The Testament of Dr. Mabuse by Fritz Lang

Sat, 15.04.2023
4:30 PM Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore

We invite you to The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, directed by Fritz Lang. This is the third screening in our ongoing film series German Cinema in Focus. Currently being shown are a selection of films from the movement of German Expressionism.

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is a crime-thriller which is a sequel to Lang's enormously successful silent film Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler. The film follows Hofmeister, a disgraced detective who is institutionalized at the asylum run by professor Baum who observes the professor’s preoccupation with the patient Dr. Mabuse, a madman and a criminal mastermind who at the end of his life begins working on a manifesto.  

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is often considered a decidedly anti-fascist film prophesying the crimes committed by the Nazis. The film is also an extremely clever and well thought-out genre product. This is characterized by Fritz Lang’s masterly use of sound and voices at a time when the sound film was still in its infancy corresponding with the use of lighting cues.

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse by Fritz Lang
1933, 124 min.
b/w, German with English subtitles

German Expressionism was a radical movement in various cultural fields which, like Dada and Surrealism, was largely a reaction to the horrors of World War I. The movement in cinema saw a rejection of traditional approaches in favor of depicting bleak themes. Regarded as one of most important film movements, it is marked by its non-realistic set designs and geometry, exaggerated worlds, chiaroscuro lighting, sharp angles, and an exterior depiction of the interior unconscious mind and reality. German Expressionism included themes of horror, psychosis, murder, dreams, class struggle, among many others.

Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (1890 - 1976) was one of the prominent figures from Germany's school of Expressionism who is known for works such as M, Die Nibelungen, Metropolis, Spies, The Big Heat, Scarlet Street etc. just to name a few. Fritz Lang fled to Hollywood during the mid-1930s and was a key member in developing the American genre, Film Noir.