Review of M (1931) by Pete S — 02 Sep 2011

An undeniable masterpiece of cinema. It is incredible that it's been 80 years since this film was made, and its reputation remains intact and it is still watched and rewatched by moviegoers around the world nowadays; and I'm proud to consider myself another admirer of this film.

When films were only starting to "talk", an Austrian filmmaker called Fritz Lang (from whom this has been just the second film I watch. Metropolis being the other one) filmed his first sound film and several years before the thriller or the film-noir genre reached their true development, he made this masterpiece of the genre that's one of the absolute best of all time.

M is incredibly slow, and this was my third and final try to watch it after two previous ocasions when I watched it until half of the film, but I was either sleepy or bored and didn't continue. But this time, it was different. The first half is built slowly step by step setting up the superb atmosphere this movie has. Maybe in those first 45 or 50 minutes not many things happened, but when the plot starts to flow, and the killer's character takes protagonism, the film becomes absolutely breathtaking, exciting, creepy and ultimately hallucinating.

Peter Lorre probably made the performance of a lifetime, and his portrayal of a serial killer is absolutely perfect and memorable. The rest of the cast, compound mostly of unknown actors was excelent as well.

A revolutionary film whose influence still persists, and a truly admirable work of art.