Retrospective: M (Patreon)

The first half of M is loosely shot from the perspective of Peter Lorre's character, with the camera peering down at the other characters, framing them like toys in the box of a perversely murderous child. Berlin's legal and criminal societies scramble to grab hold of Beckert (Lorre), dabbling in many of the same activities to seize him, while he evades them. Around the halfway point, Lorre becomes a subject of the camera, hiding behind a lattice covered in vegetation to escape our piercing glare. We watch him through a hole in the lattice as he cowers, evading the justice Berlin will never deliver.

M's Berlin is less invested in justice and the safety of its children than cracking down on the structural threat presented by Beckert. The authorities use Beckert's murders as a pretext for cracking down on society's undesirables. Two years after M's release, the Reichstag burned. Fritz Lang's exquisitely blocked crowd scenes became a preemptive documentary. Predictive of everything from High and Low to Death Note, M is horrifically prophetic.