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Overview Fritz Lang (1890 - 1976), an Austrian-born film director, was one of the commanding figures of German and American cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, he pioneered entire new genres and modes of cinematic expression. From the distortions of German Expressionism to the malignant brooding of American film noir, Langs films depicted a fatalistic universe where all possibilities are predetermined. Fascinated by the psychology of violence, his movies were populated by murderers, thieves, prostitutes, and spies. In films like Metropolis, M, Fury, While the City Sleeps, and others, Lang made immeasurable contributions to the technology of film making, and the art of visual story telling.
Early Years Fritz Lang was born in Vienna on December 5, 1890. His parents Anton and Paula were staid and respectable members of the citys middle class. Anton, a municipal architect, believed his son would one day succeed him in his profession. Yet early on it was apparent that Fritz was not at all like his father. Free spirited and imaginative, he loved to draw and read fantastic stories by Jules Verne and other writers. As he grew older he became fascinated with philosophy and the occult.
Anton believed the discipline of school would tame the boys wild mind. He enrolled Fritz in a technical high school, and later sent him to the Vienna Academy of Graphic Arts where he studied architecture at the College of Technical Sciences. He did not easily settle into his architectural studies, and much preferred to paint and draw. He admired the work of painters Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, and envied the romantic life of an artist.
He became something of a Viennese bohemian, haunting cabarets and nightclubs; meeting women and having casual affairs. Cabarets were more than amorous playgrounds for Lang. He earned his first professional pay painting sets for small productions. When his father learned of Fritz's excursion into show business, he forbade him to continue. The pair argued bitterly and without resolution. " And since I could not convince him that I would make neither a good architect or a successful engineer, " Lang wrote in his memoirs, " I ran away from home something every decent young man should do. " Young Artist Adrift Leaving for Belgium when he was twenty, Lang soon wandered half the globe.
Drifting through North Africa, Turkey, Asia Minor, Bali and the South Pacific, he returned to Europe in 1913. Settling in Paris, he made a living selling hand-painted postcards, paintings, and cartoons for German newspapers. With his spare cash he diverted himself at the cinemas. Even though most of the picture shows he watched were primitive and crude, Lang responded to the mediums vitality. " I already subconsciously felt that a new art I later called it the art of our century was about to be born, " he recalled. New Vision: WW I & the Golden Age of German Cinema When war broke out in 1914, Lang was nearly arrested by the French police during a roundup of " foreign enemies. " He fled to Vienna and felt very lucky to have avoided the conflagration that would soon engulf all of Europe. He rented an art studio in the city and began to work as a painter.
No sooner was this enterprise under way, than he was drafted by the Austrian army. Lang proved a worthy soldier and eventually became a lieutenant. Wounded in battle four times, his final injury left him blinded in his right eye. He was discharged in 1916 and spent a year convalescing in a Vienna hospital. As he recovered, he began regularly visiting movie theaters. " I was preoccupied with the new medium of film, " he wrote. He started writing short stories and film scenarios, and acted in Red Cross plays.
He submitted his initial screen effort, a werewolf tale, to several film companies but generated little interest. Two subsequent screenplays, Wedding in the Eccentric Club, and Hilde Warren and Death caught the attention of the German producer Joe May. He purchased the scenarios from Lang and produced them under his own name. When the young veteran saw his stories mangled and misinterpreted on screen, he determined that one day he would direct his own films. By the time he left the hospital in 1917, he had sold several screen concepts to May and other German directors. Moving to Berlin, he was hired as story reader and editor for Decla-Bioscope, an independent production company.
Lang soon worked as a staff screenwriter and occasional actor in Decla productions. Directing Debut He got his first chance to direct in 1919 with The Half Breed, a tale about a spurned half-Mexican mistress who gets even with her lover. The film explored the all consuming, destructive power of revenge, a prototypical Lang theme. Langs next film, a two-part work called The Spiders established him as a commercial success.
Produced during 1919 and 1920, The Spiders concerned master criminals plotting to conquer the world. This was a popular theme in post-war German cinema. Audiences were captivated by visions of doom and pessimism. Its not surprising that Expressionism, an art movement that had silently germinated since the late 19 th century, now came into its own. Robert Wine The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) uses Expressionistic design elements to visually objectify a mad mans state of mind.
With its fantastically distorted perspectives, dramatically contrasting light and shadow, and extreme camera angles, Caligari set the standard for a whole new cinematic genre. Originally assigned direction of Caligari by Decla's chief executive Erich Power, Lang was forced to bow out because of his commitment to The Spiders. Before he left, he made a critical contribution to the films narrative structure. Instead of simply recounting the nefarious acts of Dr.
