凶手m

M这部电影主要出现的有三个版本。
最早送德国电影当局审查的版本，是最符合导演用意的版本，117分钟，当时电影的名字叫就Murders are among us，可惜这个版本目前已经找不到了。
最新的版本是109分钟（约110分钟）的，这个是尽最大可能保留原来117分钟的原貌而进行修复整理的版本，也就是CC公司最新出版发行的版本（CC公司之前发行过96分钟的版本）。
第三个版本是96分钟的版本，是当时该片的制片人为了电影能公映，根据送审的版本修改删节之后的版本，这个版本修改了其他两个版本的结局，结局只到了法院开庭审理罪犯的情节，而删了后面三个母亲的场景。而且还对电影中一些导演故意采用默片手法的片段加上了后期配音。也就是这个版本把这部电影改成了现在的名字M。

昨天看了110分钟的版本，可惜了那宝贵的7分钟，否则电影肯定有更独特的味道。
电影拍摄于1931年，正是纳粹主义逐渐要在德国兴起的时代，因此，这部电影当中的一些情节表现往往会被认为是在映射当时的纳粹势力，例如其中的盗贼势力——其实这并不是电影的初衷。这部电影的时代背景正是一战后经济萧条、社会动荡、民不聊生的时代，所以其中的盗贼猖獗可以说是一定程度的客观反映，但电影并没有把这些盗贼作为反面的批判角色，甚至是企图作为一种替代性的权力（替代政府）来描绘，其实这部电影里扮演盗贼的人，很多就是导演弗里兹•朗请来的真正盗贼来参演，而且很多是当时警察通缉的盗贼，可以说这部电影是在和警察打游击的过程中拍摄出来的。电影的起意也在于导演朗的妻子对一个事件的感触——政府在这个动荡社会下的无能。所以，这些抨击政府的无能——司法公权力的严重缺失才是私力救济诞生的土壤（盗贼主持的审判）——才是这部电影明确的主旨。
电影当中警察数月的毫无进展，只会毫无目的的盘问和搜索，以及最后也就是被删节的结尾这些情节都使电影带上了反政府倾向，也使之区别于一般的惊悚片（甚至不适宜归为这类）。结尾处三个母亲面对着镜头哭诉：判决也挽回不了死去的孩子，所以我们还是要依靠自己看好我们的孩子。还有你们……你们。（最后面对观众时说，这里树造了一种人人自危的环境，同时也是对司法无力的谴责）。

电影的一些处理也很令人印象深刻，这是朗的第一部有声电影，也是影史上第一部讲述变态杀手的电影，当凶手第一次现身之前，是一个黑影慢慢呈现在通缉海报上、受害的小女孩面前。这个很写意的恐怖手法不知道使后世多少的恐怖、惊悚片都打上了“影子”的主意。还有女孩遇害时的处理也是非常的简洁——一个皮球滚进画面，一只汽球缠在了电线上。这一手法也是被无数次的效仿。电影还结合了一些默片的处理，罪犯在逃跑和盗贼在追捕的一个阶段完成没有了声音，观众不由自主的把注意力都灌注到了画面上，令人不禁想摒住呼吸（96分钟版给这段配上了配音）。电影采用的1.19:1的特殊比例也使画面产生了很强的束缚感，也使电影的一些场景有非常独特的感觉——仓库、会议室、地下室都显得非常挤压。也许你能从那样的画面里闻到一股烧焦之后烟灰的味道，呵呵。

1.该片拍摄与20世纪三十年代，这时候德国刚开始或已经准备走上法西斯主义道路。电影中警民的不和谐实则透视了人民对政府和权威的不信任。其中警察在酒场检查妓女和男人时，是一个比较明显的政治隐喻——在当时社会环境和条件下，男人们并不完全配合警察的调查，就连身份阶层低级的妓女都对警察表现出不屑的神色和嘲笑
2,这部三十年代的有声片是对电影技术的又一次成功的革命性尝试。除了影片中 人物的口哨声等并没有多余的配乐。却能在将近两个小时时间的电影中将情节近乎完美的衔接。
3.警察和黑道分开讨论如何抓捕杀人狂时，用到的交叉蒙太奇清晰无破绽。警察开会是方桌，代表秩序和规则。黑社会成员讨论是彼此围坐在一张不小的圆桌边，在某种程度上象征着与所谓秩序的对抗。具有讽刺意味的是，他们两方讨论的话题一样——将同一人抓获
4.开场小孩们围坐在一起玩游戏的镜头由上至下俯拍，其一可将情节发生的环境进行全面的概括，其二是孩子们缺乏保护意识之下弱小的象征。有趣的是歌谣的内容，弗里茨·郎意味深长的将案情的大致通过歌谣和大人的反应呈现给观众，使观众在几分钟内就知晓了电影是基于怎样的背景和环境进行讲述的。
5.爱丽丝被凶手M带走后，镜头给了爱丽丝家中几处地方的空镜。同景别无技巧剪辑代表一种并列关系，仿佛不用刻意解释，单是从这组镜头中，观众就能明白发生了什么。
6.场面调度。

