ACFNY RECOMMENDS | FILM SERIES | FRITZ LANG IN HOLLYWOOD
Austrian-born director Fritz Lang is one of the most revolutionary representatives of the German School of Expressionism. A new Film Forum series, entitled Fritz Lang in Hollywood, features 22 of Lang’s films.
Fritz Lang’s most famous films are the groundbreaking Metropolis and M, made before he emigrated to the United States. They are both iconic precursors to the film noir genre. Lang grew up in fin de siècle Vienna, during the Golden Autumn of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Very much influenced by the sensuous decadence of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, he also studied the theories of Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, gleaning from them ideas about “Übermenschen” and unconscious drives which would animate his work for decades to come. His work influenced directors such as Luis Buñuel and Stanley Kubrick.
The new film series focuses on works produced in the United States, featuring major stars such as Henry Fonda, Spencer Tracy, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Bennett, Barbara Stanwyck, Tyrone Power, Edward G. Robinson, and many more. Film noir, westerns, costume drama, thrillers, spy films, films of social protest – Lang made them all. Films in the current series include The Big Heat (1953), Scarlet Street (1945), You and Me (1938), Hangmen also Die! (1943), and Rancho Notorious (1952).
“The miracle of [Lang’s] Hollywood era is that, even when the screenplays tried to force his work in one direction, he managed to take them into richer, more complex realms with a style that was alternately baroque and stripped down and peopled with characters whose cynicism was earned.” – The New York Times
“Absolutely everything in Lang’s cinema is perfectly calibrated – camera distance, light, the emotional tone of the acting, the pace, the movement from one image to the next, the use of sound. I’ve seen many of his films many times over and I always learn something new.” – Martin Scorsese
To see the entire program, please go to www.filmforum.org
VENUE
Film Forum New York
209 W Houston St
New York, NY 10014
Box Office: (212) 727-8110
For ticket information please visit the Film Forum website.