Caligari, Lang suggested the tale be told from the perspective of a mad narrator. Only at the films end does the audience learn that the story was a lunatics paranoid delusion. Langs narrative framing device augmented the films expressionistic vision and provided a twist that audiences loved. In 1920, the year that Decla-Bio merged with German film giant Universal-Film-Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Lang began a long partnership with screenwriter Thea von Harbou. Their first collaboration, The Tired Death became a classic of Expressionism. Set in the middle ages, this highly allegorical film tells the story of young woman who bargains with Death for the return of her deceased lover.
Thematically typical of the angst-ridden genre, The Tired Death is most notable for Langs distinct use of lighting as an element of design and composition. Architecture played a critical role in Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), the story of a criminal genius who leads a gang of thugs on a murderous rampage. With its brooding shadows and moral ambiguities, Dr Mabuse was a direct antecedent of the American film noirs of the 1940 s and 50 s. Langs next two films, Siegfried (1922 - 24) and Kriemhilds Revenge (1923 - 24), were lavish studio fantasies.
UFA spared no expense for the productions. Mammoth studio sets housed specially constructed mountains, forests, and a giant fire-breathing dragon. Lang was free to realize his vision in minute detail. He experimented with the geometrical relationships between people and architecture.
After finishing production in 1924, Lang and von Harbou were married. Metropolis When Lang and von Harbou began work on Metropolis in March 1925, UFA was the biggest and best equipped studio in the world. When they finished filming in October 1926, the mighty studio was on the verge of collapse. Though Metropolis was not the first science fiction film ever made (that distinction belongs to Frenchman Georges M?
li? ss A Trip to the Moon, 1902), it set the precedent for all those to follow. Despite its flaws, Lang managed to create a futuristic vision that was coherent and believable. Technically, Lang pioneered an array of special effects, many that are still in use half a century later. Lang conceived Metropolis during a visit to the United States in 1924.
As his ship docked in New York harbor, he stared in awe at the citys imposing skyline. He imagined a futuristic urban landscape where humans are swallowed in the gears of their own creation. Lang told Thea about the idea and she wrote a novel about a grim industrial dystopia. In 1925 they converted Thea's book into a screenplay. Langs architectural vision reaches an apex in Metropolis. The glittering, ultra-modern cityscape contrasts starkly with the distorted, expressionistic underworld of the workers.
He emphasized this by introducing " architectural ized" crowd-scenes. For a worker-riot scene, Lang carefully choreographed the actors movements into bold geometric patterns. These designs were closely linked to the sets architecture and the scenes framing. Thus, even in rebellion the workers are still a part of the machine. Most of Metropolis stunning visual effects were achieved by cinematographer Eugen Sch? fan.
His innovative trick-shot technique allowed miniatures and live action sequences to be seamlessly combined. Sch? fan used specially made magnifying mirrors to pick up reflections of miniatures. The mirrors were then secured at 45 degree angles from the movie camera. This way the camera would see the reflected miniatures but not photograph itself. Next, Sch?
fan made a kind of matte by scrapping away the reflective surface, revealing clear windows to the sets and live action behind the mirror. Captured in two dimensions on film, the miniatures, life-size sets and actors are combined in one frame. Metropolis also introduced the kind of eye-popping visual effects that are staples of contemporary science fiction films. In a memorable sequence, the mad scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Range) transforms a robot into a beautiful woman. Audiences were mesmerized as they watched the robot, bathed in floating orbs of electricity, metamorphosis into an evil replica of the beautiful Maria (Brigitte Helm). Lang achieved this effect through in-camera dissolves and an early form of optical printing.
For shots of cars and airplanes gliding above the citys skyline, Lang and crew employed stop-motion animation techniques. These sequences, lasting barely a minute on film, took six days to film. In another pioneering segment, John Fredersen (Alfred Abel), the master of Metropolis, talks to his chief foreman Grot (Heinrich George) on a giant tele screen. This effect was one of the earliest known examples of rear-screen projection. Metropolis was, at the time, the most expensive film in European history. The production drained the studios resources and crippled its output.
UFA was forced to borrow over four million dollars from two American studios, Metro-Goldwyn and Famous Players. Despite the loan, UFA still owed the Deutsche Bank forty million marks. Though millions of viewers around the world attended the film, box office receipts could not save the sinking studio. In 1927 UFA was taken over by Alfred Hugenberg, a newspaper mogul with close ties to the Nazis. The golden age of German cinema was at an end.
Dr. Mabuse and the Third Reich Lang left UFA and started his own production company. He made two more silent films, Spies (1928), and The Girl in the Moon (1929), a science fiction film where he coined the concept of the rocket-launch countdown. Though Langs films often explored the most gruesome aspects of human behavior, the director deplored the depiction of violence.
