fuckyeahmovieposters:

M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder by Brandon Schaefer

Submitted by Goddamnwalls

oldhollywood:

1930’s state-of-the-art forensic fingerprint analysis via M (1931, dir. Fritz Lang)

oldhollywood:

Henry Fonda in his death row cell in You Only Live Once (1937, dir. Fritz Lang)

“You Only Live Once is the story of a man who tries to live an honest life. He is pursued, fighting alone against the menacing power of a society he must fight.

To fight, that is what counts. If we think there is the smallest chance to succeed, we must continue to do what we believe is good. Perhaps this is a sort of martyrdom, even if I don’t believe it, but it is the essence of life, fighting for the causes we believe to be right.

That is truly the problem that has always interested me—not obsessed or possessed me, because I was possessed only once—that’s all, in one way or another, it is inevitable. You get caught in the works, and you can’t escape. But aside from that, what I always wanted to show and define is the attitude of struggle that must be adopted in the face of destiny. Whether or not the individual wins this fight, what counts is the fight itself, because it is vital.”

-Fritz Lang, quoted in Fritz Lang: Interviews 

oldhollywood:

Fritz Lang, actress Gerda Maurus   & crew on the set of Woman in the Moon (1929, dir. Fritz Lang), which included a giant backdrop painting of a lunar landscape (click to enlarge) (via)

oldhollywood:

Fritz Lang & the monocle he sported during the filming of Metropolis (1927) (via)

On the increased use of violence in post-war films:

“After the war, there was no longer a sense of family. We no longer loved our flag or honored our country. People no longer believe in hell and brimstone, or even retribution and therefore they do not believe in punishment after they are dead. What could we be afraid of? There was only one thing: physical pain. Physical pain comes from violence and I think today that is the only fact that people really fear. And when we are afraid of violence, then it becomes an element of drama. So-brutality’s now a necessary ingredient of dramatic development and denouement.

We can’t avoid violence because it is everywhere. It should be present in films. But everything depends on the way it is shown. I detest violence when it is shown as a spectacle or when it is used to make us laugh. And that is how it is used more and more on the screen.”

-Lang, in 1967 interview (via Brunnhuber’s Fritz Lang: His Life & Work)