I loved M for the crazy art deco sets, the darkness at its heart, the hall of the mountain king, the film noir tropes it created, and, especially, the mock trial.
Yes, this. It helps to see a good print--before the restoration from a few years ago, I only saw it on PBS with a really horrible print (scratchy images with subtitles that would bleed into the starkly white portions of the screen). I've been meaning to buy the Criterion DVD to replace my videotape I purchased of the restored version.
Lang definitely uses a silent-film approach to the movie which I found hypnotic. At first, I thought the grostequeness of the middle/upper class to be over the top, but it provides a neat counterpoint with the seedy underclass.
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I don't know if this has been linked before, but it's neat: NotStarring.com.
What are the wittiest movies of the past 25 years? Is wit dead?
The Coen Brothers do wit well (and sure, sometimes poorly). The aforementioned Miller's Crossing is abundant in wit. Whit Stillman's pictures are also well-soaked in wit. Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story was very witty, as well it should have been.
But wit mostly lives on TV now, in Arrested Development and both versions of The Office.
I haven't seen much of Arrested Development, but is The Office witty? The goal of The Office (and most contemporary humor, it seems) is to make one feel clever by making fun of how stupid other people are. Wit, on the other hand, is actually being clever.
Not that any form of humor is inherently better; I'm just tired of seeing the former and want to see more of the latter.
I'm not sure if I agree with that distinction. When I think of classic wits, I think of Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, the Algonquin Round Table, etc.. All of whom were (cleverly) making fun of how stupid other people are.
I guess I sort of know what you mean, if you're talking about comedy where there's some actual wordplay or insight rather than "Ha, he fell down! What an idiot!" But someone's usually the butt of the joke.
I think The Office is predicated on great insight into humanity, which is why it's so difficult at its best. But yes, like Twain and the other classic wits Strega mentioned, someone gets to play the ass.
I read an essay once to the effect that the difference between humor and wit is the difference between using the feather and the whole chicken.
Which I hadn't thought about before -- wit is exposure, shock, something absurdly revealing and attractive and offputting all at the same time. It's like, ha ha ha, you didn't think I'd actually go there, did you? Well now I have.
And here I thought that was the difference between kink and perversity.
