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Fritz Lang

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For the German painter, seeFritz Lang (artist).

Fritz Lang
Lang in 1969
Born
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang

(1890-12-05)December 5, 1890
Vienna,Austria-Hungary
DiedAugust 2, 1976(1976-08-02)(aged 85)
Beverly Hills, California,U.S.
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park
Citizenship
  • Austria
  • Germany (later renounced)
  • United States[1]
Alma materTechnical University of Vienna
Occupations
  • Film director
  • producer
  • screenwriter
  • actor
Years active1910–1976
Spouses
Lisa Rosenthal
​
​
(m.1919; died 1920)​
​
​
(m.1922;div.1933)​
​
​
(m.1971)​

Friedrich Christian Anton Lang(Austrian German pronunciation:[ˈfʁiːdʁɪçˈkrɪsti̯a(ː)nˈantɔnˈlaŋ];December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known asFritz Lang(pronounced[frɪtsˈlaŋ]), was an Austrian-American film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.[2]One of the best-knownémigrésfrom Germany's school ofExpressionism,he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by theBritish Film Institute.[3]He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.[4]

Lang's most celebrated films include the groundbreaking futuristic science-fiction filmMetropolis(1927) and the influentialM(1931), afilm noirprecursor. His 1929 filmWoman in the Moonshowcased the use of amulti-stage rocket,and also pioneered the concept of arocketlaunch pad(a rocket standing upright against a tall building before launch having been slowly rolled into place) and the rocket-launchcountdownclock.[5][6]

His other major films includeDr. Mabuse the Gambler(1922),Die Nibelungen(1924), and after moving to Hollywood in 1934,Fury(1936),You Only Live Once(1937),Hangmen Also Die!(1943),The Woman in the Window(1944),Scarlet Street(1945) andThe Big Heat(1953). He became anaturalized citizenof the United States in 1939.

Early life

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Lang was born inVienna,as the second son of Anton Lang (1860–1940),[7]an architect and construction company manager, and his wife Pauline "Paula" Lang (néeSchlesinger; 1864–1920). His mother was bornJewishand converted to Catholicism. His father was described as a "lapsed Catholic."[8]He was baptized on December 28, 1890, at theSchottenkirchein Vienna.[9]He had an elder brother, Adolf (1884–1961).[10]

Lang's parents were ofMoraviandescent.[11]At one point, he noted that he was “born [a]Catholicand very puritan ".[12]Ultimately describing himself as anatheist,Lang believed that religion was important for teaching ethics.[13][14][15]

After finishing school, Lang briefly attended theTechnical University of Vienna,where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. He left Vienna in 1910 in order to see the world, traveling throughout Europe and Africa, and later Asia and thePacificarea. In 1913, he studied painting inParis.

At the outbreak ofWorld War I,Lang returned to Vienna and volunteered for military service in theAustrianArmyand fought in Russia andRomania,where he was wounded four times and lost sight in his right eye,[16]the first of many vision issues he would face in his lifetime. While recovering from his injuries andshell shockin 1916, he wrote some scenarios and ideas for films. He was discharged from the army with the rank of lieutenant in 1918 and did some acting in the Viennese theater circuit for a short time before being hired as a writer atDecla Film,Erich Pommer's Berlin-based production company.

On 13 February 1919, in the Marriage Registry Office inCharlottenburg,Berlin, Lang married a theater actress, Elisabeth Rosenthal, who died on 25 September 1920, in their bathtub, under mysterious circumstances, of a single gunshot wound,[17]deemed to have been fired by Lang'sBrowningrevolver,[18]from World War I.[19][20][21]

Career

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Expressionist films: the Weimar years (1918–1933)

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Lang's writing stint was brief, as he soon started to work as a director at the German film studioUFA,and laterNero-Film,just as theExpressionistmovement was building. In this first phase of his career, Lang alternated between films such asDer Müde Tod( "The Weary Death" ) and popular thrillers such asDie Spinnen( "The Spiders" ), combining popular genres with Expressionist techniques to create an unprecedented synthesis of popular entertainment withart cinema.

