Bringing to the screen an obsessive and fatalistic world populated by a rogues' gallery of strange and twisted characters, former architecture student Fritz Lang staked out a uniquely hostile corner of the cinematic universe; despair, isolation, corruption, alienation and helplessness all found life in the shadows and contrasts of his work. A product of German Expressionist thought, he explored humanity at its lowest ebb, with a distinctively rich and bold visual sensibility which virtually defined film noir long before that term was coined.
