Fritz Lang

A dark visionary whose meditations on human loneliness were punctuated by a stark visual style and an obsessive work ethic, Austrian director Fritz Lang made a number of acclaimed silent and talkie films in Germany before fleeing the Nazis to become a noted practitioner of film noir in Hollywood. Lang's often fatalistic worldview was on full display early in his career with the silent epic "Metropolis" (1927), a stunning cinematic achievement that influenced countless science fiction films throughout the decades. With "M" (1931), his first movie with sound, he crafted a dark and disturbing tale that introduced the wider world to actor Peter Lorre. After fleeing the Nazis following "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" (1933), Lang found his way to Hollywood, where he began a long tenure directing a variety of genres, though ultimately specializing in film noir like "Fury" (1936). He tried his hand at the Western with "The Return of Frank James" (1940) and "Western Union" (1941), both of which proved exceedingly popular with audiences, before returning his focus almost exclusively on noirs like "The Woman in the Window" (1944) and "Scarlet Street" (1945). Following another popular Western, "Rancho Notorious" (1952), starring Marlene Dietrich, Lang directed "The Big Heat" (1953), a classic film noir long considered on of the best ever made in the genre. He made only a few more films for Hollywood before returning to Germany, where he ended his career on a soft note with "The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse" (1960). Despite living out the remainder of his life in relative quiet, Lang was later championed by a wide swath of filmmakers like Jean-Luc Goddard, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese for his pioneering vision and profound impact on the art of filmmaking.