Lang andThea von Harbouin their Berlin flat, 1923 or 1924

In 1920, Lang met his future second wife, the writerThea von Harbou.She and Lang co-wrote all of his movies from 1921 through 1933, includingDr. Mabuse, der Spieler( "Dr. Mabuse the Gambler," 1922 – which ran for over four hours, in two parts in the original version, and was the first in theDr. Mabusetrilogy), the five-hourDie Nibelungen(1924), the dystopian filmMetropolis(1927), and the science fiction filmWoman in the Moon(1929).Metropoliswent far over budget and nearly destroyed UFA, which was bought by right-wing businessman and politicianAlfred Hugenberg.It was a financial flop, as were his last silent filmsSpies(1928) andWoman in the Moon,produced by Lang's own company.[citation needed]

In 1931, independent producerSeymour Nebenzahlhired Lang to directMfor Nero-Film. His first"talking" picture,considered by many film scholars to be a masterpiece of the early sound era,Mis a disturbing story of a child murderer (Peter Lorrein his first starring role) who is hunted down and brought to rough justice by Berlin's criminal underworld.Mremains a powerful work; it wasremade in 1951byJoseph Losey,but this version had little impact on audiences, and has become harder to see than the original film.

During the climactic final scene inM,Lang allegedly threw Peter Lorre down a flight of stairs in order to give more authenticity to Lorre's battered look. Lang, who was known for being hard to work with, epitomized the stereotype of the tyrannicalGermanicfilm director, a type embodied also byErich von StroheimandOtto Preminger;Lang wore amonocle,adding to the stereotype.

In the films of his German period, Lang produced a coherent oeuvre that established the characteristics later attributed tofilm noir,with its recurring themes of psychological conflict, paranoia, fate and moral ambiguity.

At the end of 1932, Lang started filmingThe Testament of Dr. Mabuse.Adolf Hitlercame to power in January 1933, and by March 30, the new regime banned it as an incitement to public disorder.Testamentis sometimes deemed an anti-Nazi film, as Lang had put phrases used by the Nazis into the mouth of the title character. A screening of the film was cancelled byJoseph Goebbels,and it was later banned by theReich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.[22]In banning the film, Goebbels stated that the film "showed that an extremely dedicated group of people are perfectly capable of overthrowing any state with violence", and that the film posed a threat to public health and safety.[23]

Lang was worried about the advent of the Nazi regime, partly because of his Jewish heritage,[24]whereas his wife and co-screenwriter Thea von Harbou had started to sympathize with the Nazis in the early 1930s, and later joined theNazi partyin 1940.[citation needed]After he discovered von Harbou in bed withAyi Tendulkar,an Indian journalist and student 17 years younger than her, they soon divorced.[25]Lang's fears would be realized following his departure from Austria, as under the racistNuremberg Lawshe would be identified as half-Jewish even though his mother was a converted Roman Catholic, and he was raised as such.

Emigration

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According to Lang, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels called Lang to his offices to inform him – apologetically – thatThe Testament of Dr. Mabusewas being banned but, nevertheless, he was so impressed by Lang's abilities as a filmmaker (especiallyMetropolis), that he offered Lang the position of head of German film studio UFA. Lang said it was during that meeting he had decided to leave for Paris – but that the banks had closed by the time the meeting was over. Lang claimed that, after selling his wife's jewelry, he fled by train to Paris that evening, leaving most of his money and personal possessions behind.[26][27][28][29]However, his passport of the time showed that he traveled to and from Germany a few times during 1933.[30]

Lang left Berlin for good on July 31, 1933, four months after his meeting with Goebbels and his initial departure. He moved to Paris,[31]having divorcedThea von Harbou,who stayed behind, earlier in 1933.[32][33]

In Paris, Lang filmed a version ofFerenc Molnár'sLiliom,starringCharles Boyer.That was Lang's only film in French (excluding theFrench version ofTestament). He then moved to the United States.[31]

Hollywood career (1936–1957)

[edit]

Lang made twenty-two features in his 20-year American career, working in a variety of genres at every major studio inHollywood,and occasionally producing his films as an independent. He became anaturalized citizenof the United States in 1939.[34]

