While there is a boom in the burgeoning Film industry, there is a complementary bottleneck. The advent of the new technology brought forth the imaginations of the pioneers with Melies. Solid foundations of a principal authority and funding with the studios. Now, the changing medium needs a voice and Fritz Lang might stand as one of the major auteurs to lead us in the journey from silent to talkies. Stars of the 1910’s and 20’s quickly faded into obscurity in the coming decade if they failed to advance. Lang tackles the problem of this along with his own establishment on the cinematic universe that is the 20th Century storytelling device. He has earned the title the “Master of Darkness” for his ominous approach and devious overtones that speak of the horrors inside each viewer manifested by modern tragedies and futuristic contemplations.  

Defining Lang as an Auteur

To pinpoint a director into a specific decade becomes redundant and futile yet a bit necessary. To define the parameters of where they fit we can use a simple rule of when they made their masterpiece. You will note several directors who begin with a triumph, only to fall shorter with each attempt at celluloid deconstruction. Some directors have their start in a specific decade then work on a significant catalog the following decade or two only to see washed up versions of themselves as the decades count on. Well, Fritzy completely fits all these described categories. However, unlike several silent giants, he continued to work as a compelling force through later decades.

Lang Experimentals

As part of an experimental group of artists, Lang took his approach to film at the point where surrealism and comedy meet and absurdity conquers all. Such short films as Hemdlosesichaussstreckendefilme aka The Shirtless Stretching Guy Films became marketing impossibilities with no studio appeal. Lang was unconcerned with any of this during the early 20’s and wanted to harness an unspoken language that delivered his messages about the perils of the great war and the warnings of things yet to come. The values of the Expressionists reject the notions laid forth by their artistic predecessors in the Futurist and even Dada movements by striking down any grandeur associated with machinery. For Lang the only technology worth saving is celluloid and even that can bite you in the butt as Germans have a thing for butt stuff and scatology.
 

Why Metropolis is a Masterpiece

Shown in an age of turmoil to an audience that could barely recognize the fascinating world within the imagination is what complicates the magnificent story of Metropolis. Talkies had not yet ruled the scene but it is ignorant to think that films were in fact silent prior to The Jazz Singer. The music accompanying the films was just as important a competent to the feature as the acting, writing, or stage design. Auteurs like Chaplin, Yates, and Keaton prided themselves as musicians just as much as directors. The actual music scoring to Metropolis strikes fear and shock into the story. The dance sequences add a sexy quality that modern viewers cringe at the coming Hayes Code that will inevitably destroy most copies of the film. Oh, so good. Oh, so naughty.

Metropolis lands the beginnings of the sci-fi genre and dystopian fears for audiences everywhere. The mystery of the missing footage claims even more appeal to the masquerade. Yet, it is the iconic imagery that haunts the visions of filmmakers still. Fun fact: Many of the original models for from the film Metropolis are housed in Venice, CA as part of the Jadis museum private collection. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/jadis

Talk to M.

As if one masterpiece that is touted by both radicals and fascists as genius is not enough. Lang does it again only a few years later with M. and solidifies the new genre of film noir. The contemplative device of a detective story where the audience might be the ones being played. The viewer is purposely left out of the dark regarding specific details of omniscient narration. The clues to pick up the pieces don’t line up until the director unfolds them at the end of the film. Climax is achieved and we question the whole arrangement of events. We feel a part of the action. The noir genre makes us more logical viewers and a bit more skeptical of our own lives if only for the achievement of a little fantasy. 

Take the Lang Way Home

Lang takes a stark lead to a classic auteur stereotype for eccentric behavior on set. His tactic of motivating actors through disdain and paranoia is something later directors would take note of and apply in even more bizarre fashions. Bonus Fun Fact: He once yelled at Marilyn Monroe for inviting her acting coach to set. However, MM always got her way.

Part 2 http://www.newevolutionvideoproduction.com/auteur-series-1910s-laemmle/

Part 1 http://www.newevolutionvideoproduction.com/auteur-series-1900s-melies/

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