M Blog (will contain spoiliers)

German and black and white might not sound exciting. Recently, I watched the film titled M by the early director Fritz Lang. I truly enjoyed this film because it brought together the elements from silent cinema that I really enjoy (German expressionism and the more theatrical acting) and added german dialogue. Lang’s silent film directing techniques were very visible since this was his first film with sound. The very chilling introduction with the little children singing a song about getting kidnapped was a great lead into this film. The part that I liked the most about this movie is the story, use of sound, and German expressionism.
The story of this film is that a child killer was on the lose in a small German city. The killer caused a very large disturbance in the city. The faceless killer would lead the children to him by buying them something and then the scene would change. These events of killing led to raids on bar establishments by the police. These events would anger the owners of the bars and ruin businesses. In result, the owners felt that they needed to take maters into their own hands. The story then crafts into a story that leaves the audience wondering who is going to catch the killer: the police or the mob.
Since this was Fritz Lang’s first sound picture, he was able play with its elements. I felt that it was very clever the way he was able to have the audience be able to identify the murder was by how he whistled. Another example of this is that it is also the way that the character is able to be identified by a blind man. It seemed it was along the same lines as the Jaws theme, when the killer was approaching, the whistle would start up. It is also the way that the audience is able to understand when they are revealed the face of the killer because he is whistling the music while he looks into the mirror.
The German expressionism was very visible with this movie. Being made in 1931, it was right on the border of more films were able to contain sound. First, I would like to say that I really like the use of shadows. For example, there is a wanted ad for the child killer and then this large silhouette of a man in a hat appeared. This is able to inform the audience that this is an important person. I also just loved the use of lines. One of the first shots that got my attention was when the mother of one of the children in the beginning looks down into the stair case. It’s such a simple yet complex shot. Another example of German Expressionism is when the mobsters are going after the killer and the killer is locked in the attack of the building. The shadows of when the killer turns of the light gives off a very haunting effect and the wooden bars of the addict really adds the final touches to the scene.