M (1931 Film) Essay Questions

What purposes does the cross-cutting between the police and the gangsters as they search for the killer serve and to what effect?

The theory of dialectical montage, as first theorized by Soviet filmmaker and scholar Sergei Eisenstein, can help us understand the point of the cross-cutting. Dialectical montage is an editing technique where two consecutive images are used to synthesize an idea. An image of a homeless man followed by an image of tasty food would suggest that the man is hungry. Lang uses the same principal here to blur the lines between the underworld and the government, and to set us up for a role switching that will result in the criminals holding court over the captured murderer.

M is somewhat paradoxical in its treatment of the child killer. Beckert's acts are vile and inspire rightful antipathy in every city dweller we see, but it's clear that the underworld isn't giving him a fair shot during the trial staged in the distillery. What point is Lang trying to make about justice in general?

The film is unwavering in its treatment of the child killer, clearly establishing him as a monster. That is unequivocal. But we are also given plenty of other monsters too. There are the inept police who take joy in hassling the people in the speakeasy. There are the crowds of people on the street ready to harass any man who stops to talk to a child. There is Der Schränker who takes obvious joy in leading a bloodthirsty mob to the conclusion that Beckert deserves an immediate death sentence. Lang paints a complicated picture of what people are really looking for when they search for justice, while never wavering on the point that indeed, some justice must be served.

What are the historical resonances between the Weimar Republic and the film's treatment of the government and the underworld?

M was made in Germany during the period when the post-war government of the Weimar Republic was deteriorating, setting the stage for the Nazi regime to take over. By the 1930s, Germany had been living for years with the humiliation imposed on them after World War I by the victorious countries, and the Weimar government was widely seen as incapable of standing up for the interests of the people. The ineffective police investigation and the doddering aristocrats paint a picture of the government as it was perceived at the time, and the powerful underworld assuming the mantle of law shows what was starting to occur in that power vacuum.

Throughout M, Fritz Lang uses a variety of genre tropes including German Expressionism, suspense, and the social problem story line. Some of these elements were already popular tropes at the time, while some were quite innovative. Where does M fit into its specific film historical moment?

M was made right as sound film was becoming common and, indeed, it's Lang's first film with sound. As such, he borrows from the German visual tradition of Expressionism. In terms of narrative content, there is a mix of both classical Hollywood narrative film-making and the Soviet tradition of political cinema about collective movements. Lang combines elements of each to make a compelling story about individuals in the grips of a city-wide struggle. Lang's innovative construction of suspense during the scene when Lang is being followed by street people along with an expert use of shadow would influence Albert Hitchcock and the Hollywood film noir genre. Both Hitchcock and film noir would first start showing in cinemas just a few years after M's release, but would really rise to prominence during the '40s and '50s.

In M, a variety of motifs are employed, including Beckert's whistling, shots of printed text, and circles. Cite multiple instances of one or more motifs in the film and explain how Lang uses motif to develop ideas thematically.

Circles are the most common motif in the film. We frequently see people arranged in circles, be they schoolkids playing a game, men sitting around tables, or crowds gathering around a newspaper salesman or suspicious person. There is also the circle that Franz bores in the office building and, for that matter, the strange clock with a circular lock next to it. These circles always seem to be some portal to an aspect of social life, or a group dynamic.