Signing first withMGMStudios, Lang's crime dramaFury(1936) sawSpencer Tracycast as a man who is wrongly accused of a crime and nearly killed when a lynch mob sets fire to the jail where he is awaiting trial. However, inFury,he was not allowed to represent black victims in a lynching scenario or to criticize racism, which was his original intention.[35][36]By the timeFurywas released, Lang had been involved in the creation of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, working withOtto Katz,a Czech who was aCominternspy.[37]He made four films with an explicitly anti-Nazi theme,Man Hunt(1941),Hangmen Also Die!(1943),Ministry of Fear(1944) andCloak and Dagger(1946).Man Hunt,wroteDave Kehrin 2009, "may be the best" of the "many interventionist films produced by the Hollywood studios before Pearl Harbor" as it is "clean and concentrated, elegant and precise, pointed without being preachy."[34]

Lang withGloria GrahameandBroderick Crawfordon the set ofHuman Desire

His American films were often compared unfavorably to his earlier works by contemporary critics, although the restrained Expressionism of these films is now seen as integral to the emergence and evolution of American genre cinema,film noirin particular.Scarlet Street(1945), one of his films featuringEdward G. RobinsonandJoan Bennett,is considered a central film in the genre.

One of Lang's most praisedfilms noiris the police dramaThe Big Heat(1953), known for its uncompromising brutality, especially for a scene in whichLee Marvinthrows scalding coffee onGloria Grahame's face. As Lang's visual style simplified, in part due to the constraints of the Hollywood studio system, his worldview became increasingly pessimistic, culminating in the cold, geometric style of his last American films,While the City Sleeps(1956) andBeyond a Reasonable Doubt(1956).

Last films (1959–1963)

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Finding it difficult to find congenial production conditions and backers in Hollywood, particularly as his health declined with age, Lang contemplated retirement. The German producerArtur Braunerhad expressed interest in remakingThe Indian Tomb(from an original story by Thea von Harbou, that Lang had developed in the 1920s which had ultimately been directed byJoe May),[38]so Lang returned to Germany[39]to make his "Indian Epic" (consisting ofThe Tiger of EschnapurandThe Indian Tomb).

Following the production, Brauner was preparing for a remake ofThe Testament of Dr. Mabusewhen Lang approached him with the idea of adding a new original film to the series. The result wasThe Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse(1960), whose success led to a series of new Mabuse films, which were produced by Brauner (including the remake ofThe Testament of Dr. Mabuse), though Lang did not direct any of the sequels. Lang was approaching blindness during the production,[40]and it was his final project as director.

In 1963, he appeared as himself inJean-Luc Godard's filmContempt.

Death and legacy

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On February 8, 1960, Lang received a star on theHollywood Walk of Famefor his contributions to the motion picture industry, located at 1600Vine Street.[41][42]

Grave of Lang, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills

Lang died from astrokeon August 2, 1976, and was interred in theForest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemeteryin theHollywood HillsofLos Angeles.[43][44]

While his career had ended without fanfare, Lang's American and later German works were championed by the critics of theCahiers du cinéma,such asFrançois TruffautandJacques Rivette.Truffaut wrote that Lang, especially in his American career, was greatly underappreciated by "cinema historians and critics" who "deny him any genius when he 'signs' spy movies... war movies... or simple thrillers."[45]Filmmakers that were influenced by his work includeGeorge Lucas,Jacques Rivette,William Friedkin,Steven Spielberg,Christopher Nolan,Luis Buñuel,Osamu Tezuka,Alfred Hitchcock,Satyajit Ray,Jean-Luc GodardandStanley Kubrick.[citation needed]

Lang is credited with launching or developing many different genres of film.Philip FrenchofThe Observerbelieved that Lang helped craft the "entertainment war flick" and that his interpretation of the story of Bonnie and Clyde "helped launch the Hollywood film noir".[46]Geoff Andrew of theBritish Film Institutebelieved he set the "blueprint for the serial killer movie" throughM.[47]

In December 2021, Lang was the subject for BBC Radio 4'sIn Our Time.[48]

Preservation

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TheAcademy Film Archivehas preserved a number of Lang's films, includingHuman DesireandMan Hunt.[49]

Filmography

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Main article:Fritz Lang filmography