  这部片子的名声实在不小，当然了，它头顶上的便签个个都是闪闪发光：表现主义大师弗里茨·朗加上“世界上最好的演员”彼得·洛，再加上真实事件改编，加上第一部连环杀手电影，加上IMDB TOP排在#56，最后再加上弗里茨·朗的第一部有声片，没有理由不相信这是一部值得好好玩味的电影。
  但是我错了，以上的所有头衔都不足以概述[M]的根本内核，在最后一场戏到来之前，我一直以为这就是一部讲述30年代变态杀人魔的有声片而已，但是一场来自黑帮的审判生生地把这部110分钟的黑白电影提升到一个绝非任何一部当代电影可以小看的地步，从[大都会]到[M]，弗里茨·朗越发走向人的内心。
   但是首先，不可回避的是，这的的确确是弗里茨·朗的第一部有声电影，技术的革新往往是最基础和决定性的。不过严格一点说，很多声音元素还是缺乏的，甚至到大部分情况下，声音只单纯作为画面的解释而存在，弗里茨·朗似乎相当不放心声音的表达作用，在好几处都给声音加上画面来表达，比如警长在看关于抢劫案的口供时，对于现场的再现其实是声画重复的表达。其次，所谓“有声”，更大程度上只是“有对白”，早期有声片最直观地意识到了语言可以直接参与影片，但是还没有加入音效，除了对白，汽车，街道，道具，很难听到环境的音效，当然更不用说表现性的音效和音乐了。再次，音画同步看起来还是一个恪守的原则，一个声音对应一个画面，所有的声音都是当下的写实的，于今看起来还真是难得的感觉。
  当然说回来，这几点仅能作为对今昔电影的声音运用作比较而言，在有声电影仅仅出现4年之后，弗里茨·朗就给出了这样一部音画结合的佳作，已然难以想象，况且[M]中还有一个重要的声音元素，那就是凶手所哼唱的那首[皮尔金特]，再次提出，那是在1931年，弗里茨·朗让一个杀手哼着歌去杀人，并且让这个关键性的元素——在情节上和听觉上都同样关键——重复出现，要知道，用哼着歌杀人而给人留下深刻印象的办法来塑造变态杀人魔形象，至今还是屡试不爽的经典。（例子就不用举了吧）
   除去声音之外，最后5分钟的审判，黑帮对于杀人犯的审判，以及那个辩护人所说的，“没有人可以杀了人不负责，一个国家也不能”，这之中所表达的政治司法观念，甚至对于人权的思考，只消联系1931年的德国现实，也不难略知一二。

M
1.悬念，铺陈人物2.悬赏单上的影子3.口哨声4.谁是凶手？5.人心浮动6.场景都极设计感7.无声音的一段8.对体制执行者的不满9.人心惶惶10.镜头角度很独特11.反射镜里的神魂颠倒12.背上的M13.快镜头14.兴师动众15.长镜头平摇16.瞎子发现真相17.民间审判18.我们就是你的权利19.我在追逐着我自己20.强迫性杀手21.以法律之名，以百姓之名22.举手投降23.德国表现主义

说实话,前1/4段的时候很闷,我都想关了睡觉,但是后来越来越好看,到最后简直兴奋到不行,才发现这确实是一部经典的影片

一个外貌胆怯又平常的男人,以各种方式骗走并杀害了九个小女孩
这样的罪行伴随着他那独一无二的口哨声印刻在了观者的心里(他估计最后死也没想到是这个口哨声暴露了他)
全城的市民如惊弓之鸟,城市秩序几乎都要到了崩溃的边缘,警察局日夜忙碌不堪依然一无所获("现在连享受十分钟的宁静都成了奢侈")
大段对上司诉苦的描述可以让我们感受到拖网式查案的艰难和绝望,警察们似乎已经完全束手无策了

