F.W. Murnau (1889 - 1931)
F.W. Murnau is one of the most
influential and greatest of German film directors. His silent films are
the most accessible of the Germans of the Twenties largely because of
all the silent directors Murnau realised the image was the most
important thing in cinema. His travelling shots are extraordinary and
revealed what the camera was capable of. Sadly Murnau's career was
fairly short and he was tragically cut off in his prime but he made
three great films and one very good and influential one.
Murnau began his film career in 1919 but it is Nosferatu (1922) which is the first of his films to have a high critical reputation. It is a fine movie if slightly slow paced but a contemporary critic was right when he suggested that a cold wind had been blown through the celluloid. Max Schreck makes Bela Lugosi look like a common English gentleman, a sense of genuine foreboding is defintely here.
With The Last Laugh (1924) Murnau attempted to make a purely silent movie without the use of titles, there are very few in the film. It works very well but what sets the film apart is his travelling camera right from the opening sequence with camera panning down into the hotel. It is no wonder American studios were impressed. In some ways Faust (1926) is even better, one of the first films in which you feel you are getting transferred to another time and place.
Murnau's first American film Sunrise (1927) is his masterpiece though it lacks some of the depth of characterisation in The Last Laugh (1924) and Faust (1926) it takes the travelling camera to its extremes in that it almost seems to enter the minds of the characters through the backgrounds they wonder into. Sadly the film was probably too sophisticated for the American audiences of the time and Murnau only made a handful more films. His death from a car accident in 1931 robbed world cinema of one of its greatest artists.
Murnau began his film career in 1919 but it is Nosferatu (1922) which is the first of his films to have a high critical reputation. It is a fine movie if slightly slow paced but a contemporary critic was right when he suggested that a cold wind had been blown through the celluloid. Max Schreck makes Bela Lugosi look like a common English gentleman, a sense of genuine foreboding is defintely here.
With The Last Laugh (1924) Murnau attempted to make a purely silent movie without the use of titles, there are very few in the film. It works very well but what sets the film apart is his travelling camera right from the opening sequence with camera panning down into the hotel. It is no wonder American studios were impressed. In some ways Faust (1926) is even better, one of the first films in which you feel you are getting transferred to another time and place.
Murnau's first American film Sunrise (1927) is his masterpiece though it lacks some of the depth of characterisation in The Last Laugh (1924) and Faust (1926) it takes the travelling camera to its extremes in that it almost seems to enter the minds of the characters through the backgrounds they wonder into. Sadly the film was probably too sophisticated for the American audiences of the time and Murnau only made a handful more films. His death from a car accident in 1931 robbed world cinema of one of its greatest artists.
Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
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F.W. Murnau image from
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