Consequently he devised many visual strategies that suggest violence without actually portraying it. His first sound film, M (1930), was Langs favorite and a masterful example of metaphorical storytelling. Peter Lorre plays a tormented psychopath who relentlessly stalks and murders little girls. Though he desperately wants to stop, he cant resist the primal compulsion to kill. In the end it is criminals, not police, who track the murderer down. Although sound films were barely two years old, Lang demonstrated a sophisticated mastery of the medium.
In M he juxtaposes sound and images to create scenes of compelling emotional resonance. In one segment, a mother is heard calling for her little girl. On screen there is a succession of stark imagery: a desolate stairwell; a dark shadowy basement; and finally an empty place setting at the family dinner table. Sound and image conjure a terrible sense of foreboding about the little girls fate. Another clever device Lang used to create suspense was the murderers recurrent whistling before each homicide. Unlike many film makers of the early " talkie" period, he realized that sound was much more than dialogue.
Artfully employed, sound evokes powerful emotions. Though Hitler was not yet in power, the Nazi influence was increasingly pervasive, particularly in the media. During Alfred Hugenbergs tenure, UFA became a production and distribution center for Nazi propaganda films. Many of the newsreels and shorts UFA produced were intensely anti-Semitic. Lang, a liberal of Jewish descent, sensed that Nazi venom was more than empty rhetoric. In 1933, the year Hitler assumed control of the government, Lang completed The Last Will of Dr.
Mabuse, a sequel to Dr. Mabuse the Gambler. In the fervently anti-Nazi film, Langs most wicked characters spew Nazi slogans. The Nazis immediately banned Last Will. However, in a strange twist, the director was invited to meet with Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda.
Goebbels did not mention the ban, but said that Hitler was a big fan of the directors work, particularly Metropolis. The Further was offering Lang a position as Artistic Director of UFA, a post later assumed by Leni Riefenstahl. Lang was astounded and horrified by the offer. Now reality seemed as twisted and distorted as an Expressionistic film. Even his wife Thea seemed a stranger to him. When the Nazis came to power she joined the party, and began churning out propagandists screenplays.
He didnt trust Goebbels, and suspected that Goebbels offer was some kind of trick. Certain he might be arrested at any moment, he departed Goebbels office and caught a train to Paris that evening. He had little money and only the possessions he could carry. He and von Harbou were divorced shortly after Lang fled.
She went on to write and direct many films for the Nazis. Exile: The Hollywood Years Lang spent a year in Paris and directed one film, Liliom (1934), the ethereal story of an angel trying to earn his wings. Escapist fantasy seems a natural outlet for a man who had just lost everything to the Nazis. Yet Lang did not long remain in the clouds. Meeting American producer David O. Selznick in London, he signed a one-picture deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), and set sail for Hollywood.
Lang spent most of 1935 learning English and working on screenplays, but his early efforts were flatly rejected by MGM. He traveled across American, hoping to learn more about the culture and people of his adopted home. Frequenting small backwaters and villages, Lang came to know the American soul. He developed a keen understanding of the nations conflicting virtues and inequities.
In Fury (1936) he returns to the terrain of intense psychological dramas like M. Spencer Tracy plays a young man who is wrongly accused of kidnapping, and then is nearly lynched by a vengeful mob. This penetrating study of scapegoats and crowd hysteria draws subtle parallels with the fascist movements swallowing Europe. You Only Live Once (1937) and You and Me (1938) completed Langs series of brooding social critiques. The former tells the story of an ex-convict who has mended his ways, but is still persecuted by society. In You and Me, a department store owner hires an ex-con, but soon suspects him of foul play.
The films received a passing reception, but did not do as well as Fury. Lang, used to complete artistic freedom, was increasingly frustrated by autocratic studio rule. Signing a contract with 20 th Century-Fox, Lang embraced American mythology with The Return of Frank James (1940), an entertaining sequel to Henry Kings acclaimed Jesse James (1939). Western Union (1941), though not as successful, cemented his reputation as a master of the time-honored genre.
Americas involvement in World War II turned Nazis into standard box-office villains. Lang gladly launched his part in the war effort with a series of anti-Nazi films. Man Hunt (1941), finds a British assassin stalking Hitler while he, in turn, is hunted by the Gestapo. Here, he returns to the fatalistic themes that marked so many of his German films. Espionage thrillers like Hangmen Also Die (1943), Ministry of Fear (1944) and Cloak and Dagger (1946) rounded out this cycle. Lurking in the Shadows: Film Noir Toward the end of the war, and for some years after, Lang revisits the mystery-suspense themes of his earlier career.
