Fritz Lang: Interviews

Conversations With Filmmakers Series

by Barry Keith Grant (Editor)

The films of Fritz Lang depict an entrapping, claustrophobic world in which people are controlled by larger forces. His overriding theme is the struggle against fate and against the traits of human nature that doom us.

His life and work spanned six decades of film history-from the silent era through the golden age of German Expressionism of the 1920s and the classic studio system in Hollywood to the rise of the international co-production. In Hollywood he worked for every major studio except Disney. He made blockbusters, modest B movies, and everything in between. Among his films are classics of German cinema-including Metropolis and M. In America he made some of the most notable crime movies (Fury), noir films (The Big Heat), and Westerns (The Return of Frank James) of the studio era. Despite the different time periods, nations, and genres in which he worked, his films remain stylistically consistent.

Lang (1890-1976), a notoriously difficult interviewee, granted relatively few interviews apart from short publicity exchanges in the promotion of his films. Fully aware of his public persona, he was a canny self-promoter who carefully constructed half-truths and myths about himself.

This fascinating collection covers his conversations about his life and his works over a period of forty years. They reveal how cinema for Lang was an intensely personal art. "For me," he said, "cinema is a vice. I love it intimately. I've often written that it is the art form of our century."

Genres: Film, Media Tie In, Memoir

244 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Barry Keith Grant is Professor in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture, and Film at Brock University. He is the author or editor of many books, including 100 Science Fiction Films, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and four editions of Film Genre Reader.

Reviews

[Ellie Midwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it for research purposes and found it to be a great collection of interviews that offer an intimate glimpse into the work of one of the most prominent directors of the 20th century. Lang was infamously secretive when it came to talking about his personal life (one of his quotes, “My private life has nothing to do with my films” confirms it) but even without seemingly offering anything personal, his own personality and views still eventually emerge as Mr. Lang recounts anecdotes from different sets and offers his ideas on the cinema as art in general. I also found it positively fascinating (and amusing!) how his tone changes from abrupt and haughty to benevolent and absolutely charming depending on the interviewer he talks to. I actually chuckled out loud in quite a few places as I was reading it and I would definitely recommend it to everyone, who’s interested in the history of movie-making.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good stories from Lang, but far too repetitive.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this collection, but if anything it provides less a clear route to Lang, than his own creation of himself. Throughout each interview he repeats the same stories: the offer from Goebbels and same day flight from Germany, the reaction to Western Union, Howard Hughes renaming his film. Yet, each piece offers little more than the same slim anecdotes again and again. There are some great quotes that are worth picking through though, even if you tire of the stories.

And he makes a good martini.

[Nog · Rating 3 out of 5]

It sort of gets repetitive in the last half, but there are some interesting opinions that Lang had about producers, his favorite films of those he made, and which ones he disliked, either because he could not get out of his commitments or from meddling by producers.