Friedrich Christian Anton Lang, better known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian-American film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States. One of the best-known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.
Lang in 1969
Lang and Thea von Harbou in their Berlin flat, 1923 or 1924
Lang with Gloria Grahame and Broderick Crawford on the set of Human Desire
Grave of Lang, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists have sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality.
Edvard Munch, The Scream, c.1893, oil, tempera and pastel on cardboard, 91 × 73 cm, National Gallery of Norway, inspired 20th-century expressionists.
El Greco, View of Toledo, c.1595/1610 is a Mannerist precursor of 20th-century expressionism.
Wassily Kandinsky, Der Blaue Reiter, c.1903
Egon Schiele, Portrait of Eduard Kosmack, c.1910, oil on canvas, 100 × 100 cm, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere