Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈkʁɪsti̯an ˈantɔn laŋ]; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang ([fʁɪt͡s laŋ]), was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.[2] One of the best-known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute.[3] He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.[4]
For the German painter, see Fritz Lang (artist).
Fritz Lang
August 2, 1976 (aged 85)
- Austria
- Germany (later renounced)
- United States[1]
- Film director
- producer
- screenwriter
- actor
1910–1976
Lang's most celebrated films include the groundbreaking futuristic science-fiction film Metropolis (1927) and the influential M (1931), a film noir precursor. His 1929 film Woman in the Moon showcased the use of a multi-stage rocket, and also pioneered the concept of a rocket launch pad (a rocket standing upright against a tall building before launch having been slowly rolled into place) and the rocket-launch countdown clock.[5][6]
His other major films include Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen (1924), and after moving to Hollywood in 1934, Fury (1936), You Only Live Once (1937), Hangmen Also Die! (1943), The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945) and The Big Heat (1953). He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939.
Early life[edit]
Lang was born in Vienna, as the second son of Anton Lang (1860–1940),[7] an architect and construction company manager, and his wife Pauline "Paula" Lang (née Schlesinger; 1864–1920). His mother was born Jewish and converted to Catholicism. His father was described as a “lapsed Catholic.” [8] He was baptized on December 28, 1890, at the Schottenkirche in Vienna.[9] He had an elder brother, Adolf (1884–1961).[10]
Lang's parents were of Moravian descent.[11] At one point, he noted that he was “born [a] Catholic and very puritan".[12] Ultimately describing himself as an atheist, Lang believed that religion was important for teaching ethics.[13][14][15]
After finishing school, Lang briefly attended the Technical University of Vienna, where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. He left Vienna in 1910 in order to see the world, traveling throughout Europe and Africa, and later Asia and the Pacific area. In 1913, he studied painting in Paris.
At the outbreak of World War I, Lang returned to Vienna and volunteered for military service in the Austrian Army and fought in Russia and Romania, where he was wounded four times and lost sight in his right eye,[16] the first of many vision issues he would face in his lifetime. While recovering from his injuries and shell shock in 1916, he wrote some scenarios and ideas for films. He was discharged from the army with the rank of lieutenant in 1918 and did some acting in the Viennese theater circuit for a short time before being hired as a writer at Decla Film, Erich Pommer's Berlin-based production company.
In 1919, he married Lisa Rosenthal, who died in 1920 under mysterious circumstances of a single gunshot wound deemed to have been fired by a sidearm weapon from World War I.[17][18]
Career[edit]
Expressionist films: the Weimar years (1918–1933)[edit]
Lang's writing stint was brief, as he soon started to work as a director at the German film studio UFA, and later Nero-Film, just as the Expressionist movement was building. In this first phase of his career, Lang alternated between films such as Der Müde Tod ("The Weary Death") and popular thrillers such as Die Spinnen ("The Spiders"), combining popular genres with Expressionist techniques to create an unprecedented synthesis of popular entertainment with art cinema.