而这时比较囧的事情发生了,由于警察们疯狂地检查和搜索,黑帮们"正常"的生意和行动全部被打乱,简直没法过日子
眼看着抓不到凶手自己的生活就要完蛋了,黑帮们终于忍无可忍决定自己也去把这凶手找出来泄愤
于是,奇妙的事情发生了:白道和黑道无意中达成一致,一起来拼命寻找这个注定该死的人

下面的故事就开始让我觉得好笑了
黑道买通了丐帮,让他们负责搜寻凶手的下落
这效率真快啊,他们不仅神速地找到了凶手,还在他身上留下了记号,甚至还满大街追着他跑并把他逼进了死胡同
黑帮在夜晚用计闯进了凶手躲藏的大楼,蚂蚁一样地搜遍了全楼把凶手找了出来(最后警察来之前他们坚持到最后一刻抓到凶手才走,实在是太敬业了XDDD)

警察来了,查看了现场,开始大惑不解:
来了一堆黑帮,把全楼都找遍了,撬了锁挖了坑,最后一点值钱的东西也没有拿走,甚至整栋楼没有丢一样东西,这到底是为什么呢?
后来听说是抓走了一个人,那么是什么人值得黑帮大动干戈呢?
警察来的时候只发现了一个没离开大楼的黑帮分子
这人顽固不堪,硬是不肯交代黑帮到底在楼内找谁
结果警察头子用计对他一恐吓,居然发现黑帮找到的人是那个让他们焦头烂额的凶手,于是震惊了

而在黑帮这里,审讯开始了
凶手瞪着大眼发现在地窖里居然有几百号人悄无声息虎视眈眈恶狠狠地盯着他
逃是没用的,黑帮开始对他进行控诉
其实真的很囧,这时我怎么看都觉得黑帮那就是一正义的法庭啊口胡
凶手大呼黑帮不懂法律,黑帮冷笑着说"我们很多人坐过十几年的牢了,还不明白怎么审判嘛?!"
凶手这时尖叫着要他们把他交给警察,说要从法院判刑他才心甘情愿
黑帮头子冷笑着说"你想得美,我们现在不把你干掉,你早晚会找个理由从牢里出来,到时候再去追袭无辜的小女孩是吧?"
黑帮的人很聪明:把他送进牢子,他不仅死不了还要花纳税人的钱养着他,而且万一以精神有问题逃脱了法律的制裁那后果就更不堪设想了
"你以为我们傻啊?你今天哪里也别想去,就死在这里吧!"

一群罪犯对一个罪犯进行的庄严审判,真是快意得淋漓尽致
黑帮陪审团对凶手激昂的控诉和指责让观者亦被正义的力量所洗礼.....
正义,果然是可以以任何形式从任何人手中表现出来的

而且,这黑帮果然敬重法律........居然还依照程序法在黑帮里给他指派了一位辩护律师.......我囧大了我.......这叫黑帮吗............根本就是法律神圣的执行者...........

最后,警察在黑帮群情激奋的人们快要把凶手打死的时候出现了-v-
我相信凶手见到警察的时候一定在想"终于得救了!".....-v-+

值得一提的是,这个凶手演得太好了,他的惊恐的面孔和声嘶力竭的辩解真是让人印象深刻............一个让人难以忘怀的精神病杀人犯

        Fritz Lang, one of the most celebrated auteurs of Germany's national cinema, lays out a chilling crime story in M(1931). In this provocative motion picture, a search for the cruel child murderer, Beckert, drives the whole city to turmoil. As all members in the city become involved in the search for the criminal, two different forms of human abnormality lurked in the city are exposed: the criminal mentality as well as the conflict between the institutional authority and the general public of which it is in charge. While the search continues, both forms of human abnormality keep growing unchecked; yet, eventually, the citizens identified with such abnormality have to face the catastrophic consequences of their behavior. Through innovative use of sound and provocative editing techniques, Lang points to the city as the foster home of both forms of human abnormality. Furthermore, he invites the audience to question the unforeseen detriments of a city in modernity that all its members eventually have to confront.

