‘But Joe, it’s “Hour of Ecstasy”’: A Materialist Re-evaluation of Fritz Lang’s You and Me

Abstract

You and Me (1938) was Fritz Lang’s third film made in Hollywood, after Fury (1936) and You Only Live Once (1937), which are generally categorised as a trilogy of ‘social problem/consciousness’ films because of their shared interest in the relationship between criminality and the Law and — significantly — the focus in each film on individuals caught up in the wheels of the American judicial system. Tom Gunning attributes the discernible political commentary in these early Hollywood films to Lang’s own status as ‘refuge’ (albeit a welcome and cosseted one upon his arrival in the United States in June 1934) and Lang’s ‘revulsion at the Nazi takeover’ (Gunning 2000: 213). Although there is certainly no doubt about Lang’s resolute anti-Nazi stance,¹ Lang’s broader political views are harder to define, despite his friendship with intellectuals on the Far Left, such as Theodor Adorno, and his great admiration for Brecht; yet any partisan political readings of his films remain by definition partial, as they ignore the often kaleidoscopic treatment of various — often opposed — political viewpoints and ideologies in his films.²