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"[i initially misunderstood the way this form was supposed to work and posted this as a standalone topic. Now understanding things a little better, I've just copy/pasted into the main discussion. Sorry 'bout that, folks.] \n  \nPlay = Death \n  \nFrom the very opening shot of M, Fritz Lang is equating innocence and play with death and corruption. The very first shot is from a birds eye view, watching as a group of children circled around one girl who stands in the middle and chants about a murderer coming to get them. This should be familiar to anyone who has ever been on a playground; many playground songs and games revolve around death in one way or another(Ring around the rosie...). No kid would find the song or the actions creepy, just as no parents watching their kids play this way on an average sunny day would be particularly worried. Kids don't think about death the way adults do, they see it only as an end to their part in a game.So when one of the kids' mothers leans over a balcony and yells at them to stop singing that horrid song, they wait only until she has retreated out of the film's frame to start the game again. \n  \nThere's an interesting sequence here, between the shot of the kids playing and the next bit of human interaction. Once the mother retreats back into the building, Lang holds the shot for 10 seconds. 10 seconds is an eternity to not have any human presence or action in your movie. He then cuts abruptly to an empty stairway, and waits another 6 seconds before the woman enters the frame. It primes us for something important to happen, and gives us the first subtle, subliminal feeling of dread and anticipation. At the top of the stairs there is a small interaction between two women in the building, in which we learn that the song the children sing is actually in reference to a real string of child murders that have been occurring recently. Death to adults is something much more serious than how it appears to the children. \n  \nThe final sequence in this opening follows a mother as she prepares for her child to return from school, as she cleans and cooks and makes the table. A clock chiming noon is the connective tissue that Lang uses to cut to a school letting out, and here he crosscuts the mother preparing the meal with the daughter walking home(and taking her time about it). The child is still playing, bouncing her ball as she walks, and finally bouncing her ball against a post that is revealed to hold a poster describing in more detail the child murders we've been hearing about. Again Lang is equating playtime with death. Eventually, the killer enters the picture, not as a demon or a monster, but as a simple shadow, slowly creeping into the playtime of a child. \n  \nI know it's not part of the opening clip, but I think it's interesting to note that this comparison continues. When watching the movie, take note of the two shots Lang uses to tell the audience of what happened to the girl. "
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