Awards

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  • Silver Handin 1931, for his filmM,by the German Motion Picture Arts Association[50]
  • Commander Cross, Order of Merit in 1957 and 1966
  • Golden Ribbon of Motion Picture Arts in 1963 by the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Order of Arts and Letters from France in 1965
  • Plaque from El Festival Internacional del Cine de San Sebastian in 1970
  • Order of the Yugoslavia Flag with a Golden Wreath in 1971
  • Honorary Professor of Fine Arts by the University of Vienna, Austria, in 1973

References

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  1. ^Kürten, Jochen (December 4, 2015)."Born 125 years ago: Celebrating the films of Fritz Lang".Deutsche Welle.RetrievedNovember 18,2017.
  2. ^ObituaryVariety,August 4, 1976, p. 63.
  3. ^"Fritz Lang: Master of Darkness".British Film Institute.Archived fromthe originalon December 18, 2008.RetrievedJanuary 22,2009.
  4. ^"Fritz Lang: 10 essential films".December 4, 2015.
  5. ^"The Directors (Fritz Lang)".Sky Arts.Season 1, episode 6. 2018
  6. ^Weide, Robert (Summer 2012)."The Outer Limits".DGA Quarterly.Los Angeles, California: Directors Guild of America, Inc.: 64–71.A gallery of behind-the-scenes shots of movies featuring space travel or aliens. Page 68, photo caption: "Directed by Fritz Lang (third from right), the silent film" Woman in the Moon "(1929) is considered one of the first serious science fiction films and invented the countdown before the launch of a rocket. Many of the basics of space travel were presented to a mass audience for the first time."
  7. ^"Architekturzentrum Wien".Architektenlexikon.at.RetrievedMarch 6,2010.
  8. ^David, Eric (August 25, 2009)."The Master of Darkness".ChristianityToday.com.RetrievedJanuary 6,2023.
  9. ^Vienna, Schottenpfarre, baptismal register Tom. 1890, fol. 83.
  10. ^McGilligan, Patrick(1997). "CHAPTER ONE".Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast.St. Martin's Press.ISBN0-312-13247-6.Archived fromthe originalon April 20, 2022 – via archive.nytimes.com.
  11. ^Ott, Frederick W. (1979).The films of Fritz Lang(1st ed.). Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press. p. 10.ISBN0-8065-0435-8.RetrievedJanuary 19,2018.
  12. ^Lang, Fritz (2003).Fritz Lang: Interviews.Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 163.ISBN978-1-57806-577-6.
  13. ^Tom Gunning (2000).The films of Fritz Lang: allegories of vision and modernity.British Film Institute. p. 7.ISBN978-0-85170-742-6.Lang, however, immediately cautions Prokosh, 'Jerry, don't forget, the gods have not created men, man has created the gods.' This is more than a simple statement of Feuerbach-like humanism or atheism.
  14. ^McGilligan, Patrick(1998).Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast.St. Martin's Press.p. 477.ISBN978-0312194543.
  15. ^Kermode, Mark(2013).Hatchet Job: Love Movies, Hate Critics.Pan Macmillan. pp. 25–26.ISBN978-1-4472-3052-6.The Austrian-born film-maker Fritz Lang once commented that, although he was an atheist, he supported religious education because 'if you do not teach religion, how can you teach ethics?'
  16. ^Barson, Michael (July 29, 2020).""Fritz Lang"".britannica.com.RetrievedAugust 11,2020.
  17. ^Dillard, Clayton (November 7, 2013)."Review: Patrick McGilligan's Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast".Slant Magazine.RetrievedJuly 27,2024.
  18. ^Connolly, Kate (February 10, 2001)."Murder and Metropolis".The Guardian.RetrievedJuly 27,2024.
  19. ^"Murder and Metropolis".TheGuardian.com.February 10, 2001.
  20. ^"Lisa".williamahearn.com.
