" This is my wife Camille." " Pleased to meet you." " Fritz Lang." " Hello." "He made the western with Marlene Dietrich we saw Friday night." " That was wonderful!" " I prefer M." "We saw that on TV the other day." "I really liked it." "Thank you." "You're very kind." "FRITZ LANG THE CIRCLE OF DESTINY" "THE GERMAN FILMS" "When I saw the first reel of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse... it was like seeing... the sum of everything in my head!" "I felt it so strongly." "The relentlessness!" "So powerful and yet so simple!" "I'll never forget the foot sticking out behind the packing case... things that knocked me for a loop and still do!" "And I jumped out of my seat." "I can remember." "People made me sit down." "I was literally beside myself!" "I never knew her!" "What do you mean?" "And this one?" "When I shot Young Törless..." "I showed my young actor two films:" "Pickpocket and M." "For the part of Basinim played by Marion Zadowski... we studied at length how Peter Lorre... portrayed the child-murderer as a victim." "And the scene... where Basini is brought to justice before the students... was somewhat inspired... by what happens in the basement." "A pupil even wore the same black gloves... as Gründ Ganzm the gang leader in the trial scene." "The whole setting is constructed in this manner." "The boy is standing there accused." "It was simply a cheap copy... or a passing nod." "I had not yet found my own language." "I enjoyed making that '50s homage... to Fritz Lang and to M." "Seeing Lang's films... you realize there is a connection... between Lang's personal behavior... and that of his characters." "Lang was no intellectual." "His films are obsessivem tendentious... but also very impulsive." "When you knew Lang and you see the films... you're always awarem at least in many of his best films... or in filigree in certain scenes... of that impulsivenessm like that of some wild beast!" "Lang wrotem shotm edited... and evaluated his films in a spirit which was anything but intellectual." "Are you aware that I studied painting in Paris... in Montparnasse before WWl?" "I saw my first film in 1 9 1 3... and I was very interested." "In Parism I took my first steps... towards becoming a director." "What has always fascinated... and attracted me in Lang... because I also pride myself... on being a bit of a thinker... was the architectonics... of his mise en scène... not only in the visual sense... that he designed the spaces in which the characters moved... but because for him human morality... had an almost architectonic rigor." "And then there is always that very German notion of destiny... the idea that man is not really free to choose... but is always ultimately the pawn of destiny." "Buñuel was to receive... the medal of the Légion d'honneur... at Jean Renoir's housem I think... probably at the end of the '60s..." "Lang was a guestm and was delighted to meet Buñuel... because he knew Buñuel had once said... that Destiny had inspired his vocation as a director." "And it was all very amusing... because Lang looked forward to this being made public... and he pretended to be utterly astonished... when Buñuel said he had discovered cinema with Destiny!" "I was five or six... when I saw Metropolis..." "The Nibelungen..." "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse... and I think Mabuse the Gambler." "And I was fascinated by his achievement." "As a childm of course..." "I had no notion of what a director or a producer was." "Then one day I found out the director was Fritz Lang... and from then on..." "I worshipped himm so to speak... and was absolutely determined to get to know him one way or another." "As a Germanm I was fascinated-- which he sensed-- by his old filmsm especially the silents." "Spiders was one of my favorites... and also the Mabuse series." "There was always that prescience... about political events in particular... which comes through in Mabuse and M." "With Mabuse the Gambler..." "I grasped his art... as a silent director... but it wasn't till later that I discovered the best one by far." "Spies is one of the very greatest Fritz Lang films!" "And I have to say that 90% of Hitchcock comes out of Spies!" "For his silent periodm it is the perfect film." "Metropolis is splendid." "The Nibelungen films are a bit campm but splendid as well." "But Spies is so close to that dime-novel reality... whichm in my opinionm Lang needed to express himself." "Franklym Spies seems to me... the silent film by Lang... to show people who don't know his work." "Which you can read out of his filmsm of course." "He always handled that... with great restraint and discretion." "But there's no doubt about it:" "He was a lady's man." "At the timem I had the idea of showing German Man in different films." "In Destinym romantic German Man." "In Mabusem postwar German Man." "In The Nibelungenm heroic German Man." "And contrary to many claims..." "I never thought of propagating... the idea of a "superman"... or that the German spirit should make the world healthy again." "I've often been accused of thatm but I can't help it." "In The Nibelungenm there are four stylesm if you like." "The first is when Siegfried is in the forest... forges Mime's sword... slays the dragon... and seizes the gold of the Nibelungen." "It's a classicalm rounded style." "The second style corresponds to the decadent world... of Burgundian kings." "These sets reflect... the period and the characters." "This was the world of the Burgundians... somewhat decadent because it was 'overcultivated. '" "In my