Editing Fritz Lang (section)

===Expressionist films: the Weimar years (1918–1933)===
Lang started work as a director at the German film studio [[Universum Film AG|UFA]], and later [[Nero-Film]], just as the [[German expressionist cinema|Expressionist]] movement was building. In this first phase of his career, Lang alternated between films such as ''[[Der Müde Tod]]'' ("The Weary Death") and popular thrillers such as ''[[Die Spinnen]]'' ("The Spiders"), combining popular genres with Expressionist techniques to create a synthesis of popular entertainment with [[Art film|art cinema]].

[[File:Fritz Lang und Thea von Harbou, 1923 od. 1924.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Lang and [[Thea von Harbou]] in their Berlin flat, 1923 or 1924]]

In 1920, Lang met his future second wife, the writer [[Thea von Harbou]] through director Joe May. Harbou co-wrote and directed the film ''Das wandernde Bild'' with Lang.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Enigma of Thea von Harou |url=http://www.williamahearn.com/thea.html |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=www.williamahearn.com}}</ref> She co-wrote every Harbou-Lang film till 1933, including ''[[Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler]]'' ("Dr. Mabuse the Gambler," 1922 – which ran for over four hours, in two parts in the original version, and was the first in the [[Dr. Mabuse]] trilogy), the five-hour ''[[Die Nibelungen: Siegfried|Die Nibelungen]]'' (1924), the dystopian film ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'' (1927), and the science fiction film ''[[Woman in the Moon]]'' (1929). ''Metropolis'' went over budget, to the UFA's detriment. It was a financial flop, as were his last silent films ''[[Spione|Spies]]'' (1928) and ''Woman in the Moon'', produced by Lang's own company.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

In 1931, independent producer [[Seymour Nebenzahl]] hired Lang to direct ''[[M (1931 film)|M]]'' for Nero-Film. His first [[Talkie|"talking" picture]], considered by many film scholars to be a masterpiece of the early sound era, ''M'' is a story of a child murderer ([[Peter Lorre]] in his first starring role) who is hunted down and brought to justice by Berlin's criminal underworld.

Lang was hard to work with. During the climactic final scene in ''M'', Lang allegedly threw Peter Lorre down a flight of stairs in order to give more authenticity to Lorre's battered look.

In the films of his German period, Lang produced an oeuvre that established the characteristics later attributed to [[film noir]], with its recurring themes of psychological conflict, paranoia, fate and moral ambiguity.

Lang started having an affair with the Austrian actress [[Gerda Maurus]] during the filming of ''[[Spione]]'' (1928).

At the end of 1932, Lang started filming ''[[The Testament of Dr. Mabuse]]''. As [[Adolf Hitler]] came to power in January 1933, the new regime banned the film on March 30 as an incitement to public disorder. ''Testament'' is occasionally deemed an anti-Nazi film, as Lang had put Nazi phrases into the mouth of the title character. A screening of the film was cancelled by [[Joseph Goebbels]], and it was later banned by the [[Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kracauer |first1=Siegfried |url=https://archive.org/details/fromcaligaritohi0000krac |title=From Caligari to Hitler: a psychological history of the German film |year=1947 |isbn=0-691-02505-3 |url-access=registration}}</ref> In banning the film, Goebbels stated that the film "showed that an extremely dedicated group of people are perfectly capable of overthrowing any state with violence", and that the film posed a threat to public health and safety.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kalat |first1=David |title=The strange case of Dr. Mabuse: a study of the twelve films and five novels |date=2005 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=0-7864-2337-4}}</ref>

<ref name="religion">{{cite web |url=http://www.adherents.com/people/pl/Fritz_Lang.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060112145624/http://www.adherents.com/people/pl/Fritz_Lang.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=January 12, 2006 |title=The religion of director Fritz Lang |access-date=January 22, 2009}}</ref> Throughout his marriage with Harbou, Lang was known for being a philanderer. Two of his lovers of these years included [[Gerda Maurus]], the leading actress in Lang's last silent films ''[[Spione]]'' (1928) and ''[[Woman in the Moon]]'' (1929), and Lily Latte in 1931.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Robinson |first=David |date=1997-07-13 |title=Bully Boy |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-jul-13-bk-12127-story.html |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> In the early 1930s, Harbou started an affair with [[Ayi Tendulkar]], an Indian journalist and student 17 years her junior.{{sfn|McGilligan|1997|p=168}}