  21. ^Brook, Vincent (September 18, 2009). "4. The Father of Film Noir: Fritz Lang".Driven to Darkness: Jewish Emigre Directors and the Rise of Film Noir.Rutgers University Press. pp. 58–78.doi:10.36019/9780813548333-005.ISBN978-0-8135-4833-3.
  22. ^Kracauer, Siegfried (1947).From Caligari to Hitler: a psychological history of the German film.ISBN0-691-02505-3.
  23. ^Kalat, David (2005).The strange case of Dr. Mabuse: a study of the twelve films and five novels.McFarland.ISBN0-7864-2337-4.
  24. ^"The religion of director Fritz Lang".Archived from the original on January 12, 2006.RetrievedJanuary 22,2009.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  25. ^McGilligan 1997,p. 168.
  26. ^"Fritz Lang Biography".IMDb.RetrievedSeptember 5,2019.
  27. ^Michel Ciment:Fritz Lang, Le meurtre et la loi,Ed. Gallimard, CollectionDécouvertes Gallimard(vol. 442), 04/11/2003. The author thinks that this meeting, in fact, never happened.
  28. ^Havis, Allan(2008),Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression,University Press of America, Inc., p. 10
  29. ^Thomson, David (2012)The Big Screen: the story of the moviesNew York: Farrar, Straus and GirouxISBN978-0-374-19189-4pp. 64–65; Lang's version deemed suspect
  30. ^"Fritz Lang Tells the Riveting Story of the Day He Met Joseph Goebbels and Then High-Tailed It Out of Germany".Open Culture.April 28, 2015.RetrievedMarch 29,2018.
  31. ^abDavid Kalat,DVD Commentary for The Testament of Dr. Mabuse.New York City, United States: The Criterion Collection (2004)
  32. ^Hughes, Howard (2014).Outer Limits: The Filmgoers' Guide to the Great Science-fiction Films.New York:I.B.Tauris.p.1.ISBN978-1-78076-165-7.RetrievedJanuary 22,2015.
  33. ^McGilligan 1997,p. 181.
  34. ^abKehr, Dave (May 15, 2009). "Fritz Lang, Trailing Nazis".The New York Times.
  35. ^Letort, Delphine; Lebdai, Benaouda, eds. (2018).Women Activists and Civil Rights Leaders in Auto/Biographical Literature and Films.Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. p. 98.ISBN978-3-319-77081-9.RetrievedSeptember 7,2018.
  36. ^Scott, Ellen C. (2015).Cinema Civil Rights: Regulation, Repression, and Race in the Classical Hollywood Era.Rutgers University Press.p. 1736.ISBN978-0-8135-7137-9.RetrievedSeptember 7,2018.
  37. ^Hoberman, J. (October 9, 2014)."Fighting the Nazis With Celluloid".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on January 2, 2022.RetrievedMarch 26,2021.
  38. ^Plass, Ulrich (Winter 2009). "Dialectic of Regression: Theodor W Adorno and Fritz Lang".Telos.149:131.
  39. ^Gold, H.L. (December 1959)."Of All Things".Galaxy.p. 6.RetrievedJune 15,2014.
  40. ^Robert Bloch."In Memoriam: Fritz Lang" in Bloch'sOut of My Head.Cambridge, MA: NESFA Press, 1986, 171–80
  41. ^"Fritz Lang | Hollywood Walk of Fame".walkoffame.com.RetrievedJune 11,2017.
  42. ^"Fritz Lang – Hollywood Star Walk – Los Angeles Times".projects.latimes.com.RetrievedJune 11,2017.
  43. ^Fritz Lang
  44. ^Krebs, Albin (August 3, 1976)."Fritz Lang, Film Director Noted for 'M,' Dead at 85".The New York Times.RetrievedJanuary 22,2009.
  45. ^Dixon, Wheeler Winston (1993).Early Film Criticism of Francois Truffaut.Indiana University Press.pp. 41–42.ISBN0-253-11343-1.
  46. ^French, Philip (January 2, 2000)."'Without Fritz, there'd be no Star Wars'".The Observer.ISSN0029-7712.RetrievedJuly 7,2020.
  47. ^"Fritz Lang's M: the blueprint for the serial killer movie".British Film Institute. September 5, 2014.RetrievedJuly 7,2020.
  48. ^"BBC Radio 4 – In Our Time, Fritz Lang".
  49. ^"Preserved Projects".Academy Film Archive.
  50. ^"Fritz Lang papers circa 1909–1973 1931–1973".Archived fromthe originalon July 20, 2021.RetrievedApril 2,2020.

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