Difference between revisions of "Fritz Lang"

Revision as of 23:36, 5 December 2006

Fritz Lang was an Austrian-born American film director, born in Vienna and educated there at the College of Technical Sciences and the Academy of Graphic Arts. He wanted to become a painter but in 1919 joined the Decla Film Company. In 1926 in Berlin he directed two Dr. Mabuse films, and Metropolis, a nightmare of the future where a large section of the population is reduced to slavery. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Goebbels, a fan of Lang's films, asked Lang to make propaganda films for the Nazis. Lang refused and immediately fled to Paris and then to the U.S. He died in Beverly Hills, California.

This is the original poster for Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon), directed by Fritz Lang and released in 1929. "They saw Die Frau im Mond. Franz was amused, condescending. He picked at technical points. He knew some of the people who'd worked on the special effects. Leni saw a dream of flight. One of many possible." (p.159) "The countdown as we know it, 10-9-8-u.s.w., was invented by Fritz Lang in 1929 for the Ufa film Die Frau im Mond. He put it into the launch scene to heighten the suspense. 'It is another of my damned "touches,"' Fritz Lang said." (p.753)

This is the original poster for Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang and released in 1926. "Brigitte Helm in Metropolis. Great movie. Exactly the world Pökler and evidently quite a few others were dreaming about those days, a Corporate City-state where technology was the source of power, the engineer worked closely with the administrator, the masses labored unseen far underground, and ultimate power lay with a single leader at the top, fatherly and benevolent and just, who wore magnificent-looking suits" (p.578)