        As Lang's first film with sound, Lang ingeniously manipulates this new technology to portray the city as an adoptive home of human abnormality. At the very beginning of the film, before any image appears on screen, the audience first hears a child singing a familiar tune: “Wait, wait just a little while/ then the black man will come after you/ with his little chopper/ he will make mince meat out of you.” According to Todd Herzog, this tune is a homage to the “Haarmann song” that tells the chilling crimes of the notorious serial killer Fritz Haarmann. Herzog believes that this song serves to, “locate M in a specific historical context, the world of the Weimar Republic at the time of the film's release, and to place it in dialogue with that world”(Herzog, “Fritz Lang's M(1931), An Open Case”, P232). Nevertheless, Fritz's use of this song to begin the film allows a different interpretation. As the film begins with the dark screen and the nursery rhyme, an image soon appears in a few seconds. A medium shot locates the source of the sound in the yard of a mietskascerne, where a group of kids are playing and singing. By placing the source of the cruel tune in the mouth of a naïve child, Lang further implies that the modern city has become a sink of iniquity, even for the innocent who have yet to understand the city in which they are situated. The victim of today is just as likely to become the perpetrator in the future.

        Beckert's whistle is a repetition in the film which symbolizes his criminal mentality. Each time when he begins to whistle, the audience witnesses the awakening of the monstrous murderer within him. Thus far, Lang constantly shifts the source of the whistle from on-screen to off-screen; such manipulation of the sound source sheds light on the unlikelihood to locate the specific origin of human abnormality in a modern milieu. In a scene when Beckert stands on the street and looks into a shop-window, the sequence is accompanied with no diegetic sound. All what the audience can see is that Beckert dramatically changes his facial expression when he sees a little girl in the reflection of the shop-window. As the girl walks away, the camera moves out of the shop to the street and captures Beckert staring in the direction that the girl is walking. The audience then hears the diegetic sound of the street traffic, and Beckert's whistle simultaneously joins in as he starts following the girl and walks out of the frame. In the next medium-long shot, the camera tracks the little girl as she walks on the street. The whistle continues in the background; however, Beckert no longer appears on-screen in this tracking shot. While the audience has been led to believe that the whistle comes from Beckert by the previous shot; Lang purposefully leaves the established sound source off-screen in the following shot, which leads the audience to question whether Beckert himself is the source of his abnormality, or if the city is that with which has fostered his brutal crimes.

        Lang further manipulates sound to create off-screen space that contrasts the on-screen image in order to depict another form of human abnormality: the revolt against the political authority. The conflict between the underworld business and the police points to a divergence between the authority and the public, which is previously kept in disguise by a seemingly stable social order. However, as Beckert's crimes disturb the social order and alarm the police, they immediately assume that the criminal must be someone from the underworld, and decide to break the ostensible peace and raid their gathering spots. One night, the police secretly surround one of the underworld's gathering place; in which the entire process is accompanied with no sound. The camera soon moves downstairs into the basement where people in the underworld business gather. As a woman shouts out that the police is here, everyone begins rushing towards the exit to leave the basement. In a medium shot, the camera awaits at the top of the stairs and looks slightly down as everyone starts running towards the camera. Among the frenzied noises, the audience first clearly hears a woman's scream as the policemen yell back at her; yet the entire action takes place upstairs in off-screen space while the shot remains still, featuring the panicking crowds. Soon, the police enter from the lower frame and gradually push the crowds back into the basement for investigation. The image on-screen contrasts the actions taken place in off-screen space; such contrast allows the audience to look beyond the images shown on-screen and picture the entire city, where its underlying instability and human abnormality are close to outbreak due to the police's disruption of a public order that does not solve social problems, but merely hides them unseen.

        Throughout the film, Long constructs several montage sequences which implicitly build cause-and-effect relationships between the modern city and human abnormality. In the beginning of the film, when Elsie's mother becomes worried about Elsie for having not returned home, a medium shot shows Elsie's mother walking towards the window and looking out. When she begins calling out “Elsie”, the image cuts to an aisle shot of the stairwell in the Mietskaserne. As the mother's cry echoes down the stairs, the audience then follows the camera to an empty space where people in the neighbourhood hang their laundry; Elsie is still absent on-screen. The sequence continues as it cuts to a close-up on the lunch table, where Elsie's seat remains empty. The grieving howl of the mother has now ended, yet the sequence did not until the audience are shown with two more shots: Elsie's ball rolling on the grass, and the ballon that the criminal Beckerd bought for Elsie entangled in the electric wires on the city street. In this sequence, Lang juxtaposes the mother's continuous calling for Elsie with discontinuity editing of on-screen images. The audience follows the mother as she searches for Elsie in all public spaces in the city where Elsie can possibly be; yet Elsie's ball and ballon at the end of the sequence tell audience that Elsie must have already been slaughtered by the murderer Beckerd. In this sequence, Lang associates the befalling of Elsie's tragic death with the city itself: the development of the modern metropolis not only enlarges the public space, but also catalyses crime and threat among the citizens.

