Mise-en-Scene: M (1931)

Mise-en-Scene!? What's that! Well, besides that atrocious food I ate for lunch, it's French for "placing into a scene". It is the term for what the director does before the camera; how the scene is presented to the audience. For example, if the scene is presented in a dark manner, and has a giant downward arrow in it, the director may be trying to convey the foreboding downward path a character may take soon.

Fritz Lang's masterpiece film M (1931) is an M-azing watch, with each scene thoughtfully planned and placed by the director. Two such examples are the scene captures to the left and right of this entry. A horrible child murderer is wandering through the streets of Germany, already killing 8 children. The cops, unable to cause any real threat to this murderer, feebly attempt to create a plan to capture this crook. However, in the second scene, the everyday criminals are planning to capture the murderer too (and do a much better job than the cops).

In the Cop scene, one can see the circles created by the compass. It creates the illusion that the town is a bullseye; a technique that should hopefully catch the murderer. However, this is an illusion of safety itself, for there is a very small chance that the cops will catch the murderer. As in the game of darts, all your money is on the fact that a bullseye will be hit. If not, then the dart will land on the outskirts. In the scene, the town is placed in the bullseye, however it is all based on luck that the cops will get this bullseye. More likely, they will hit the outskirts. This is shown many times in the film, mostly through the means the Cops are attempting to catch the murderer. The Cops are truly running in circles.

In the Criminal scene, a black hand covers a map of the town, similar to the map of the previous scene. (Interestingly enough, Hitler and the Nazis were big fans of Lang, and based their uniforms of the Gestapo on the clothes that the character Schränker, whose hand is shown here, wears in this film.) Unlike that of the previous scene, there is no false security based on dumb luck (mostly the dumb). Instead, a well developed plan is formed, as can be seen in this scene. With no words to accompany this picture, one can see that a hand is grasping the town, trying to strangle the murderer out of hiding. Unlike the "the murderer somewhere here" attitude of the cops, Schränker knows the murderer is in the town, and causes a giant undercover search to start. In addition to the grasping of Schränker, this scene feels much darker than the previous one, showing a darker intention of what should happen to this child murderer.

M is an amazing film. If you get a chance to see it, grasp it as fast as Schränker. Lang's expression through Mise-en-Scene is not the only thing to watch out for though, M's amazing ability to give fear and suspense (with little to no sound) is a characteristic that causes it to be loved by many a film critic even to this day.