M. le maudit (1982)

A short remake of Fritz Lang's 1931 classic "M" made by French New Wave director Claude Chabrol.

Director:

Claude Chabrol

Stars:

Francis Arnaud, Henri Attal, Marie-France Caron

Cast

Credited cast:
Francis Arnaud
Henri Attal
Marie-France Caron	...	(as Marie Caron)
Serge Feuillard
Maurice Risch	...	Hans Beckert
Jean-Antoine Tsaoussis	...	(as Jean Tsaoussis)
Gilles Varga

Storyline

A short remake of Fritz Lang's 1931 classic "M" made by French New Wave director Claude Chabrol.

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Genres:

Short

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Did You Know?

Trivia

M. le maudit (1982) was released as a bonus feature on the second disc of the Criterion Collection's double disc Blu-Ray and DVD release of M (1931). It also includes an interview with director Claude Chabrol about the making of the short film.

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Connections

Version of M (1931)

User Reviews

M. LE MAUDIT (Claude Chabrol, 1982; TV) **1/2

Though he is known as "the French Hitchcock", Chabrol has admitted to bearing an equal affinity with the work of another master – Fritz Lang. In fact, there were two explicit cases within his filmography to prove this point: the short subject under review – which is a condensation of Lang's sociological masterpiece M (1931) – and DR. M (1990), inspired by the "Dr. Mabuse" series of crime thrillers begun by the famously monocled Austrian auteur and continued by other hands. For the record, I purposely watched the latter a day prior to this one (see my review elsewhere).

To get back to M. LE MAUDIT, the film was included among the bountiful extras on Criterion 2-Disc Set of the Lang original (which Joseph Losey had already remade in Hollywood in 1951) – but, being overly familiar with it (it is in my all-time Top 10, after all!), I did not feel the urge to go through the entire package at this stage. By the way, the Chabrol effort was part of a series on French TV in which famous directors remade their favorite movies as a short; it would be interesting to know who else was involved and which titles they selected…

As for M. LE MAUDIT, I would say that someone familiar with Lang's film is liable to derive the utmost pleasure from it – not only to understand the plot fully (even if this has obviously been greatly streamlined) but to also identify the outright hommages. As such, it makes for a nice enough companion piece – the mere fact that it contrives to bring out the essence of a nearly two-hour movie in 10 minutes flat requires a certain skill of its own – but, of course, one could not sensibly compare it to either the 1931 or 1951 versions (nor, for that matter, with Chabrol's methodical approach to film-making amply exhibited in his features).

Incidentally, on the disc there is an accompanying interview to the short in which Chabrol amplifies upon Lang's unique qualities (his exacting pictorial style above all) and seems to be especially proud of having conceived a typically Langian shot for it which was actually not in the original!

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Also Known As:

M the Damned

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

13 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1