viewm Lang was closer... to architecture than to painting." "I can't cite instances... but his visual references... were to architecture rather than painting." "Several times he talked to me about set design... in terms of architecturem not painting." "Personallym I've always been more sensitive to Destiny..." "The Spiders and the Mabuse series... than to a spectacle like Metropolis." "I only appreciated it when I saw... the size of this film factory." "And of course we chose the Maria-robot in Metropolis... as the emblem of the studio." "Seeing Metropolis today isn't the same as then... because techniques have evolved so much." "But for the periodm it was staggering." "I never heard him say he liked Metropolis." "I only heard him denounce Metropolis:" "the subjectm the themem the possible meanings." "Did he not like it at the time?" "Or did the penny drop because of the way it was interpreted by the Nazis... and so he wanted to defend himself?" "That could be." "Thea Von Harboum as Lang spoke of her to me... might have been almost nothing to him." "Lang always denied... that he had shared any of her Nazi sympathies." "It was a point of honor with him." "Was this self-justification?" "It seemed to mem from his tone of voice... that it was all over and done with long ago." "But there was no aggressiveness... more like a kind of surprise that he had been so close to that woman." "Regarding the first wife... for a long time I never knew there was one." "I don't think anyone knew... and in fact I hardly discussed that with Lang... because I'd heard talk of a suicide... in circumstances that were somewhat ambiguous." "And then one day Lang asked me... to help him reconstruct his day for his notebook-- not a diarym a notebook where he wrote everything down." ""Woke up at 7:30." "Shaved at 7:45." "Pierre arrived at 8:45." "At 8:50m phone call from Dan Seymour. "" "And we had to reconstruct all that very carefully." "So one day we were talkingm and I said..." ""Fritzm what does it matter if it was 8:2 7 or 8:30? "" "And he saidm "Pierrem if you'd been accused... of killing someone and held for questioning... you'd know that minutes or seconds... could mean the difference between guilt and innocence. "" "A great many things suggest... that Lang felt guilty about his wife's death." "Did he kill her?" "Some say he didm some say he didn't." "Me?" "Wellm I might say I think he didm but what do I know?" "Howeverm I think he thought he had done it... and felt guilty about itm which amounts to the same thing." "Suspicionm I believem is at the heart of Lang's work:" "the fear of what others might think... of what they might find out about you." "In any casem that gut anxiety was heightened... by his troubles with the law over his first wife's suicide... which were probably not unfounded." "Howeverm when I choose an actor... and think he can play a part... thenm if I'm a good director..." "I must try to draw out... the best in him." "This must sometimes be done... against the actor's will... but that may be the only way... to get something totally unexpected." "Peter Lorre had never made a movie." "He came from something that is unknown in America... called Stegreiftheaterm "improvised theater. "" "The actors are told the subject of the play... and then each one acts their part... in their own words." "Peter Lorre was a new face in Berlin." "Lang wasm so to speakm enamored of Peter Lorre." "He spoke of him like a kind of animal... roving about Lang's house." "I made M because I was interested... in what went on herem herem and here... in a man who kills children." "It was the only time I ever had a completely free hand... when no one else could interfere in the script or in the editing." "And my contract stated that the film could not be cut." "" 1 0m000 Marks Reward!" "Who Is The Murderer? "" "That's a pretty ball." "What's your name?" "Elsie Beckmann!" "Nothing is more powerful than an off-screen voice... in a universe enclosed by the frame!" "All of a sudden you prepare for the disruption of that universe... by the introduction of an off-screen element." "For examplem in M... the mother calls "Elsiem Elsie"... and Elsie isn't there!" "When you try to work out how a director does things... you eventually see his system." "In the case of Langm it's more complicated." "I couldn't figure out where that extraordinary sense of... absolutely relentless fatality came from." "And then recently I realized that the key was rather simple-- simple to findm not so simple to duplicate." "Each shot is the whole world." "The world stops at the edge of the frame." "With The Testament of Doctor Mabuse..." "I made an anti-Nazi filmm as far as possible." "Here's what happened:" "I put all the Nazi slogans into the mouth... of a criminally insane man." "Then along came a brown-shirted storm trooper to my office... and he saidm "keep this up and we'll ban your film. "" "I was very uppity. :" "'You think you can ban a Fritz Lang film?" "Just try!" "'" "Andm of coursem they banned it." "I put on a suit and tie as was customary... and I went to the Propaganda Ministry." "By the door there was a big desk." ""Where are you going? "" ""Fritz Lang for Dr. Goebbels. "" "He looked at my document... and told me to go down the hall and around the corner." "Fine." "I went down the hall." "It was very widem with stone slabs." "My footsteps echoed unpleasantly." ""What did this man want of me? "" "And suddenly he said..." ""The Führer saw Metropolis and The Nibelungen... and he says you are the man to make the great Nazi film. "" "I remember