Film Persona

  Fritz Lang's "The Big Heat" By the 1950s, film noir had become an incredibly popular film genre. Stories full of crime, violence, and discovering the darkness that exists in society and in yourself. Many believed that film noirs were directly influenced by the films of Fritz Lang. After all, Lang was dubbed the 'Master of Darkness' by the British Film Institute. Although Lang had dived into noir films with works like The Woman in the Window  and Scarlett Street , he had not conformed to the traditional aesthetic that noir films typically employed. His 1953 film, The Big Heat , was no different. Even so, many consider The Big Heat to be one of the most efficiently executed noir films of all time. The subject matter and plot construction is a blueprint form of what film noir is supposed to represent. Despite this, Lang took this well-known format and turned it on its head, both with his visually plainness and his seemingly victorious ending. The protagonist, Dave ...

  Fritz Lang's "Clash by Night" Based on the 1941 play of the same name, Clash by Night is a black drama set in an oppressive fishing town. It features Marilyn Monroe in her first credit featured before the title.  Here are some reviews for the film:  Variety: "Clifford Odets'  Clash by Night , presented on Broadway over a decade earlier, reaches the screen in a rather aimless drama of lust and passion.  Clash  captures much of the drabness of the seacoast fishing town, background of the pic, but only occasionally does the narrative's suggested intensity seep through...Barbara Stanwyck plays the returning itinerant with her customary defiance and sullenness. It is one of her better performances. Robert Ryan plays the other man with grim brutality while Marilyn Monroe is reduced to what is tantamount to a bit role." New York Times: "... lacks conviction and distinction despite its hard-working principals. ... Miss Stanwyck is professionally realistic...

  Fritz Lang's "House by the River" In this near-expressionist drama, Lang takes the darkness of his previous films and turns it up to 11. All levels of violence, corruption, and all around evil surround our protagnoist in House by the River . A mysterious writer commits homocide and entices his brother to help him cover up the act. As the film progessess, the truth slowly begins to come out, only for his brother to be at the center of the blame. The utter depravity of the protagonist makes this piece as black as they come.  To aid this blackness, Lang employs the use of light and shadow to create a oppressive atmostphere. Lang biographer says of the film, "Light splashes off surfaces, moonlight spills through frosted windows, the wind riffles the trees and curtains. Everything in the film is dark and shiny and foreboding. Scene after scene shows the director at the height of his ingenuity - working out the depths of his own despair. Lang's direction was never so...

  Fritz Lang's "Scarlet Street" Both Jean Renoir and Fritz Lang developed a screen version of the 1931 French novel La Chienne. However, rather than doing an exact remake of Renoir's film, Lang instead took a different approach. The social climate during these two films are probably the reason for their differing perspectives. However, it is also because Renoir and Lang both had different intentions with the source material. Lang's adaptation, called Scarlett Street, is basically the same plot. An amateur painter and cashier, Christopher Cross, falls in love with a woman with money issues, Kitty March. He buys her an apartment so she can keep afloat while he uses it for an art studio. Little does Cross know that Kitty and her boyfriend, Johnny, are taking advantage of him. Kitty continuously asks him for money so that she can give to Johnny. In order to accomplish this, Christopher steals money from the bank he works at. They also take his art and sell it to a hig...

  Fritz Lang's "The Woman in the Window" Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window is a film noir that depicts a professor of psychology in the middle of a morality play. Whether his decisions are justified or moral reprehensible is entirely up to the viewer.  The film stars Edward G. Robinson, a psychology professor, who meets a woman on the street and invites him to her place for drinks. While having drinks, a man (presumably her boyfriend) storms in and attacks the professor. The man almost kills him before the woman hands the professor a pair of scissors, killing the man. The woman says she only knows the man as a client and doesn't know his real name. The professor and the woman believe that if they call the police, there would be no way to justify the murder. So, they enact a plan to dispose of the body. Once they do, one of the professors friends, a district attorney has knowledge of the investigation and brings the professor along to investigate the crime. On t...

  Fritz Lang's "Hangmen Also Die!"  Hangmen Also Die! is an anti-Nazi propoganda film made by Fritz Lang during the second World War. It was written by John Wexley, based on a story by Berlot Brecht and Lang. It is loosely based on the 1942 assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi Reich Protector of German-occupied Prague. During the time of the filming, the identity of the assassin(s) was unknown, however it was discovered after-the-fact that the culprits were Czech resistance fighters who parachuted from a British planes. Lang's direction and writing contribution, Brecht's script, and Hanns Eisler's score all displayed how German exiles influenced American culture during the war.  The film is set during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, and centers on a surgeon named Dr. Frantisek Svoboda, who assassinates Reinhard Heydrich, the "Hangman of Europe." Dr. Svoboda seeks refuge at a stranger, Mascha's, home with her family. Because the ass...

  Fritz Lang's "You Only Live Once" After the success of his first American film, Fury , Lang adapted a Gene Towne and Charles Graham Baker screenplay into a film, You Only Live Once. Like Fury, You Only Live Once is a dark film about the nature of anger and vengeance.  The film stars Henry Fonda as Eddie Taylor, who reformed ex-convict. He was sent to prison for theft, and is now released. He is trying to start a normal life with his gal, Jo, played by Sylvia Sidney. However, the two of them experience turmoil from others, who are disgusted by Eddie's ex-convict status. Eventually, Eddie loses his job. Around that time, Eddie is framed for a bank robbery he didn't commit. Wanting to go on the run, Jo convinces him to stand trial, thinking that surely the justice system will find his innocence. It does not, and Eddie is sentenced to prison, now facing a death sentence. Facing certain death, Eddie convinces Jo to leave a gun hidden somewhere. When he finds it, he b...