Look More into the Movie then the Story
.... The costumes on the actors give off the impression that they are lower class. The men in the scene are made to look rough which gives the audience that they may be bad guys. The women are made up to look innocent yet angry and powerful. Peter Lorre is dressed in a suit, his hair is drenched with sweat which makes him seem nervous, upset, and scared. All these things show us, that the main character is being tried by a jury of his peers. Those peers are his fellow criminals. Another aspect of this scene is the lighting. Lang used lighting to accent certain parts of the character that show the audience, the emotions that the actors are trying to show. When Lorre’s character is giving his speech about how and why he murders little girls, Lang’s shines an extra bright light on his face at the points in his speech where he is starting to turn into his other self. When he is ashamed by his actions he starts to look down at the ground and Lang takes the light away, casting a shadow on Lorre’s face. This shows the audience that Lorre’s character is grieving for his life, and that he is truly unstable, the way lighting is used throughout this scene shows his emotions and how unstable he actually is. There was a point in his speech where the camera moves to the other people in the “courtroom”, and zooms in on the people who understood what Lorre was saying about being controlled by a higher being. This idea of lighting is highly appreciated to the audience, because when viewers are watching a movie there eyes seem to follow wherever the light is the brightest. If a director wants to put am emphasis on somebody either giving off the impression that the person the light is on, is innocent, versus taking the light away and casting a shadow on a person which gives off the impression that either they are not as important or they have a dark side and are evil. This gives meaning and a mood to any scene that the director uses lighting correctly in. Set design is a key factor in Fritz Lang movies. M though is extremely different from his earlier and later films. He uses Clocks, mirrors, media and staircases to symbolize his intentions. In the first murder scene, when the mother is waiting for Elsie to return from school, Lang shows several shots of the clock in her apartment. The clock was there to show the audiences the mother’s anxiety; while it does that it also starts building suspense. Another instance where he uses a clock is in the office building scenes which contain a lot of clock and time references. Mirror’s, the audience is only shown Lorre’s reflection in mirror’s or in store windows. Throughout the entire film, he is the only character who seems to encounter a mirror. Until the end scene when he is actions are reflected back to him by the mothers of the girls he murdered. Media is showcased by the press and their publications of Lorre’s letters, as well as when the press takes part in the man hunt for the child killer. As well as with the book seller that goes door to door selling some sort of reading material. Another aspect that seems to be shown throughout the film is large staircases. Such as the one at the apartment building at the beginning, and the one that the blind vendor does his work in the angle of a curving outdoor staircase. The office building is full of large, open, staircases; the police raid at the bar was shot at the bar’s curving staircase. Sound, M was Fritz Lang’s first sound film, he uses a lot of non-standard speech patterns in M. This includes the chantin...