M

Edition no. 30

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Licensor Information
Atlantic-Film
Directed by: Fritz Lang
A simple, haunting musical phrase whistled offscreen tells us that a young girl will be killed. “Who Is the Murderer?” pleads a nearby placard as serial killer Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) closes in on little Elsie Beckmann . . . In his harrowing masterwork M, Fritz Lang merges trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller.
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Release Information:


Technical Specifications

Format:
Blu-ray
Disc:
BD-50 (1 Disc)
Total: 1 Disc
Regions:
A (Blu-ray)
Aspect Ratio:
1.19:1
Audio Options:
German PCM Mono 1.0
Resolution:
1080p/24
Subtitles:
English

Supplements

Types of Supplements Included: Audio Commentary, Feature Film, Short Film, Interview, Audio Lecture, Documentary, Gallery, Booklet
  • Audio commentary by German film scholars Anton Kaes, author of the BFI Film Classics volume on M, and Eric Rentschler, author of The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife
  • The long-lost English-language version of M, from a nitrate print preserved by the British Film Institute
  • Conversation with Fritz Lang, a 50-minute film by William Friedkin
  • Claude Chabrol’s M le maudit, a short film inspired by M, plus a video interview with Chabrol about Lang’s filmmaking techniques
  • Video interview with Harold Nebenzai, son of M producer Seymour Nebenzal
  • Classroom audiotapes of editor Paul Falkenberg discussing the film and its history, set to clips from the film
  • Documentary on the physical history of M, from production to distribution to digital restoration
  • Galleries of behind-the-scenes photographs and production sketches
  • An essay by film critic Stanley Kauffmann, the script for a missing scene, three contemporaneous newspaper articles, and a 1963 interview with Fritz Lang

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Film
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Picture
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Audio
8.6667/10
Supplements
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Artwork
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Release Credits

Producer: Issa Clubb
Artwork: Sarah Habibi

Release Notes on Restoration

M
M is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.19:1, a European format that is much narrower than a 4:3 monitor. The black bars on the sides of the screen, called pillarboxing, are normal for this format and will be more pronounced on widescreen televisions. The narrowness of this format is due to the variable density soundtrack, which was positioned to the left of the picture area.

This high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm fine-grain print made from the restoration negative, which was produced in 2000 by the Netherlands Film Museum, in collaboration with the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, the Cinematheque Suisse, KirchMedia, and ZDF/ARTE, with funding from the Mondriaan Foundation.

Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS system and Pixel Farm's PFClean system, while Digital Vision's DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.

The soundtrack was mastered at 24-bit from the optical soundtrack prints and negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated audio workstation.eated from the pristine 35mm interpositive and the original 35mm two-track Dolby Surround 2-track stereo magnetic master.