Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

2.1 Fritz Lang
Out of the list of directors selected in this part, the name of Fritz Lang (Vienna,
Austria, Dec. 5, 1890 – Aug. 2, 1976) is the one that stands out in terms of the number of
significant noir films created and which became acclaimed subsequently. Growing up in
fin de siècle Vienna, Lang attended art school before WWI, and soon absorbed part of the
opulent decadence of major painters of the early twentieth century, namely Gustav Klimt,
Egon Schiele, and Edvard Munch. Moreover, the concepts in the philosophy of Friedrich
Nietzsche, specifically his amoral Übermensch and the unconscious drives, and the
mordant theories of Sigmund Freud were to be reflected in Lang’s work for decades to
come. However, it was during WWI that Lang decided to join the German film industry.
“Der müde Tod” (Weary Death, 1921), not only inspired Douglas Fairbanks Sr.’s
1924 feature, The Thief of Baghdad, but is also considered as a major cinematic
achievement by Lang, thanks to its special effects . The following year, Lang directed Dr.
Mabuse, Der Spieler (The Gambler), an epic divided into two parts and which portraits the
life of a doctor of psychology and a master criminal. In 1924, Die Nibelungen was also a
silent fantasy film divided into two different parts, Siegfried and Kriemhild’s Revenge,
based upon the 13th-century Siegfried epic poem, and intended to reinstate German
cultural heritage.
In 1927, Fritz Lang directed a science-fiction film which, still nowadays, remains a
classic and is shown in several film festivals. Metropolis is a dominant Expressionistic
drama about a futuristic urban society, and along with its amazing technical achievement,
it became one of the most expensive silent production ever made (it almost bankrupted the
UFA studio). Lang decided then to come up with his own production company for his next
movie, Spione (1928), which, though not so successful as his previous movies, also tackles
the sophisticated world of espionage and technology. It was followed by Woman in the
Moon (Die Frau im Mond, 1929), another science fiction silent film, and M (1931),
starring Peter Lorre as a compulsive child-murderer. M (see p.108) is Lang’s first sound
film and is considered by the director himself his finest masterpiece of his German period.
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