        In another scene when the minister condemns the police chief on the phone for the police department's incompetence in finding the killer, Lang edits a flashback as the chief explains their difficulty. The editing of this flashback again connotes the unforeseen detriments of a city in modernity. When the chief tells the minister about a white paper bag that they found behind the hedge, a close-up on the paper bag gives the audience a clue that it is a candy wrapper, and the store's name was on the wrapper. Then, the image cuts to a close-up of a map of the city, in which circles and circles are drawn with a pair of compasses in increasing radius. While the search widens, the police interrogates owners of candy stores all over the city. However, all owners shake their heads and cannot remember who had bought the candy for little Elsie. As population increases, the city provides perpetrators the opportunity to disguise their abnormality and let it grow unchecked. The editing of this sequence connects the failure to identify the abnormal with the city itself.

        Lang further implies a cause-and-effect relationship between the city and another form of human abnormality, namely, the public and the institutional authority's revolt against each other. As both the leads of the underworld and the chiefs of the political institutions gather for two separate meetings to discuss their objectives on the case of Beckert, Lang uses cross-cutting to juxtapose both meetings. The heads of the underworld complain about the consistent police raids' harm to their business and decide to find the killer by themselves in order to resurrect their business. As the underworld head waves his hand, the shot cuts to the head of police's same action. The police simultaneously decides to continue their search for Beckert without the help of the public, by organizing more police raids and search among public spaces. While the underworld condemns the police for interfering the underworld's business, the police chief Lohmann also refuses to ask the public for help as he states, “Don't talk to me about the public helping, it disgusts me.” The cross-cutting technique invites the audience to contrast the underworld and the police's conflicting attitudes against each other. Such social conflict is another form of human abnormality that is against the democratic ideal of the Weimar republic.

        As the underworld collaborates with the beggars and has seized Beckerd from the building, together they leave the scene in a hurry. Lang then presents the audience with a montage sequence in which he rewinds the crimes that the underworld has just committed. The audience follows the camera into the room where both watchmen have been knocked out and tied up. Then, the sequence continues with still shots of the forcefully broken office door, the compartment's broken fences, and ends with the hole they have dug on the floor in order to make the crime scene look like a result of burglary. This montage sequence is shown with no sound, leaving the audience in contemplation of the underworld's motive and the destructions their abnormal behaviors have caused. The heads of the underworld are provoked to capture Beckerd not because that they find Beckerd's behavior immoral, but because the underworld's business is interrupted by the police's consistent raids. In turn, they decide to look for Beckerd without collaboration with the police, and purposefully commit a series of crimes in order to achieve their goal. The lack of stability in the city's social order has fostered the formation of the underworld, and the underworld's distrust with the political authority. Yet, their abnormal behaviors will lead them to their final conviction.

        The film ends with the final conviction of both the underworld and the child murderer. The audience should not forget that it is the underworld, despite their unrighteous motives, who has asked for help from the beggars and successfully seized Beckert. Nevertheless, both parties have to eventually face the catastrophic consequences of their abnormal behaviors. The first being the underworld's imprudent disruption of the public order for their own economic benefits, and the second being the brutal crimes that Beckert has committed. Throughout the film, Lang manipulates the sound effects and the editing of the sequences to point to the modern city itself as the very cause of all forms of human abnormality preeminent in it. The diegetic world in the film, which is the Weimar Republic in the 1920s, still echoes the modern milieu in which we live. However we try to trace any form of abnormality that hinders the public order, we are always led back to the society as the cause, without identifying the specific origin. Perhaps, the only way of prevention lies in the hands of the people who make up the society, with self-awareness of their behaviors, and positive objectives to make changes.
 
 
                                      Works Cited
 
Herzog, Todd. "Fritz Lang's M(1931): An Open Case." An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era Weimar Cinema. Ed. Noah Isenberg. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. 291-309. Print.
 
M. Dir. Fritz Lang. Perf. Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut. Criterion Collection, 2004, DVD.