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Post by spiderwort on Oct 4, 2019 12:34:25 GMT
One of Fritz Lang's German masterpieces. Haunting, disturbing, relevant today, sadly, and so beautifully made. Almost a silent film at times, but the sounds are so effectively used - the eerie whistling, for example - that sometimes you almost want it all to be silent except for sound effects, at least I felt that way. And what a great performance by Peter Lorre! A film that is haunting to this day.
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 4, 2019 13:38:42 GMT
The only film I can think of that rivals it in some ways is Silence of The Lambs - in that it has its own look and ties in several themes to that look - and even that is a different thing.
The way Lang directs this film is revolutionary and so is the Lorre performance - in Lang's case the use of shadow, reflections, set design create a whole dark interior life. The film never once lets him off the hook and at the end doesn't let you off the hook either.
Lorre here is giving the first revolutionary male film performance I reckon - or at least the most important one - in that sound was relatively new so the face is the key instrument at his disposal and here his face is used in combination with his voice. There are many times he hesitates to speak because he doesn't want to give himself away or be misunderstood either.
At the end when he hates himself and turns on the mob it is like what would be done decades later by actors - he's thought about what he's saying, he just has never had a chance to say it like that......and as he says it, he is sad, weary, panicked all at once. His facial mannerisms rise and fall - when his face goes blank, internally he's gone blank too.
It's a very complex film for 1931 and even more so when you think that he is a child molester not only a murderer - the film can't go there of course but it's implicit and Lorre's performance strikes all kinds of levels of wanting to run away from yourself and what he's done and what's worse.........what he might do if given the opportunity.
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Post by therealcomicman117 on Oct 4, 2019 15:51:43 GMT
Great film. One of the best proto-serial killer flicks ever. Peter Lorre isn't actually in the movie much, and yet you feel his presence throughout. With each and every story beat, Lang also manages to play with your expectations. The way he uses shadow lighting and strong cinematography to convoy menace still gets me to this day, such a masterstroke.
In regards to what to the film may represent. I did once listen to both a podcast and read a essay, and there was definitely an idea of the film being based around early fascism. While Hitler had yet to rise up in Germany, it was only a few years later when Lang would be forced to leave the country, so there is a lingering sense of that same kind of dread conveyed in the film.
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clunkybob2
Junior Member
clunky's posts should be locked in a cell
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Post by clunkybob2 on Oct 4, 2019 16:44:44 GMT
Yeah his best imo, 10/10
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clunkybob2
Junior Member
clunky's posts should be locked in a cell
Posts: 262
Likes: 94
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Post by clunkybob2 on Oct 12, 2019 12:45:53 GMT
Notwithstanding the technical magnificence of Metropolis, I absolutely agree.
Yeah Metropolis is incredible. I loved Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler too. And Die Nibelungen looks very impressive. But M is just pretty much perfect. |
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Post by MsMovieStar on Oct 12, 2019 17:29:42 GMT
Oh honeys, I saw it some time ago and found it scary. Peter Lorre was mesmerizing. It's actually based on a true story, which makes it even more scarier.
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Post by PromNightCarrie on Oct 13, 2019 20:07:32 GMT
10/10. Probably the best film I've seen from the 1930s. And Peter Lorre easily gives one of the greatest performances of classic cinema.
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Javi
Badass
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Post by Javi on Oct 13, 2019 20:45:52 GMT
One of the most uncomfortable film masterpieces imo. Lorre's performance is incredible. At first he's this lecherous worm, completely repugnant. Then he becomes a scared animal. And in his last scene, he's a terrifyingly sane human being. His final self-awareness is an invitation to understanding which is in itself intolerable because he shouldn't be understood--so Lang puts you between the mob and the monster, and both are equally grotesque. There's no way out.
I think it definitely captures something of what might have been happening in the (humiliated, paranoid) Germany of the time, but as a story of humanity being completely incapable of confronting its very nature, it's timeless.
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