Former architecture student Fritz Lang used cinema to explore a personal fascination with, in his words, “cruelty, fear, horror and death.” His film-making style is characterized by grandeur of scale, striking visual compositions and sound effects, suspense, and narrative economy — including minimalist techniques for enlisting the audience’s imagination to evoke horror. A progenitor of the films noir of the 1950’s, Lang was preoccupied throughout his oeuvre with the dark side of human nature: vengeance, violence, and the criminal mind. His heroes are brought down by injustice, bad women, or the iron laws of fate. In the world of Fritz Lang, hilarity does not ensue.
Don’t miss this week’s movies:
Spies
Agent No 326 is ordered to stop a spy-ring, but he falls in love with one of the spies, Sonja.
(Germany, 1928, 142 mins, dir. Fritz Lang, with Rudolph Klein-Rogge & Gerda Maurus, Silent)
Metropolis
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city’s mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
(Germany, 1926, 118m., d. Fritz Lang, w/Brigitte Helm & Alfred Abel, Silent)
Siegfried
The teutonic Knight Siegfried, son of King Sigmund, has many grand quests. Full of magic swords, enchanted hoods, and powerful amulets, at a time when the world is full of dragons, dwarves, and valiant knights. Told like Spencer’s “The Fairy Queen.”
(Germany, 1924, B&W, 96 mins, dir. Fritz Lang, Paul Richter & Margareta Schoen, Silent with English titles)
Kriemhilde’s Revenge
After Siegfried’s death kreimhild, mourns, but soon the grande old tale picks up pace when she is wooed by the conquerer Etzel (or Attila), king of the Huns. Now Kreimhild plots revenge against Siegfried’s killer.
(Germany, 1924, 91 mins, dir. Fritz Lang, Paul Richter & Margareta Schoen, Silent with English titles)
Visit World Cinema Saturdays on UCSD-TV to see what’s playing in the weeks ahead.