only one thing I said to him." ""Herr Doktorm I don't know if you are aware that my mother... though born a Catholic... had Jewish parents. "" "He saidm "Butm Herr Lang... it is we who decide who is Jewish and who is not. "" "So that was it." "I was in a cold sweat." "And that same evening I left Berlin." "In 1 957 I saidm "I'll never make another film here in America. "" "And I meant it." "Thenm one daym it was weird." "I was in Washingtonm DCm with a woman I loved... and a wire came from Germany asking if I wanted to make..." "The Hindu Tomb... and that was a very strange thingm as if destiny had come full circle." "I accepted." "But perhaps it was a mistake." "The film was very badly reviewed in Germany." "Today I can understand better." "Returning to Berlin... one would expect to find survivors from the good old days... but there were none." "I know he was unhappy with his crew." "He had a hard time communicating with themm making himself understood." "He only got along with the actors." "He often wonderedm with much sadness... whether he'd done the right thing coming back to Berlin." "The whole profession had warned me against Lang." "They all reminded mem to a man... that he'd bankrupted UFA... and that no one would work with him... that he was a dictator... that he was heartless... and didn't care if the company folded or not." "That was Fritz Lang." "He worked with a screenwriter named Luddecke... whom I later met in Mannheimm I think... and who told me that he and Lang had writtenm revised... rewritten and corrected the script and dialogues... as if it were a kind of film in verse." "Who told you the woman in question is dead?" "Though I have lost herm why do you suppose she's dead?" "Then... she's alive?" "And already you're planning her tomb?" "One day she will not be alive." "She may not live longer than it takes to build her tomb." "So it wasn't easy... but in the endm there were no hitchesm no disputes of any kind." "But then came the great tragedy for him... because the films were box-office hits... but the critics here in Germany panned them... unlike critics in France." "Maybe I was "too German" in those days... but I rememberm at the Cinémathèque Française... a preview of the Hindu Tomb and The Tiger From Ishnapur... and when I saw those things... and heard Paul Hubschmitt and those German actors..." "I said to myselfm 'This is unbearable kitsch!" "'" "In a waym I myself was too German." "I didn't have the proper perspective." "In Germanm a "dud" is a "ham. "" "We called it a Schinckenm a worthless movie." "Probably because the critics took in the subject... and couldn't distinguish between the mise en scène... and the subjectm which was only a pretext." "I told Lang I was very fond... of The Tiger From Ishnapur... and he asked me why." "I made a bit of a blunder because I said..." ""My impression is that... just as at the end of life... one is supposed to see one's whole life flash by... that film seems to sum up all your work. "" ""But I'm not dyingm "he said." "And the reviews were better... but he had hoped for a more enthusiastic reception... and so he said..." ""I won't work in this country anymore." "Sorry. "" "We realized that it was the basis of everything we wanted to do." "Lang represented total rigor and relentlessness." "There's no other word for it." "Of all the events that took place after he stopped directing... what counted most was the acclaim from French critics... and the struggles of individuals like Pierre Rissient... to gain recognition for his talent." "I think he was grateful." "I think he'd have been more so if it had come sooner and enabled him... to make more significant films in his last creative years." "I had a producer named André Genoves... and we decided to try to help Lang make a film." "We brought him over here... and saw quite a lot of him." "He went back to Los Angeles... and he sent us a letter saying..." ""I must tell you... my health won't allow me to work more than five hours a day. "" "So we wrote backm "Five hours is fine." "Our pleasure is to make your filmm etc. "" "A couple of months went bym and then he wrote again... a long letterm terribly movingm in which he wrote:" ""I've come to the conclusion it won't work"... and a sentence that read..." ""The more I see into peoplem the less I see them. "" "His insight grew stronger as his sight grew weaker." "I think he certainly felt remote and apartm and regretted that." "It had to do with ageingm but not just that." "The world was no longer one where he felt at home." "I think it was more a loss of rapport with the younger generations... with the new societym the post-WW II world... which cut him off... from what he regarded as life... rather than from Germany alone." "In Berlinm he shot his last films... three great films after allm in the midst of utter indifference." "No one had any use for him:" ""What's old Lang doing here? "" "While in Parism works like Moonfleet and others... were really well received and appreciated." "That made him very happy." "The end of his life was quite serene... because his work had finally been understood." "I made all my films like a sleepwalker." "I did what I thought was right." "I never asked anyonem "Is this right or wrong? "" "Everything goes blank." "Then I am standing in front of a poster... and I read what I have done." "I read and I read." "Did I do that?" "I remember nothing!" "But who can believe me?" "Who knows what happens inside me?" "Those shoutsm those screamsm that force that drives me on." "I resist." "It keeps on pushing!"