Given near carte blanche to relocate from Germany to Fox Studios, F. W. Murnau lavished Hollywood resources & technical dazzle on what basically remained UFA cred & sensibility. His initial project, more tone poem than story, has straying husband George O’Brien tempted from rural life & family (Janet Gaynor & child) by a wicked sensualist from the big city. Mad with lust, yet unable to follow thru on the vamp’s horrifying suggestion of murder, the farm couple rebond (and rebound) over a day lost to the joys of the city’s teeming humanity, only to be literally blown apart (temporarily?) by a storm at sea. With German Expressionism tempered into a style that would look & play in a heightened, but more naturalistic manner (in both set design & acting), Murnau still stuck closer to the Old World than the New. This countryside has a Europa flavor, and the long amusement park sequence is less Coney Island than Vienna Prater. But Gaynor & O’Brien bring homely, emotional charge to their roles, without condescending or making them cute hicks. (It’s why O’Brien needs coaxing at a city café before joining his wife in a traditional country dance.) But what gives the film its well-deserved classic status is an all but continuous line up of jaw-dropping visuals. From Murnau’s signature camera movement & still astonishing trick shots (legendary lensing from Charles Rosher & Karl Struss), to his equally important command of mise-en-scène in modes showy and ‘un.’ (The floors alone could support a college thesis.) Famous for influencing a couple of generations of filmmakers at the time (from John Ford to Frank Borzage just @ Fox), it also haunts in unexpected places like the marsh in Hitchcock’s PSYCHO or the woods toward the end of Fellini’s CABIRIA. The film is both a one-off wonder and a culmination late silent era cinema. Indispensable.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: The film also has unique status as that rare Best Pic Oscar® winner (Best ‘Artistic’ Production) no one grouses about. (Same goes for that year’s fellow nominees CHANG and THE CROWD.) OR: Murnau’s still little known CITY GIRL/’30 which shows him picking up a real American vibe in another rural vs. city drama. Murnau walked off the pic rather than turn it into a Part-Talkie, so the ending is a bit truncated. But another phenomenal, indelible beauty. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/05/city-girl-1930.html
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