М's Birthday
On May 11, 1931, Fritz Lang's film "M" premiered at the UFA-Palast am Zoo in Berlin.
According to some experts, the film "M" is based on the real case of serial killer Peter Kürten, nicknamed "The Vampire of Düsseldorf", whose crimes in the 1920s horrified Germany. By his own admission, this maniac-pervert at the trial, for the period 1900 - 1930. he committed 69 brutal murders, mostly of little girls. 9 murders from them have been proved. The basis for believing that it was his criminal case that formed the basis of the film was the real fact that Lang spent 8 days in a psychiatric hospital where Kürten was kept. However, according to Lang himself, the plot of the film is based not only on the case of Peter Kürten, but also on a number of other serial killers.
Lang's motive for turning to criminal genre was the commercial failure of his two previous films, "Metropolis" (1927) and "Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon)" (1929). Both of these films belonged to the science fiction genre. Then Lang remembered the success of his films in the criminal genre - "Der müde Tod (Destiny)" (1921), "Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler)" (1922) and others, and decided to return to the thriller genre again. Together with his then-wife Thea von Harbou, they conceived the idea of creating a film based on "the ugliest, most heinous crime".
Initially, Fritz Lang was going to call his film "Killers Among Us". But the Nazis took this name personally, and threats of physical violence rained down on Lang. Then Lang changed the working title of the picture first to "The city is looking for a killer", then to "Your killer is looking at you" and finally decided to limit the title to one letter - "M", from the German word "Mörder" - "murderer". Moreover, it was very consistent with the plot.
The film "M Killer" was the 15th full-length feature film and the first sound film in the work of Fritz Lang. Although it is more correct to say that this film has become a borderline between silent and sound films in the director's work, since one third of the film is silent, and two thirds are sound. The main reason for this separation is financial, since the rental of sound equipment was quite expensive. But there is another reason - Lang believed that the absence of sound maximally contributes to the creation of the depressing impression he needs. The film was shot in 6 weeks. In an effort to achieve maximum reliability, Fritz Lang attracted real criminals for the scene of the criminal court. In this he was helped by connections with the Berlin police, mainly with the homicide department, developed during work on previous films of the crime genre. However, director biographer Paul Jensen claimed that 24 criminals were arrested during filming.
Lang's calculations came true, and the film was a great success with the audience. Even Joseph Goebbels noted in his diary:
"Abends mit Magda Film ‚M‘ von Fritz Lang gesehen. Fabelhaft! Gegen die Humanitätsduselei. Für Todesstrafe! Gut gemacht. Lang wird einmal unser Regisseur. Er ist schöpferisch."
However, later the assessments of one of the leaders of the Nazi Party changed. Read more about this in the article about the film "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse". After the Nazis came to power, Lang, whose mother was Jewish, left Germany. After his departure, in 1934, the film was banned. The ban was enforced until 1966. However, in the Soviet Union it was not shown at all.
Critics in all countries highly appreciated the film by Fritz Lang. Roger Ebert gave the film a maximum of 4 stars and included it in his "Great Movies" list. In his 1997 review, he wrote:
"When you watch "M,” you see a hatred for the Germany of the early 1930s that is visible and palpable. Apart from a few perfunctory shots of everyday bourgeoisie life ..., the entire movie consists of men seen in shadows, in smokefilled dens, in disgusting dives, in conspiratorial conferences. And the faces of these men are cruel caricatures: Fleshy, twisted, beetle-browed, dark-jowled, out of proportion."
Russian film critic Sergei Kudryavtsev, who also rated the film as highly as possible - with 10 points, continues this topic in his 2006 review:
"the inhuman fury that has already burst out will remain as if spilled out in the air. From which a somewhat straightforward conclusion suggests itself, to unfortunately, confirmed by the course of the historical process: Germany itself was under the influence of an evil principle, turning into a maniac-child-killer who destroys its future."
Many decades after the film's release, moviegoers continue to rate it highly. 72% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users rated this film from 8 to 10, and 21% of users rated the film with the highest score - "ten". Taking into account this indicator and the above, rating of the Fritz Lang's film "M" according to FilmGourmand version is 8.246, thanks to which he takes 453rd place in the Golden Thousand. Fritz Lang's film "M" was the only film among the world cinema films produced in 1931. Based on this, this picture can be considered the best film of world cinema in 1931.
