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2:30 PM-5:15 PM
KinoTage: Fritz Lang - Spies
Film|General Public
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Goethe-Institut London, London
- Price £6, £3 Concessions and for Goethe-Institut language students & library members.
- Part of series: KinoTage - Experience German Cinema
Marking the 50th anniversary of Fritz Lang’s death this year, we are screening his fast-paced and richly inventive spy thriller, widely regarded as a foundational work of the modern spy genre which also inspired Alfred Hitchcock.
The head of the Haghi banking firm leads a secret double life. Behind his respectable façade, he is the mastermind of an international espionage network involved in robbery, murder, and extortion. Young agent Donald Tremaine is tasked with tracking down the elusive criminal. But when Haghi learns of the investigation, he orders Sonja, a top Russian operative, to eliminate Tremaine. But then Sonja and Donald fall in love…
Following the financial failure of Metropolis*, Ufa was skeptical of Fritz Lang’s work. Yet Spies, for which Thea von Harbou once again wrote the screenplay, was a major commercial success, and newcomer Gerda Maurus became famous overnight for her role as Sonja. Stylistically, Lang built on his Dr. Mabuse films, made a decisive contribution to the development of the spy thriller genre, and became a role model for Alfred Hitchcock. His hero, No. 326, played by Willy Fritsch, no longer has a name but instead goes by a code number like 007. The film also features gadgets like a mini-camera, spectacular car chases, seductive female agents, and an iconic villain, and has essentially become the mother of all spy films.
Soon after the film’s premiere at the Ufa Palast am Zoo in Berlin on 22 March 1927, the famous film critic and historian Siegfried Kracauer published the following enthusiastic lines:
The new Fritz Lang film from Ufa-Lichtspiele […] is superbly made and showcases Lang’s extraordinary directorial skills. The plot, which has the kind of suspense found in an Edgar Wallace novel, unfolds at lightning speed and features wonderful shots of the big city, train accidents, and telephone booths—a fantastic visual report that, while relying a bit too heavily on staged set pieces, showcases dazzling sequences and transitions and is edited with a skill that is hard to surpass.” (Frankfurter Zeitung, April 11, 1928)
Germany 1928, b/w, 150 mins. Silent film with recorded piano accompaniment by Neil Brand. With English subtitles.
Director: Fritz Lang; Screenplay: Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou. Starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gerda Maurus, Lien Deyers, Louis Ralph, Graighall Sherry, Willy Fritsch, Paul Hörbinger, Hertha von Walther, Fritz Rasp, Lupu Pick.
A film from the collection of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation (www.murnau-stiftung.de) in Wiesbaden.
About Fritz Lang
Born in Vienna in 1890, Fritz Lang studied art before serving in the Austrian Army during the First World War. Afterwards, he turned to filmmaking in Berlin, where he became one of the most celebrated directors of Weimar cinema. His most renowned silent films include Destiny (Der müde Tod, 1921), Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, 1922), the two-part epic Die Nibelungen (1924) and the montomental expressionist science fiction film Metropolis (1927). His greatest success of the early sound era was M (1931), a groundbreaking psychological thriller about the hunt to bring him to justice. After Joseph Goebbels invited him to work for the Nazi regime, Lang left Germany and emigrated to the United States via France.
In Hollywood, he made his American debut with Fury (1936), starring Spencer Tracy. He was subsequently brought to Twentieth Century Fox by Darryl F. Zanuck, where he directed the Westerns The Return of Frank James (1940) and Western Union (1941). These were followed by a series of wartime thrillers, including Man Hunt (1941), Hangmen Also Die! (1943), Ministry of Fear (1944), and Cloak and Dagger (1946). During this period, he also directed two acclaimed film noir classics, The Woman in the Window (1944) and Scarlet Street (1945). In the 1950s, he made, amongst other films, Rancho Notorious (1952), a Western starring Marlene Dietrich and The Big Heat (1953)
Lang returned to Germany in the late 1950s and went on to make two films set in India, The Tiger of Eschnapur (Der Tiger von Eschnapur, 1959) and The Indian Tomb (Das Indische Grabmal, 1959). His final film was The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (Die tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse, 1960), which brought the Mabuse series to a close. He died on 2 August 1976 in Beverly Hills, California. (For more detailed accounts of Fritz Lang’s long career see fimporta.de
and Senses of Cinema.
