"M is the Murderer" in 1931 was Fritz Lang's first sound film. Under the profound influence of the German expressionism and silent film era, the film has quite formal characteristics in the appearance of the picture, and at the same time, it also has a realistic element due to the addition of sound. It can be said that the film lies between form and reality in aesthetics. Of course, this is not unrelated to the evolution of the entire film history. Similarly, the lighting of this film can also be viewed with this kind of vision. It not only has the lighting characteristics of the silent film period, but also tends to achieve natural lighting effects. The merger of drama and realism and flexible placement make "M is the Murderer" become a phoenix. One of Ritz Lang's masterpieces has also become an outstanding work in film history. The film begins with the successive disappearances of little girls in Berlin. The murderer's impunity put the entire city into depression. The police have strengthened follow-up investigations and strictly controlled social security, making it difficult for the gangs to bear the tremendous pressure. So both the gang and the police all dispatched to find the murderer. The high efficiency of the gang quickly captured the murderer in the building and set up a private court for trial. When the prisoner was about to be executed, the police rushed to the scene. Such a suspenseful crime film uses expressionist techniques and uses various symbolic metaphors to allude to the identity of the "gangster" before the Nazis came to power, and reflects the inefficient and weak state of the entire government at that time. Justice and evil can only become relative, and the trial of criminals by criminals can show social chaos. Under the director's negative attitude, the lighting of the whole film is basically hard light, with distinct light and dark, so that the shadow outline is sharp and clear, giving people a sense of depression. This film was set up and shot on a large studio, and the entire lighting needs to be manually designed. This also makes the shape of each scene more plastic, which is more conducive to using lights to narrate or create atmosphere. The first scene of the film already shows the overall style of the lighting. The side light creates a sharp shadow. It can be seen from the shadow that there are about two lights on the side. The effect of overlapping and elongated shadows makes the picture look gloomy, revealing a sense of mystery and negativity, and uneasy emotions immediately emerge. Later, the camera explained the children's living environment, leading to the home of the first missing girl. The same is the side light, and the shadows of the furniture in the room are sharp and clear, like a terrible beast, treacherous and malicious. This undoubtedly adds a lot of artistic color to the mysterious image of the girl's disappearance and the murderer. The image of the murderer for the first time since then is also explained by the shadow under the light. Using shadow as the main body of the picture to narrate is the usual method of silent films. Here, Fritz Lang does not make it appear abrupt, but fits with the use of light in the entire film, because the use of shadow runs through. When this horrible black shadow appeared, the shadows in front seemed to be given It is a symbol of bad intentions and is full of danger. It can be said that Fritz Lang has been deeply concerned about the continuity of the use of lighting and the creation of the overall atmosphere. During a discussion with the gang leaders, the shadow as the main body also appeared. The shadow at this time has a function similar to that of the murderer's shadow, but it also extends a new meaning-there seems to be more than one murderer. In this way, the silhouettes of people on the street seem to suggest this potential problem and cut away humanity, the duality of light and darkness. The same is true for the entire society, so the real murderer may be the dark society formed by each individual. Obviously, this expressionist method symbolizes the shadow under the light, which is a metaphor for the dark side of people. This is why the film mostly uses low-angle sidelights, which makes the abnormal extension of the shadow clearly visible. The indoor scenes where the gang met and discussed with the police all adopted ceiling lighting. First of all, because of environmental content considerations, the two indoor scenes were similar and associated (at the same time modeling and montage also promoted this performance). Secondly, the top light makes the character's face more gloomy and depressed, not only creating an anxious and depressed mood, but also with a negative image. This kind of top light with a small light range makes the groups of people more gathered, highlights the differences in the identities of the groups, and makes the gangsters and the police more conceptual (group portraits). In addition, silent film-style lighting is used in many street and architectural scenes in the film. A single high-intensity light illuminates a corner of the scene, like a spotlight on the stage, which is extremely dramatic. Out of emphasis on the key points of the plot, the "spotlight" magnified it and told the audience that the good show was behind. Compared with the above-mentioned shadows, both are formal lighting performances, which are slightly different from indoor or daytime scenes. However, the lighting of this film is very different from the silent film. Try not to let the lighting become the theme code of the picture modeling, and get rid of the serious sense of stage drama in the past. The concise light language and profound intentions are