Director: Fritz Lang

Year: 1928

Genre: Action/thriller

Production Company: Fritz Lang film, Universum film

Introduction: The film starts with introducing the antagonist Haghi who owns a bank hires a Russian lady named Sonya which falls for agent 326 who is working for the secret service. Haghi’s motives were to steal the Japanese secret treaty to gain more power.

Is this a transnational film? There are European actors playing Russian, British, French, and only one Japanese characters. The film was released all over Europe and in 1929 they showed it in the USA and Japan.

Themes: Some major themes that tie into this film are identity, paranoia, living a double life, secrets, war, power and fate. Many of the characters we see don’t appear to be who they actually are. This is a great representation of how refugees felt during the war. They were misfits like many of the characters in this film. They wanted to feel accepted and felt like they belonged somewhere. Even the setting is not established within this film which can translate to the feeling of being lost and not knowing where you belong. With this scene, Haghi is trying to escape and by doing that he puts on this disguise. He basically puts on a double act. When he has his mustache he appears more intimidating just like Hitler, Mussolini, Trotsky and, Lenin (Jelavich 591-592).

Cinematography: In serious moments, there will be closeups of specific people. When actors are talking, sometimes there will be a screen of the dialogue from what is being spoken. When starting another scene, the shot will fade into a black screen and to the next scene. To show that a character is superior, the angle of the camera will be looking up at them to indicate that everyone else in that moment is not as important. When something is been shown to another character, the camera will zoom in on that particular item.

Example: Important dialogue that is happening in the film.

Example: The book of the different spies who were killed

Example: Because this is a silent film, hand gestures and body motions are over exaggerated. When a character is angry they may be waving their arms a lot.

Example: Some of the signs are in different languages. There is a sign that says “foreign department” in English, French, and German. Shadows are used to portray that something sneaky is happening.

Sources:
Jelavich, Peter. “Spione (Spies).” Modernism/Modernty, vol. 15, no.3, Sept. 2008, pp. 591-593. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN=505337117&site=eds-live&scope=site.