Anton Kaes

Bits of Mabuse and Doblin percolate in the Weimar of our imagination. Red Rosa is tossed into the Landwehr while Sally Bowles sings for lost love, placating her daddy issues until the burning of the Reichstag.

I read half before viewing the film and then the second half after pausing midway through Lang's masterpiece. This is a meticulous analysis of 1931 Berlin and the Brechtian daimon of Peter Lorre. There is considerable context on the recent phenomenon of serial killing in this mass society, the role of popular press and radio on reinforcing a nascent surveillance state == one both official/efficient and the murky one of the neighbor qua lynch mob.

Well worth anyone's time… (more)

Anton Kaes provides an extremely valuable in-depth examination of Fritz Lang's M, exploring this classic German film not only based on cinematic craft, but the historical, social, and political contexts that informed and are reflected by Lang's masterful directorial craft. Kaes devotes large sections of the book to the historical climate in Germany at the time that are alluded to in the film and/or inspired it, including the repercussions of World War I and the real-life serial killer that captured the attention and imagination of the German people at the time, and explores how M is not just a crime thriller or police procedural, but an exhaustive portrayal of how society reacts - both positively and negatively - to the almost mythological nature that such crimes invoke in the popular culture. A must read for any serious film enthusiast.… (more)