Spiones

Lang’s penultimate silent film, a monstrous twisting thriller; 1928 for U.F.A.
Lang’s symmetrical sets, dynamic images all on display here. Characters using up the whole screen
This is though cut a huge amount faster than the ‘Nibelungen’ (the opening almost absurdly so), and adopts a more narrative based, less psychological drama approach; a number of consequences
Lang’s images are a lot simpler, cutting up scenes into many different parts. Conveys info that can be taken in quickly. Lang often cuts around characters, though rarely shot-reverse; or at least his version of that schema is 180-degree cutting. Frequent use of front-on framing, often a shot-reverse look to it, then surprises by move in to the straight-on. Also a huge use of inserts/ hands/ letters/ guns
Lang has obviously decided to draw on montage work to crack on with the narrative, even using associational montage at times. Similarly, his hooks from sequence to sequence are almost always thematic, drawing a direct (and quiet) relation from one locale to another
As far as the look, this is much less ornate (less classically expressionist) than his early work. The sharp lines, the light walls with lots of blank space, and the geometrical patterns of the office are much more clearly associated with ‘Metropolis’ (love the self-referencing poster, Fritz!)
The film this ultimately shares the most with is Dr Mabuse; this can be seen as a slightly more reigned in, perhaps commercial version of that, not that this isn’t completely nuts. By ‘comercial’ is meant perhaps slightly less depth and, excepting certain sequences, less of a focus on the pictoral aspect (though again, we challenge anyone to find a less than perfect image; they’re just less showy, less contrasting here)
The plot repeats, almost to the scene, a number of things we saw in that film. The technology has developed, but the all seeing eyes remain, the almost nightmarish paranoia. The glimpses of sympathy with Klein-Rogge’s figure of evil, and the utterly baffling endless narrative, narrative, narrative
Also the fast montage, the expressive acting, all here as from the first ‘Mabuse’. This film can nearly be seen as a companion piece to that, a slightly less reflective mood (partly due to the shorter run time, of course), a slight change in visual pattern to blank walls rather than shadows.
Ultimately, the sheer narrative drive takes away most of the humanist aspect from this earlier work. Lang seems on the brink of nihilism with the hellish world he creates, the good things seem to come with at best a raised eye, at worst just testaments to the next terrifying intrigues
The last scene is simply stunning; one of the scariest, most desperate, most extreme, perhaps most daring moments in the silent cinema. It says it all about this film; utterly riveting, an almost blank nihilism, as ever Lang’s array of masterful images.