This film opens with the killing (in color) of a prostitute by a middle-class young man, then backs up for a series of scenes (in black and white) explaining what led to the crime. From the Life of Marionettes marks an interesting point in Bergman's career: exiled from Sweden to Germany to avoid charges of tax evasion, the master here works in German without any of his usual stable of actors in this tale of a tortured relationship between a pair of young lovers that leads to sexual obsession and murder. This tense, even harsh film contains faint echoes of Lang and Pabst, on the one hand, and a slight acknowledgement of the New German Cinema on the other.