probably what this film pursues. The climax of the film is a private trial of the murderer by gang beggars. A lot of dialogue and character performance are the key points. The light also acts as a "spotlight" here, making the murderer the brightest and most prominent one in the audience. Compared with the images of other people, the dim light made them invisible in the darkness, and negative feelings followed, and even the murderer M appeared to be spiritually brighter. The metaphor of the social pattern has risen to the height of the question of human nature and crime and punishment. What is a crime, who is the prisoner, who can hold the right to trial, etc., are directly questioning the audience's hearts in this scene. When the police arrived at the scene, everyone raised their hands. The lighting here creates the layering of the picture and has the main body, which can be said to be a very classic picture. However, artificial lighting can easily produce so-called piercing. In the movie, there are many scene conversions and the lighting does not match. As shown in the figure, the lighting is in line with the actual content in the distant view, and the light appears behind the characters in the panoramic view, and the light source of the street light is weakened. I don't know if it was the negligence of the lighting engineer. Or, in order to highlight the main character and the sense of hierarchy, deliberately abandon the reality to increase the contour light on the back side. Generally speaking, whether it is negligent or intentional, the lighting here is divorced from reality and still has the atmosphere of the silent film period. It can be said that the use of lighting in "M is the Murderer" is on the aesthetic level, and does not just stop at the use of lighting as a styling element of the movie. This is one of the reasons why Fritz Lang is good at creating an atmosphere of tension and terror. This film has taken a big step in the past silent films and has shown its closeness to reality. The lighting not only adds to the icing on the cake, but also inspires symbolic metaphors. I think the use of light is very representative in silent films and early classic films. Especially in the silent film period, the extreme maturity of the modeling language left almost all new-born sound films with a certain amount of past techniques and aesthetic pursuits. And breakthrough innovation will inevitably occur with the appearance of voice, and Fritz Lang is one of them. However, artificial lighting can easily produce so-called piercing. In the movie, there are many scene conversions and the lighting does not match. As shown in the figure, the lighting is in line with the actual content in the distant view, and the light appears behind the characters in the panoramic view, and the light source of the street light is weakened. I don't know if it was the negligence of the lighting engineer. Or, in order to highlight the main character and the sense of hierarchy, deliberately abandon the reality to increase the contour light on the back side. Generally speaking, whether it is negligent or intentional, the lighting here is divorced from reality and still has the atmosphere of the silent film period. It can be said that the use of lighting in "M is the Murderer" is on the aesthetic level, and does not just stop at the use of lighting as a styling element of the movie. This is one of the reasons why Fritz Lang is good at creating an atmosphere of tension and terror. And this film has taken a big step in the past silent films and has shown its closeness to reality. The lighting not only adds to the icing on the cake, but also inspires symbolic metaphors. I think the use of light is very representative in silent films and early classic films. Especially in the silent film period, the extreme maturity of the modeling language left almost all new-born sound films with a certain amount of past techniques and aesthetic pursuits. And breakthrough innovation will inevitably occur with the appearance of voice, and Fritz Lang is one of them. However, artificial lighting can easily produce so-called piercing. In the movie, there are many scene conversions and the lighting does not match. As shown in the figure, the lighting is in line with the actual content in the distant view, and the light appears behind the characters in the panoramic view, and the light source of the street light is weakened. I don't know if it was the negligence of the lighting engineer. Or, in order to highlight the main character and the sense of hierarchy, deliberately abandon the reality to increase the contour light on the back side. Generally speaking, whether it is negligent or intentional, the lighting here is divorced from reality and still has the atmosphere of the silent film period. It can be said that the use of lighting in "M is the Murderer" is on the aesthetic level, and does not just stop at the use of lighting as a styling element of the movie. This is one of the reasons why Fritz Lang is good at creating an atmosphere of tension and terror. And this film has taken a big step in the past silent films and has shown its closeness to reality. The lighting not only adds to the icing on the cake, but also inspires symbolic metaphors. I think the use of light is very representative in silent films and early classic films. Especially in the silent film period, the extreme maturity of the modeling language left almost all new-born sound films with a certain amount of past techniques and aesthetic pursuits. And breakthrough innovation will inevitably occur with the appearance of voice, and Fritz Lang is one of them.
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