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TO JAN. 27
Fritz Lang had not one but two brilliant careers. The pre-Hollywood Lang—in Germany from 1917 until the writer/director/producer fled the Nazis in 1933—made such famous works as Metropolis, a highly stylized 1926 view of a dystopian future, as well as several films that have rarely been seen uncut (or, in some cases, at all) in the United States. This retrospective includes newly restored 35 mm prints of a half-dozen films, including Metropolis (at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27) and Lang’s provocative 1922 Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (pictured, Part 1 at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12; Part 2 at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13), the saga of a criminal mastermind that came to be seen as a harbinger of Hitler. Also featured are 1927’s Spies (at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19), a less politically charged tale of a criminal mastermind; 1921’s Destiny (at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20), an expressionistic fable in which Death tells a young woman three tales, set in Baghdad, Venice, and China; and 1929’s A Woman in the Moon (at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26), a trailblazing space-travel adventure that was Lang’s last silent film. Organist Robert Israel, who will accompany Spies and Destiny, will also appear at Films on the Hill for a screening of what may well be the Washington premiere of Lang’s 1921 Four Around the Woman (at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 21). Israel will perform the score he composed for the long-lost film, a tale of stolen gems and sexual blackmail that’s considered one of the director’s best. The series runs to Sunday, Jan. 27, at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium, 4th and Constitution Avenue NW. Free. (202) 842-6799; and at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 7th St. SE. $5. (202) 547-6839. (Mark Jenkins)