DVD/150: SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS (FW Murnau, 1927)

In 1927 German director FW Murnau was invited to Fox with full artistic freedom.  Murnau created SUNRISE just as talkies happened and, although silent, it was Fox's first Movietone film, utilising a syncronised soundtrack with music and sound effects.  Murnau's sublime film has illuminated cinema for 93 years.

In a coastal village, popular with city vacationers, a young married couple struggle with a failing farm and a new baby; he has also started an affair with a sexy vamp from the city.

She pursuades him to drown his wife in a supposed boating accident but once out on the water he cannot do it after seeing his wife's terror.

On shore, the wife runs onto a city-bound tram but he pursues her.  In the frentic bustle of the city the couple slowly discover their love again.

Sailing back, their boat is overturned in a sudden storm... will fate intervene?

Shelf or charity shop? Shelf.  At the first Academy Awards ceremony, SUNRISE won three: Janet Gaynor's performance won her Best Actress (along with her performances in Borzage's 7TH HEAVEN and STREET ANGEL), Charles Rosher and Karl Struss' visual story-telling won Best Cinematography and it won the only Academy Award given for Best Unique and Artistic Picture.  It's that and more, a truly extraordinary film where Murnau showed the world what it was going to lose at the loss of silence - forced perspectives, montage, double exposures to show a split-screen, model-work, superimposed imagery and fluid dream-like tracking shots. Gaynor's exquisite - but never cloying - performance as The Woman is complemented by George O'Brien's glowering as The Man and Margaret Livingston as the nasty Woman From The City.  What makes SUNRISE so magical is that it includes many witty touches with lovely detailed work in a photographic studio, a barbershop and in the riotous funfair the couple visit: not every cinematic classic can find time for a woman's permanently slipping shoulder straps and a drunken piglet!  One of my all-time favourites.

DVD/150: STREET ANGEL (Frank Borzage, 1928)

After the success of 7TH HEAVEN, Frank Borzage reunited Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell with the same cinematographer and art director.  If not as transcendant as 7TH HEAVEN, it still packs a punch.

In Naples, as a circus troupe arrive, Angela needs money to pay for her sick mother's medicine.  After a failed attempt at prostitution, she instead attempts to steal money but is caught.

Escaping from a year in prison, Angela discovers her mother dead.  Evading the police, Angela hides out with the circus troupe who recruit her as an acrobat.

On the road she meets Gino a travelling painter who is smitten with Angela who, initially unsure, realizes the depth of his love when he paints her portrait.

After an accident, Gino takes her away from the circus to his home in Naples, much to Angela's alarm.

On the night Gino proposes, Angela's past catches up with her...

Shelf or charity shop? A keeper (well it's on the same dvd as 7TH HEAVEN!).  Frank Borzage once again sweeps his characters - and audience - along in an operatic sweep of emotion as again the love of two 'little people' is tested to breaking point.  Borzage can again count on the marvellous camerawork of Ernest Palmer - particularly in the ominous finale - and Sidney Oliver's sets are worthy of an Opera House production of a Puccini opera. In an odd twist, both Palmer and Oliver were nominated for Academy Awards for the year after the film was released; STREET ANGEL is the only American film to be nominated over two years as Janet Gaynor's Best Actress award for this film, 7TH SEAVEN and SUNRISE had been given the year before.  Gaynor does all the heavy lifting and is quietly magnificent, Charles Farrell just has to look lovingly at her until his last act disintegration.  The supporting cast have few moments to shine apart from Natalie Kingston's sly tart Lisetta.

DVD/150: 7TH HEAVEN (Frank Borzage, 1927)

Sometimes you just have to be swept away...

For 7TH HEAVEN Borzage cast two actors in their 20s, who had been progressing at Fox recently.

Casting Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell was a masterstroke: their chemistry remains electric and they appeared in eleven more films together, silents and talkies.

Chico, a street-cleaner, saves innocent Diane from being beaten in the street by her bullying sister.

Chico tells the police that they are married to stop homeless Diane from being arrested, and takes her to his attic rooms above the slums of Paris, sleeping separately naturally!

Diane agrees to leave after the police have verified she lives there but by then, they are in love.

But WWI interrupts their plans so they perform their own marriage ceremony, exchanging holy medals.  They swear to 'visit' every other at 11am, their own moment together.

But can love keep them safe from war?

Shelf or charity shop? A definite keeper. Frank Borzage's romantic, lyrical masterpiece, transcends it's melodramatic plot to deliver a sweeping vision of the all-consuming power of love; he later revisited the idea of two lovers separated by WWI in his 1932 version of A FAREWELL TO ARMS.  7TH HEAVEN still looks wonderful with great cinematography that sweeps you through the story, most notably where the camera follows the lovers climbing the stairs to his attic rooms in one seemingly fluid ascending shot.  Gaynor and Farrell are glorious - her performance is all the more remarkable considering she was filming FW Murnau's SUNRISE on neighbouring soundstages at the same time.  Janet Gaynor won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles in 7TH HEAVEN, SUNRISE and Borzage's STREET ANGEL (the Academy stopped multi-nominations soon after) and she remained the youngest-ever Best Actress winner for 57 years.  Frank Borzage won his first Best Director Academy Award for 7TH HEAVEN, and the film also won for Adapted Screenplay.  A special mention to the delightful supporting performances of Albert Gran, David Butler and George E Stone as Chico's best friends and the memorable villainess of Gladys Brockwell as Diane's sister Nana.