Recommended Fritz Lang books?
There is a biography Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast by Patrick McGilligan.
And Lotte Eisner’s book is a classic. Though it’s a primarily descriptive account rather than thoroughly analytical.
I know Luc Moullet has written a book on him, but as far as I’m aware it hasn’t been translated into English, but I’d have to double check on this.
Tom Gunning’s The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity
Fritz Lang: The Image and the Look bedited by Stephen Jenkins, BFI
Interesting. I didn’t know Gunning wrote a book on Lang.
McGilligan’s book is pretty good — he debunks a lot of myths. Valuable reading, I’d say.
Fritz Lang in America BY Peter Bogdanovich it’s from 1969 So he lived another seven years or so and dose not really focus on anything he did in the silent days of German film but it’s actually quite good.
Wow, thanks for the response everyone!
I poked around for a bit on my own and there aren’t that many in print. I did find “FL: genre and representation in his American films” by Humphries on Amazon for very cheap. And perhaps the concession stand will have something…
@Elvis, Roscoe- I looked at a few reviews and they had the impression that McGilligan had an axe to grind, with “debunking” things such as his secretly being a Nazi sympathizer (!) What is your opinion?
@apursansar-Put it in a bid on ebay for this.
@Matt – I’ll keep my eye out for this, especially after I read this:
http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/770
@Ari- isn’t that reprinted in Bogdanovich’s “Who the devil made it?” I read that and enjoyed it.
@Matt Reddick I haven’t read any books on Lang as of yet, but I bought one a while back called Fritz Lang: Interviews which is edited by Barry Keith Grant.
Wow, I thought I responded to this a while ago. In case any one else is interested:
-The Humphries books was WAY over my head. Advanced film theory combined with Psych 101.
-Lotte Eisner. Straight forward bio… kinda boring.
-Gunning’s book is AMAZING. Highly recommended. Thoroughly researched and very insightful. It gave me a deeper appreciation of Lang and his philosophy.
Matt Reddick
Hi,
I’m familiar with the majority of his work, but spread out over the last dozen years or so.
There is an upcoming series @ the Film Forum in NYC focusing on Lang in Hollywood and I would like to have something to compliment it.
(I read Basinger’s book on Mann during a recent retrospective and it made a huge difference.)