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"M is one of my favorite films, and the opening sets the mood perfectly. I'm sure we've run out of adjectives to describe that mood, but there is definitely a strong sense of impending doom for the children, their parents, and the community as a whole. I think it's a brilliant move on Lang's part to begin the film through voice over and then fade in on the children singing their song about the black man. To me, it seems as if Peter Lorre's character, Hans Beckert, (the shadow for those who haven't seen the film) is just waking up and watching the children from below. We get a nice high angle, long shot there which makes the children seem powerless (even as they're \"killing\" each other off in their game), and automatically connects the viewer to that sense of impending doom. The same thing happens in The Night of the Hunter when Pearl sings a similar song and her older brother Billy tells her to stop. The two films would make a great pairing, that's for sure. \n  \nThroughout the opening scene, children are usually seen from a high angle (until the ending shot), as to promote their innocence. As an audience, we feel for the children, especially since we know something bad will probably happen. Whenever we see adults, however, we usually face them head on (though, that is not the case after we pan over from the children playing their game to the woman carrying the laundry). For me, that associates the camera even more so with Hans Beckert. Only then, on the last shot, does the camera dolly forward and pan up to the poster and the shadow that moves into frame. That's where, I think, we get a shift in perspective from Beckert to Elsie, which is when we truly get that sense of doom, especially after just reading the poster. \n  \nI also quite like how we only get diegetic sound in the opening scene (music that takes place within the world the film has created). Horn honks, the sounds of a cuckoo clock, and the bounce of a ball set us into a realistic setting, which I think fits into the film noir style quite well. For me, film noir is all about that dirty, sleazy, and grostesque but slick and stylish underbelly of our society, and the use of diegetic sound here sets that realism in motion. There isn't anything wrong, of course, with nondiegetic sound (the score and any added sound effects), but I like how in opening M Lang doesn't fool around with anything not \"in the world the film creates.\" \n  \nAlso, I think we should think about the rise of Nazism in Germany at the time, and how it surely had an effect on Lang and other German filmmakers at the time. That sense of dread for Beckert could also beckon to the sense of dread for the uprising Nazi party and how it will prey on the innocent. I won't go too much into it for now, but I think it's something interesting to think about. \n  \n(And, on a side note, what is our fascination with turning terrible things into songs, stories, or games for children? I understand that a song like this is to warn the children about this dangerous man, and that song and melody are good tools for memorization, but I've never understood turning that into a game; for instance, Ring Around the Rosie is a terrible song for children to sing--though few, if any, would even know the meaning behind it--and that gives me the creeps. Anyone know why we do this? Anyway...) "
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