On “M”

Other than the singing of some children during their game playing and the ‘leitmotif’ (Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King”) whistled by and associated with the murderer, there was no music in the film – which, if only subconsciously, probably made what was heard somewhat more emotionally powerful.

Despite the German dialogue (and my non-knowledge of the language) the sounds of people speaking – individually, in small groups, or in crowds – did seem to carry some non-linguistic information. Crying, calling out and/or screaming are obvious evidence of emotional state, but the volume and rapidity of the speech may be as well. The sounds of the quickly gathering crowds, for example, seemed to crescendo and increase in tempo when recognizing a possible child abduction. The tonal quality of some of the individual voices – especially that of Peter Lorre (nasal, whiny, ‘demented’) as the pedophiliac serial killer – might help define some attributes of the character.

More surprising to me than the lack of music was the presence, in such large quantity and from a wide variety of sources, of tobacco smoke (and I was a four pack a day person till 1992). The clouds of drifting smoke occasionally took on a role of their own. In some scenes it added another layer of mystery, while in others it seemed to intensify the feelings of the characters involved in the scene.

I was pleased to have finally seen the film – only some seven years older than myself – and had the chance to understand a little of its importance to the history of cinema. (I knew that I’d get to say ‘cinema’ sooner or later…)