---
product_id: 31030015
title: "M (BFI Film Classics) Paperback – February 26, 2000"
brand: "anton kaes"
price: "KD 4.59"
currency: KWD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/31030015-m-bfi-film-classics-paperback-february-26-2000
store_origin: KW
region: Kuwait
---

# M (BFI Film Classics) Paperback – February 26, 2000

**Brand:** anton kaes
**Price:** KD 4.59
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** M (BFI Film Classics) Paperback – February 26, 2000 by anton kaes
- **How much does it cost?** KD 4.59 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.kw](https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/31030015-m-bfi-film-classics-paperback-february-26-2000)

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- anton kaes enthusiasts

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## Description

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## Images

![M (BFI Film Classics) Paperback – February 26, 2000 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31UFSS5lKlL.jpg)
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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The Foreboding . . .
  

*by D***E on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 19, 2009*

Many movies are referred to as classics, but how many really deserve the title?  By any serious measure, M should make the list.  Its director, Fritz Lang, would have a solid enough reputation in the history of cinema even without this flick, but M really is probably his best and most important work, an opinion that Lang himself shared.Yet what is it about M that makes it so compelling?  Certainly there are some features that even an armchair film critic would note.  Peter Lorre in the lead is quite possibly the single best casting - ever.  It is not simply that his performance is incredible (though it is), but that he just puts that feel to the character, the child murderer, that simply could not have been matched by anyone in his day, or probably any other day for that matter.  He just seems to 'be' the role.And there is, of course, the noir feel that comes across in every aspect of the movie, from its shading, camera angle and dialogue.But what else?  It is here, in the less noticeable areas, that Anton Kaes, the author of this monograph, sheds some light.  He places M into the context of the Weimar Republic from which it came, revealing aspects not immediately apparent.Far from a pure work of fiction, M touched upon the turbulent (to say the least) political and social atmosphere of its culture, in which the shadow of World War I, and the shame of having lost that war, is being eclipsed by the rise of a far more terrifying regime.  National Socialists were already committing acts of violence and terror in the streets of Berlin in 1931, when M was released, and the film captures, if not the politics, then certainly the somber and dark mood, the foreboding sense of something bad, real bad, about to happen.Further, crime, and perhaps more important, the concept of crime, was rampant in Berlin at the time.  Several serial killers had already been caught, whose motives simply seemed beyond the undrstanding of our knowledge of man's psyche.  The public's response - fear ... combined with utter fascination, and no small degree of admiration for the underworld figures who played their cat and mouse game with the police with such expertise.M simply tapped into the interplay of human psychology, the law and crime that were paramount features of the Weimar Republic, and which, although perhaps more subdued in other societies, are also at play basically everywhere.  Although one may not be familiar with the specifics of Weimar society prior to reading this book, no doubt many will say to themselves 'Oh, now I get it' with resepct to some aspect of the movie.  They will get it because, although more to the fore in M's time and place, these are ultimately facets of the human condition to which we can all relate.Having read enough of these BFI books to know the red flags, let me say that Kaes keeps his analysis fairly well within reach of even those not interested in the mumbo jumbo of all too many film analyses.  Anyone with enough interest to read a book about a black and white film shot in 1931 Berlin will probably be able to get everything here.  Also, although Kaes occasionally shows his leftist tendencies (he seems to think that the downtrodden share many of the same theories of crime as American academic eggheads - they don't), they do not eclipse the film analysis itself.  This is worth the time.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Totally engrossing
  

*by E***W on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 9, 2002*

For most people if you tell them you are going to watch a movie or read a book about a child murderer they will look at you strangely.  Don't kid yourself this IS a disturbing movie, from the opening sequence with the children singing a song about the "man in black" coming to get you to the end with the sobbing mothers warning this film is intense.  The book places the movie in the context of Weimar Germany and is essential for understanding the use of imagery and the many subtexts that are present.  The book is well written, hard to put down, and it really compliments the movie experience without either watering it down or making it too cerebral.  For further reading I would encourage people to do a websearch on Fritz Haarman or Peter Kurten the actual serial killers the plot was loosely based on.  If you thought serial killers were a modern invention, these guys make Ted Bundy look like an amateur.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Serial Murder, Serial Culture
  

*by S***N on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 8, 2017*

Anton Kaes provides an extremely valuable in-depth examination of Fritz Lang's M,  exploring this classic German film not only based on cinematic craft,  but the historical,  social,  and political contexts that informed and are reflected by Lang's masterful directorial craft. Kaes devotes large sections of the book to the historical climate in Germany at the time that are alluded to in the film and/or inspired it,  including the repercussions of World War I and the real-life serial killer that captured the attention and imagination of the German people at the time,  and explores how M is not just a crime thriller or police procedural,  but an exhaustive portrayal of how society reacts - both positively and negatively - to the almost mythological nature that such crimes invoke in the popular culture. A must read for any serious film enthusiast.

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*Product available on Desertcart Kuwait*
*Store origin: KW*
*Last updated: 2026-02-11*