Original title : M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder , which means M - A city looks for a murderer.
In France, it is called M le Maudit.
Score : 9/10
Year :
Country:
Language: German
Duration: mutliple. This movie was also a victim to loss and damage, see below.
Writers: Thea Von Harbou & Fritz Lang (script)
Note : this movie is unrated, but should be a strong PG13 because of its topic.
Part 1 is the movie review
M... in the medias.
There are many dvd editions of this movie : I counted 22of them in the Germany, USA, France and the UK alone!
So, I cannot talk about all of them. The one I mentioned above, French EAN 3760019381633 has no bonus material whatsoever, and offers the movie in 1.19:1 aspect ratio. Sound : German 1.0 dolby digital, subtitles : English and French, and is an all region disc.
I just ordered the USA criterion double dvd edition which offers some unique bonus features as I shall list and mark in red.
First, the movie has the proper 1.19:1 aspect ratio (here as well), is off course in original black & white (it really shouldn't be colored!), and lasts 110 minutes (a few are still missing and it's a bit doubtful that a full edition will ever see the light of day).
Audio commentary by German film scholars Anton Kaes, author of the BFI Film Classics volume on M, and Eric Rentschler, author of The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife > this is also available on the UK masters of cinema bluray+dvd edition
- Conversation with Fritz Lang, a 50-minute film by William Friedkin
- Claude Chabrol’s M le maudit, a short film inspired by M, plus a video interview with Chabrol about Lang’s filmmaking techniques
- Video interview with Harold Nebenzal, son of M producer Seymour Nebenzal
- Classroom audiotapes of editor Paul Falkenberg discussing the film and its history, set to clips from the film
- Documentary on the physical history of M, from production to distribution to digital restoration
- Galleries of behind-the-scenes photographs and production sketches
New and improved English subtitle translation
If you are lucky to live in the USA or have one of the rare multi region bluray players, the bluray criterion edition, which is region locked A, offers extra bonuses as follows:
- An essay by film critic Stanley Kauffmann,
- the script for a missing scene,
- three contemporaneous newspaper articles,
- and a 1963 interview with Lang
The long-lost English-language version of M, from a nitrate print preserved by the British Film Institute > this is also available on the UK masters of cinema bluray+dvd edition
And the movie has new, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack > this is also available on the UK masters of cinema bluray+dvd edition
I might very well order that UK masters of cinema edition once the price drops a bit further.
It offers: the movie in proper aspect ratio (again), in full 1080p HD and improved sound to DD2.0 DTS HD-MA and locked to region B.
Bonuses:
- Two audio commentaries: one by German film scholars Anton Kaes and Eric Rentschler; the other featuring film restoration expert Martin Koerber, filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, historian Torsten Kaiser and excerpts from Bogdanovich s 1965 interviews with Lang (the same as USA criterion dvd or bd)
- The original 1932 British release version of M, presented in its entirety, recently rediscovered, featuring different actors, alternate takes, and Peter Lorre s first performance in English, courtesy of the BFI National Archive [1080p on Blu-ray, 93 mins] (and since USA criterion BD is region locked, this is the a way to see it in Europe - there is an Italian version of this masters of cinema, but with Italian subtitles on everything, as to be expected)
- Zum Beispiel Fritz Lang, a 1968 documentary by Erwin Leiser with Fritz Lang discussing his career in German cinema [standard defitiion 480p, 21 minutes]
- 48-PAGE BOOKLET including writing by Fritz Lang, historian Robert Fischer, details of a missing scene, behind-the-scenes stills, and production drawings
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