M

Gueswende Yerbanga

LEH 355 Assignment: Due 3/15 M

 

     The film M is a German drama-thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre. It was realized in 1931.The sense of terror and chaos is explicit in the film. The film is in German and it is subtitled. The film follows the investigation of a child murderer who is terrorizing the citizens of Berlin. The multiple killing in the film is partially based on real life serial killers in Germany at this time.

     The scene is an extract of the scene 1 of the full movie. The scene start by a group of children who are playing an elimination game in the courtyard of an apartment building in Berlin. They were using a chant about a child murderer. The song was saying “Just you wait a little while the nasty man in black will come, with his little chopper, He will chop you up! You are out”. A woman appears upstairs from the house with a big basket on her hands, screams of them telling them to stop singing that awful song. She should be probably the mother or guardian of one of those kids. She kept talking to herself saying that the kid always like to sing that awful song. She continues walking. After she left, the kid started back singing the same song. She walked up the stair very exhausted with her big basket on her hand. She knock to the door and another woman opened the door. She gave her the basket. She felt nervous, so the other woman asked her what was the matter. She told her that she told those kids to stop singing that awful song and they do not listening to her and keep singing it over and over as if they haven’t heard enough of that murdered. The other lady told her to leave them because if they singing at least they know that there are okay. She told her ok, she was right and close back the door.

     According to me, my interpretation for this first scene is that a group of children were playing in the courtyard while singing a song whose lyrics are about a murder. One of the guardian of one of those kid told them to stop singing that awful song that remind them what happening in the city and she reported to another women who told her to leave the kid.

     I chose the scene for the reason that it is telling us what was going on Germany and can be applied to us with our children today. At that time, there were many serial killers terrorizing Germany.  So, this story was extract based on true story. In fact, it was not a good idea for the kids to keep singing that awful song about murder, but as the other woman said at least by hearing their voice they know that they are okay and are alive.  In addition to that, I chose it because it shows how cruel was and is the world everywhere. Why to kill children?  Indeed, the level of the criminology at that time was going back at least a decade, in public places like schools, supermarkets and movie theaters in Germany. The most recent tragic shooting at that time was in Newtown, Connecticut and the Washington Navy Yard. M tries to show the viewer the inner workings of the underworld. Also, this films deals more about violence which is a past and actuality subject in our live. We have to protect ourselves and protect our kids.