Born On This Day- December 28th... F W Murnau German Expressionist Cinema is a subject straying rather far from my interests or intellectual enthusiasm. If not for 6 semesters of Film History & Theory in the early 1970s, I would not be able to even have a jumping off place for this post. Well, I have another connection to today’s Born On This Day Post. F.W. Murnau is responsible for one of the most original films I have ever experienced, when The Husband insisted on watching the Oscar winning Best Picture of 1927, SUNRISE, a few years ago. I was sure it would not be my cup of tea. I was wrong. I watched enthralled & I count this silent film among my favorites Born Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, he seems to have been a decent, disciplined professional, a gay aesthete, & rather insecure artist. Murnau saw plenty of action as a combat pilot in WW1 before turning to a career as a theatre director & propaganda editor. He broke into film in 1919 & was heralded as the innovator of the German Expressionist Movement. Murnau made 9 films in the 3 years before his most famous work, NOSFERATU in 1922. NOSFERATU is a giant leap in filmmaking, an experimental, moody, fluid nightmare that plays today like a dream, dark, & perverse. It is considered a true horror masterpiece. Murnau was one of the first directors to reveal that moving the camera in conjunction with action & locale was an act of nearly magical force. I have experienced the vampire classic & his film version of Goethes FAUST (both 1926) in film class, presented as examples of German Expressionist classics. The nighttime landscapes & looming demonic visions are unforgettable. With success in Europe, Murnau made his way to Hollywood. Contracted by 20th Century Fox, he took a minor, trite story about marital crisis & resolution, subtitled A SONG OF TWO HUMANS & crafted a film masterpiece in SUNRISE. Anything but Gothic, SUNRISE is a rhapsodic, romantic work, & yet the simplistic story & conservative message were secondary concerns to Murneu. He showed that the camera could simply soar. The Husband & I were shocked that we could be so spellbound & moved by a film of this era. SUNRISE is a breathtaking achievement. Its failure at the box office, however, seriously restricted Murnaus subsequent studio projects. Murnaus blossoming American career was cut cruelly short. On the verge of signing with the much more auteur-friendly Paramount, Murnau & his chauffeur died in a car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway, US 1. The story that pair was reported to be engaged in a blow-job while driving comes courtesy of celebrated Kenneth Anger’s HOLLYWOOD BABYLON.) Murnau was just 42 years old.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 16:07:05 +0000