Psychological thrillers like The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), Secret Beyond the Door (1948), and House by the River (1950) epitomized the emerging American genre that French critics named film noir. Like M and the Dr. Mabuse before, these films were marked by somber, shadow-filled tones, often set in what film critic Gavin Lambert described as " an anonymous, melancholy urban world. " They portrayed an American landscape where heroes and villains were sometimes difficult to distinguish. Lang turned away from mobsters briefly and made one last western. Rancho Notorious (1952), is a psychological tale about a cowboy turned vigilante after the murder of his girlfriend. Though the film was eventually ranked among his more important works, critics and audiences rejected it at the time.
Witch Hunt Langs next films reclaimed the shadowy realm of crime. Clash by Night (1952), set during the Depression, considers how social turmoil can transform a peaceful man into a murderer. Shortly after the film was finished in 1951, Lang was swept up in the growing turmoil of the cold war. Senator Joseph McCarthys House Committee on Un-American Activities branded Lang a " potential communist. " This charged stemmed from the directors association with " left-leaning" screenwriters like Berthold Best and Ring Lardner Jr.
Blacklisted, Lang was unemployed for over a year. In 1953 Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures testified before McCarthys witch-hunting committee that Lang was not a communist. The director was immediately hired to work on Blue Gardenia (1953), the story of an innocent young woman accused of a ghastly murder. This marginally successful film was followed by The Big Heat (1953), one of Langs best crafted and evocative noir thrillers. In The Big Heat, a young detective battles a ruthless mobster who controls a small town. The film shocked both audiences and critics alike with its brooding intimations of violence, and moral ambiguity.
Lang depicts a world where corruption is the norm, and honesty is a laughably naive ideal. Human Desire (1954), a remake of Jean Renoirs La B? te Humaine (1938) explored the destructive power of lust. Lang departed from contemporary criminal themes in Moonfleet (1955), a gothic melodrama about an orphan enlisted by a gang of smugglers.
Langs last American masterpiece was also one of his personal favorites. While the City Sleeps (1956) concerns three newspaper reporters whose ruthless news gathering tactics rival the horror of the murder they are investigating. Arguably the darkest of his crime thrillers, Lang casts a scathing critique of Americas cutthroat business culture. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) marked a disappointing conclusion to Langs American career. Although the idea was intriguing a novelist masquerades as a murderer to expose inequities in the judicial system the production was a mechanical exercise in excess. Not even the films unexpected twist-ending restores its potential.
Leaving Hollywood Professionally, Lang wearied of zealous studio chiefs meddling with his productions. He longed to direct films where artistry was not compromised by commercial considerations. He traveled to India in 1956 and did research for an independent project called Taj Mahal. Not far into the planning stages, he abandoned the project and returned to the United States. In a last attempt to work with Hollywood studios, he pitched a story idea concerning illegal telephone tapping by the FBI. Still reeling from McCarthy-era paranoia, the premise was flatly rejected.
After twenty years of feuding and frustration, Lang abandoned Hollywood forever. In 1957 a German production company offered him a chance to direct a two-part story, The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959), and The Indian Tomb (1959). The scripts were closely based on scenarios written by Lang and Thea von Harbou in 1921, and held great personal significance for the director. Lang stayed in Germany and made one last film, The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960). His directorial swan song was a finely crafted update of his Mabuse series.
After a series of grisly murders, the Berlin police suspect the killer may be a high-tech copycat of the evil Dr. Mabuse. Taut and suspenseful, the film delivered a polemic against the dangers of over reliance on technology. In 1963 Lang played himself in Jean Luc Godards Contempt. A film about the making of a film, Contempt is also a glowing tribute to the career of Fritz Lang.
Godard and other French New Wave film makers were among the first to recognize the directors profound influence on modern cinema. Lang returned to the United States in his late years, and lived in Beverly Hills, CA. He died on August 2, 1976 after a long illness. 1 Riefenstahls films, Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938) are considered masterpieces of cinematic propaganda. Select Bibliography for Fritz Lang Books Armour, Robert, Fritz Lang, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977. Cook, David A. , A History of Narrative Film, New York: W. W.
Norton & Co, 1981. Eisner, Lotte H. , Fritz Lang, New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. Katz, Ephraim, The Film Encyclopedia, New York: HarperCollins, 1994 Mast, Gerald and Kevin, Bruce, A Short History of the Movies: Fifth Edition, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992. Articles Hawkins, Erika, " Fritz Lang and Metropolis: The First Science Fiction Film, " Metropolis Homepage, January 1997.
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