blind man with remarkable aim. Stephen moves about Blitz-era London where bombs and people drop like flies, nearly unable to keep up at the rate which this clairvoyant-guided conspiracy moves. There are minor loose threads, characters who disappear as soon as they appear and we never come to find out all the details of the conspiracy. We discover that he had performed a mercy killing and was sentenced to the asylum for two years and the irrational plot may be, it happens to perfectly reflect Stephen’s situation which, like England itself, is being attacked both inside and out. Safe from nothing.

Clash by Night (1952) – What does it take to know what direction you wish to move, regarding either life, love or both? There is a mix of naive and cynical attitudes, both equally imbalanced and ultimately unsure as to the guarantees each philosophy provide. Jerry, Mae and Earl are in turn driven by gossip, doubt, and lonliness and move head-on into their actions without weighing the outcomes. Vulnerability can awaken murderous and sexual impulses [frequently shown esp. between Peggy and Joe,] turning Jerry into a raging beast, releasing feelings of isolation and disappointment harbored by Mae and Earl under their tough veneers. For all the usual touches such as the depiction of lower-class living, socializing and innate impulses to rash decisions, the film results in a tale of trial by fire. The ability for personal growth and forgiveness through renewed awareness.

Top Ten Anticipated Langs:

Scarlet Street (1945)
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933)
Secret Beyond the Door (1948)
Spione (1928)
House by the River (1950)
Die Nibelungen (1924)
The Blue Gardenia (1953)
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
Human Desire (1954)
You and Me (1938)