M: the opening sequence

M begins with the sound of a gong, recognizable to German audiences in 1931 as the start of a radio newscast. This is followed by 15 seconds - a very long time in film - of black screen. We then hear the children's chant for a couple of seconds before we see them.
The movie fades in on the children, in a clock-like circle, chanting about the "man in black," a child murderer. (This was an actual chant of the time, when "man in black" was the name of serial killer Fritz Haarmann.) One of the children is arbitrarily selected and "out." The scene is shot from above in a distanced perspective. See the bottom of this page for visual echoes of this scene.
Below: Lang directing the opening shot.
From the murderer's shadow, a cut to Elsie's mother in the same posture (and holding a knife)

The murder is seen in the prologue section only as a shadow or from behind.
Introduction of Beckert's whistling, a theme from Grieg's Peer Gynt where characters are menaced by trolls.
A cultural fascination with crime: serial fiction, serial murder.
The mother's voice echoes through emptiness. An Expressionist shot that influenced film noir.

The ball and the balloon are synecdoches of Elsie's fate. A black screen follows, then the sound of newsboys.
Visual echoes of the opening section.

Clocks and time-keeping are recurring motifs. A later shot of children around an organ grinder echoes the opening shot, from even higher.

Two circular groupings echoing the children's circle. Note that both circles have one empty place. In the smoker scene on the left, one of the men will be expelled ('you're out').
The circular table in Beckert's room.

experimentation with film sound
point of view and identification
mirrors and shadows
the official world and the underworld
the surveillance society
street scenes
social issues