M: A canonical film inspiring generations

Released almost 100 years ago, ‘M’ can still be considered as one of the earliest attempts at making a movie centered around a serial killer prying on his targets, deeply embroiled in moral ambiguity. It has become one of the most influential films of all time, giving birth to the genre of serial killer films and films centered around a morally wrong character. Fritz Lang, director of the film is talked about even after 50 years after his death for his contribution to cinema with his science-fiction film ‘Metropolis’ & ‘M’, which single-handedly has inspired a generation of filmmakers who have all picked up bits and pieces from it. Be it the birth of the film-noir genre, match cut technique, parallel editing, a character with shades of grey, or questions on morality and what is right and what is wrong.

‘M’ is a crime thriller film based around a psychotic child murderer and sex-offender terrorizing the city of Berlin and how both the police and underworld criminals are on a manhunt to find this person and punish him for his heinous crimes, leisurely paced with extended scenes of police searching the city to find even the slightest clue about the criminal. Set during the uprising of the Nazi government in Germany, the film comments on the situation of Germany at the time when the police had absolute control to stop and search anyone, and Beckert, marked by the beggar’s union to follow him around everywhere. Through his symbolic imagery and juxtaposition, Lang also compares the persona of police and government to that of criminals committing crimes against the citizens.

‘M’ was one of the earlier talkies but uses dialogues sparsely yet effectively with great use of ambient sounds and silence for world-building and creating tension at specific points in the film. The child murderer Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) can be heard whistling a specific tune whenever he is on screen and gets an urge from within to commit a crime, the tune of ‘In the hall of the Mountain King’ acts as a sound which can be associated with his character and also gives an indication of his mental instability. This technique of using one particular theme for a character was later on used in films like Star Wars for the character of Darth Vader.

For a film made in 1931, ‘M’ is technically brilliant with immaculate use of match cuts, invisible cuts and framing of shots, laying importance on what needs to be shown and what needs to be concealed from the audience. The film also works on the tropes of a German Expressionist film with the use of hard lighting, cast shadows, dimly lit scenes, and bleak settings. The film features a lot of smoking throughout the film as police and underworld criminals try to understand the criminal and his activities, devising a plan. The use of smoke here reflects the state of confusion and have no clarity about their approach.

The film relies heavily on Peter Lorre and his acting talents to bring out the madness of Hans Beckert while still retaining the embodiments of a normal person whom no one would suspect of being involved in criminal activities. He adapts the body language of a mentally unstable person throughout the film with exaggerated expressions and uses his eyes to draw attention to himself. His speech at the very end raises a lot of question, asking the audience, who are being asked to give the judgment on a pedophile pleading forgiveness and treatment for his sickness while he compares himself to the criminals who have a say in their own actions and can control themselves but choose not to, whereas he is unable to act when his urge to commit crime takes over him.

‘M’ is an interesting film which is technically brilliant and can be regarded as a canonical film in cinema history because of its contribution to the contemporary cinema; wherein numerous films later adopted the tropes introduced by it, be it David Fincher’s ‘Se7en’, Palme d’Or winner ‘Taxi Driver’ or the 2019 film ‘Joker’. The film was way ahead of its time and tackled themes such as morality, mental illness, and the predator-like nature of humans which hadn’t been explored at such depths earlier. The film does not give you the horrors of other German Expressionist films, but leaves you with the question, how far can someone go to justify their wrongdoings?

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Written by:

Moksh Jindal

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