The head of the Haghi banking firm leads a secret double life. Behind his respectable façade, he is the mastermind of an international espionage network involved in robbery, murder, and extortion. Young agent Donald Tremaine is tasked with tracking down the elusive criminal. But when Haghi learns of the investigation, he orders Sonja, a top Russian operative, to eliminate Tremaine. But then Sonja and Donald fall in love…
Following the financial failure of Metropolis*, Ufa was skeptical of Fritz Lang’s work. Yet Spies, for which Thea von Harbou once again wrote the screenplay, was a major commercial success, and newcomer Gerda Maurus became famous overnight for her role as Sonja. Stylistically, Lang built on his Dr. Mabuse films, made a decisive contribution to the development of the spy thriller genre, and became a role model for Alfred Hitchcock. His hero, No. 326, played by Willy Fritsch, no longer has a name but instead goes by a code number like 007. The film also features gadgets like a mini-camera, spectacular car chases, seductive female agents, and an iconic villain, and has essentially become the mother of all spy films.
Soon after the film’s premiere at the Ufa Palast am Zoo in Berlin on 22 March 1927, the famous film critic and historian Siegfried Kracauer published the following enthusiastic lines:
The new Fritz Lang film from Ufa-Lichtspiele […] is superbly made and showcases Lang’s extraordinary directorial skills. The plot, which has the kind of suspense found in an Edgar Wallace novel, unfolds at lightning speed and features wonderful shots of the big city, train accidents, and telephone booths—a fantastic visual report that, while relying a bit too heavily on staged set pieces, showcases dazzling sequences and transitions and is edited with a skill that is hard to surpass.” (Frankfurter Zeitung, April 11, 1928)
Germany 1928, b/w, 150 mins. Silent film with recorded piano accompaniment by Neil Brand. With English subtitles.
Director: Fritz Lang; Screenplay: Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou. Starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gerda Maurus, Lien Deyers, Louis Ralph, Graighall Sherry, Willy Fritsch, Paul Hörbinger, Hertha von Walther, Fritz Rasp, Lupu Pick.
A film from the collection of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation (www.murnau-stiftung.de) in Wiesbaden.
About Fritz Lang
Born in Vienna in 1890, Fritz Lang studied art before serving in the Austrian Army during the First World War. Afterwards, he turned to filmmaking in Berlin, where he became one of the most celebrated directors of Weimar cinema. His most renowned silent films include Destiny (Der müde Tod, 1921), Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, 1922), the two-part epic Die Nibelungen (1924) and the montomental expressionist science fiction film Metropolis (1927). His greatest success of the early sound era was M (1931), a groundbreaking psychological thriller about the hunt to bring him to justice. After Joseph Goebbels invited him to work for the Nazi regime, Lang left Germany and emigrated to the United States via France.
In Hollywood, he made his American debut with Fury (1936), starring Spencer Tracy. He was subsequently brought to Twentieth Century Fox by Darryl F. Zanuck, where he directed the Westerns The Return of Frank James (1940) and Western Union (1941). These were followed by a series of wartime thrillers, including Man Hunt (1941), Hangmen Also Die! (1943), Ministry of Fear (1944), and Cloak and Dagger (1946). During this period, he also directed two acclaimed film noir classics, The Woman in the Window (1944) and Scarlet Street (1945). In the 1950s, he made, amongst other films, Rancho Notorious (1952), a Western starring Marlene Dietrich and The Big Heat (1953)
Lang returned to Germany in the late 1950s and went on to make two films set in India, The Tiger of Eschnapur (Der Tiger von Eschnapur, 1959) and The Indian Tomb (Das Indische Grabmal, 1959). His final film was The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (Die tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse, 1960), which brought the Mabuse series to a close. He died on 2 August 1976 in Beverly Hills, California. (For more detailed accounts of Fritz Lang’s long career see fimporta.de
and Senses of Cinema.
Location
Goethe-Institut London
50 Princes Gate
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2PH
United Kingdom
50 Princes Gate
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2PH
United Kingdom