Political Allegory

• Extremely common & relevant to film analysis – e.g. ‘M’ is not just a film about a serial killer- captures the zeitgeist of pre-Nazi Germany

• All films inevitably contain traces of the social environments they emerge from and the people who created them, though some more overt than others.

• ‘M’ also depicts the aftermath & economic hardship of post WW1 Germany, such as the extensive organized crime in Berlin

• This unease is embedded into the mis-en-scene, e.g. shot entirely in studio, conspicuous lack of litter & vandalism on the streets

Political/Propaganda Cinema

• Lang was offered control of cinema industry by Reich propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels despite his Jewish background

• Lorre’s stark closing monologue was incorporated into 1940’s The Eternal Jew, a Nazi propaganda film deriding Lorre’s convincing performance as an act of deceit.

Effects of Nazism in Germany

• Both Lang and Lorre fled Germany due to their Jewish heritage.

• The violence of the Holocaust has created universal social consequences; the history of cinema is no exception. Both actor and director became key figures in American film noir, both were embraced by Hollywood.

• The Holocaust and the Second World War are also very widespread topics in cinema

The Holocaust/WW2 in Film:

Lang & Lorre’s Hollywood work:

Sound

• Despite being seen as an interim between sound and silent films, ‘M’ is a fully formed vision of Lang’s, a good example of a film surpassing technical/financial limitations.

• The whistling overdubbed to Lorre’s character is considered the earliest audio motif in cinema used to signal a certain character/action

• Also a key example of a film changing the meaning of a pre-existing piece of music to something more sinister- we can see this echoed in the infamous “goodbye horses” scene of Silence of the Lambs (1991).

The City

• Berlin, 1931• Has a character of it’s own– “Stimmung” (Mood, Atmosphere).– A gridded space (‘Metropolis’,

Lyonel Feininger ‘Cathederal’)

The City– Consumerist Culture

– Rationally Ordered (Ticking Clock Motif)

Police/Criminals• The Criminals:– Well- Organised and Efficient

• The Police:– Ineffective and slow

Mise-en-Scene• Criminals well dressed

• Balloon to “resemble Leslie”

• “You’re Out” Game

Mise en Scene• “Stalking Camera”

• Shift/Restoration of Power (Police/Criminals)

Mothers

• No ‘Father’ characters apparent

• Motif of “Mother”

Sound

• “A Silent Film, with sound”

• Ticking Clocks

• Whistling: Beckert = Impending murder.

Bibliography

• Atonton Kaes, ‘Berlin, 1931,’ in M, London:BFI, 2000: 9-26.

• Avisar, Ilan. Screening the Holocaust: Cinema's Images of the Unimaginable. Vol. 2. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988.

• IMDb. (2014). M. Retrieved June 2nd, 2014 from

Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022100/