M Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: M
Year: 1931
Director: Fritz Lang
Country: Germany
Language: German 

World cinema is filled with extraordinary German films. The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1920) inspired fear while depicting great madness on screen. Pina (2011) showed us the beautiful art of expressive dance. The film's of Fritz Lang were made in-between those eras and covered a wide range of genres. His best known works are the Sci-Fi staple Metropolis (1927) and the chilling M (1931), the film that is being reviewed.

The plot revolves around Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre), a man who is murdering children in Berlin. The Police search is so intense, it is disturbing the 'normal' criminals, and the local hoods decide to help find the murderer as quickly as possible.

While M was Lang's (and Germany's) first sound film, many historians consider this to be this first masterpiece following the introduction of sound in  1927's The Jazz Singer, mainly because the beginning of this new technology greatly limited artistic possibilities. The use of sound in M is brilliant, Lang edited the sound as if he were editing the visuals. The first time Beckert speaks to a young girl, Elsie, we hear the conversation he makes with her, but only see his shadow which is ironically on his own "wanted" poster.

The lighting is masterful, as the use of shadow greatly contributes to the film's overall eerie atmosphere. The pacing and use of screen space is also well done. Notice that this film doesn't have a soundtrack, realize that it is better off without one. Perhaps the greatest aspect of this film is that, while Hans Beckert murders children, there aren't any shockingly violent scenes nor does Lang portray the man as a relentless psychopath. Beckert is a man with a disease, Lang uses his character to strongly imply that impatience with democratic judicial procedure and a paranoid eagerness to scapegoat others is the very same type of hysteria breeding Nazism.

In conclusion, M is a very important film that not only predicts the rise of Fascist Germany, but also serves to critique how society treats people with mental health issues. Throughout the film everybody asks "Who is the killer?" Perhaps this is what everybody was asking in Germany at the time, unfortunately Hitler decided the answer was "non-Aryans". Perhaps if he had not dismissed this film, history would have turned out differently. Praise it! 5/5