For years, director Fritz Lang shared the story of his summoning by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, one involving the banning of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse that would cause his flee from Germany to Paris. This was later proven to be at least partly false by biographer Patrick McGilligan in his book The Nature of the Beast. It was mostly a fable, just a story repeated by Lang in his films for impact.
Does that make the story any less interesting? Cinema is comprised largely of the fictitious, so whether or not Lang espoused these stories on his own time as truth is irrelevant to one degree or another — an argument could be made that if it lands for audiences when shown on the screen, it has some worth.
Watch a video on the story below, recounted with imagery from Lang’s filmography, with a nod to CineTransit.