A child murderer terrorizes a German city. Both the police and the criminal underworld set out to hunt him down, each for their own reasons. It's Lang's first sound film. He uses what the new technology could do with sound to create the first great psychological portrait of a murderer.
M is a 1931 crime, drama and thriller film directed by Fritz Lang. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 sound, 2 narrative and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Get Out uses several of the same techniques.
Repeating a short piece of music or a sound every time a certain character, idea or feeling comes up. You learn to connect the 2.
How this film uses it
A leitmotif is a tune tied to 1 character. Hans Beckert whistles Grieg's 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' without knowing it and without being able to stop. Throughout the film, the sound identifies him before the audience or the characters ever see him clearly. Alongside that, the whistle is his signature as a criminal. You hear it before every child disappears, and it marks an urge the murderer can't control.
Where to see it
The balloon seller scene. You hear Beckert's whistle before you see him. The tune warns you of danger before the child understands it.
Showing a community turn into its own informal court, outside the legal system. Mob logic and social pressure take the place of legal process, the same way a rumor hardens into a conviction.
How this film uses it
The Berlin criminal organizations set up their own investigation and their own court alongside the police. Theirs works better, has more reason to succeed and in the end is more threatening. Beckert is tried in an abandoned distillery by the very people whose business he puts at risk just by existing. The court scene is where the film says this most openly. There are 2 justice systems running side by side, and neither is fully legitimate.
Where to see it
The kangaroo court sequence. The criminals and beggars put Beckert on trial. Their unofficial court follows full legal procedure and delivers its verdict.
Designing a location so that everyone in it can be watched by a central authority at all times. Being constantly seen creates pressure and shows who has power over whom.
How this film uses it
Lang designs the city as 1 big surveillance network. There are police maps, networks of informants and organized beggars who mark Beckert with chalk. Every public space is watched. The irony is that the criminal underworld watches more thoroughly than the state does. The film's paranoid city is a panopticon, a place where everyone can be seen at all times, and people outside the law keep it running.
Where to see it
The beggar network activating. The whole city comes under organized watch. Criminals running the surveillance turn out to be more efficient than police procedure.
Telling the story from the side of the person doing the harm, and letting you inside their head. You start to understand them, which is more uncomfortable than simply condemning them.
How this film uses it
Lang shows you Beckert from his own point of view. You see his urges, his self-hatred and how he is unable to stop. The trial scene gives him a speech about his suffering, and the film does not dismiss it. Seeing things from the killer's side excuses nothing, but it does complicate things. The film asks whether punishment is justice or just the community giving in to its own urge, a mirror of Beckert's.
Where to see it
Beckert's defense speech. The murderer explains his urges to his accusers. Once you hear his side, it gets harder to pass moral judgment.
Questions
M: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does M use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in M (1931): Leitmotif, Community as Tribunal, Panoptic Space Design and Perpetrator Perspective.
Who directed M?
Fritz Lang directed M, released in 1931. CineCode also covers Metropolis (1927), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), The Big Heat (1953).
What films are similar to M?
Films that share techniques with M include Get Out (2017), Black Swan (2010), Schindler's List (1993), Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
