Film Persona

  F.W. Murnau's "Phantom" After making his breakout sensation " Nosferatu ," F.W. Murnau started work on his next project, " Phantom ." Despite the horror-sounding title, the film contains no horror elements. And despite the massive explosion of expressionism in the German film landscape, " Phantom " leans more into realism than expressionism. There are, however, touches of expressionism that can be found throughout.  The film follows a minor government clerk and aspiring poet named Lorenz. Lorenz lives in poverty with his mother and sister. One day when walking to work, Lorenz is knocked over by a horse-led carriage. He is unharmed, but the woman in the carriage catches his eye. From that point onward, he becomes obsessed with her. He stalks her, tries to convince her parents to marry him, and even steals money from his aunt to buy nice clothes to impress her. However, his obsession ultimately costs him his job, his relationships, and even h...

  F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" In 1922, F.W. Murnau created an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic 1897 novel, " Dracula ." In his version, he changed the name of the titular vampire, and retitled the film to " Nosferatu ." This 1922 silent horror film is considered to be one of the most recognizable films of all time.  In the film, a man named Thomas Hutter is sent to Transylvania to speak with a mysterious Count Orlock. The Count wishes to buy property in Thomas's hometown of Wisborg. Thomas discovers that Orlock is secretly the vampire Nosferatu. However, even after learning this, he cannot stop the vampire from moving in. Nosferatu moves into the city, and brings with him rats carrying the plague. Night after night, he goes house to house draining civilians of their blood. The many deaths are attributed to the plague. However, Thomas and his fiancée Ellen know the truth. Ellen sacrifices herself to Orlock in order to entrap him, h...

  F.W. Murnau's "The Haunted Castle" After completing his 1921 film " Journey into the Night ," F.W. Murnau continued to use very slow-paced, bleak storytelling to experiment with his filmmaking style.  The story takes place at a castle where a group of gentlemen are gathered for a hunt. When the family of a murdered man named Peter arrives, suspicions arise about who the murderer is. Through the twists and turns of the story, it is uncovered that Peter's sister had her lover kill him. To find this out, Peter's brother dresses as a Catholic Priest to trick his sister-in-law into a confession. Despite the twisting and turning of this murder mystery, the impressivness of the filmmaking takes center stage. Murnua is incredibly subtle, which makes it even more impressive. Murnau attempts to sit with moments longer than they need to be. For example, he lingers on a moment even after the scene should have supposedly end. The effect creates an immediate interes...

  F.W. Murnau's "Journey Into the Night" F.W. Murnau's " Journey Into the Night" is the earliest surviving film of his career. It tells the story of a doctor who gets seduced by a dancer named Lily, who entices him to leave his fiancée, Helene. After doing so, Helene falls deathly ill. When the doctor returns to see her, Lily falls in love with a painter whose blindness the doctor had cured. The doctor finds out and leaves Lily. Soon, Lily comes back to him and begs him to restore his vision once more, for he has fallen back on his blindness. The doctor declines. Lily commits suicide. The painter declines the doctor's treatment after Lily's death. The doctor then commits suicide as well. The story is a very bleak one, albeit a little underwhelming. It seems to demonstrate how we are never satisfied with the choices we make in life and our past sins will always come back to haunt us. However, the most intriguing element of the film comes from Murnau...

  Erich von Stroheim's "Queen Kelly" In Billy Wilder's " Sunset Boulevard ," the butler, played by Erich von Stroheim, tells the protagonist that he used to be the director for Norma Desmond, played by Gloria Swanson. This is true of the real-life events of film history. Erich von Stroheim directed Gloria Swanson in " Queen Kelly " in the final years of silent films. However, the end result was not a success. It did not even get a proper release.  Swanson plays Kelly, a convent girl who gets kidnapped by Prince Wolfram who is to marry Queen Regina V. The two spend a romantic night together until the queen finds them. She threatens to send Wolfram to prison and vows to kill Kelly. If this sounds like only a fragment of a film, that is because it is. Swanson was unhappy with the direction the film was going and wanted Stroheim off the picture. She had a lot of leeway because the film's producer, Joseph P. Kennedy, was her husband. The original en...

  Erich von Stroheim's "The Merry Widow" When Erich von Stroheim signed a three-picture deal with Goldwyn Company in 1922, it was on the condition that he made an adaptation of the famous German operetta, " The Merry Widow ."  The story centers on a prince who falls in love with a peasant dancer. After being convinced out of the marriage due to her economic standing, she winds up marrying rich Barron. After the Barron's death, the Prince must win her back to keep her large wealth from leaving the country.  Stroheim utilizes his typical decadence to tell a story of love, sex, and wealth. These three things seem interchangeable in the film, as class dynamics overpower emotionality itself. Stroheim's brilliant camera play is top-notch as always. The limited number of intertitles allows the story to breathe more on its own. It also allows Stroheim to tell the story visually and let the images speak for themselves.  The film ended up being Stroheim's high...

  Erich von Stroheim's "Greed" After Erich von Stroheim wrapped filming on his 1922 film " Foolish Wives ," he was enraged to discover that Universal had severely edited down the picture. Irving Thalberg, Universal's general manager, resented Stroheim's defiance of commercial norms and fired the director from finishing production. The final product of " Foolish Wives " was heavily censored to appease general audiences. The angry Stroheim decided to take his talents to Goldwyn Company, where he was promised more creative freedom. He signed a three-picture deal with Goldwyn in November of 1922. Abe Lehr, the president of Goldwyn, signed Stroheim because he wanted him to direct an adaptation of the famous German operetta, " The Merry Widow ." Stroheim agreed on the condition that he could make his own personal project beforehand. The planned production was an adaptation of Frank Norris' 1899 novel, " McTeague: A Story of San Fra...

  Erich von Stroheim's "Foolish Wives" After the success of his 1919 film, " Blind Husbands, " Erich von Stroheim had full backing by Universal Pictures. The commercial success he had achieved as well as his genuine talent for filmmaking made him highly sought after by many parties. He was even being hailed by many as the next D.W. Griffith. During this time in filmmaking, it had become rare for a director to adequately portray a series of images in cohesive and abstract ways. Stroheim, with his first film, had demonstrated his prowess for telling a cohesive visual story. Because he was so sought after, Universal had to pay up massively in order to keep him, providing him over a million dollars to produce another film. This made his next project, " Foolish Wives ," the most expensive film ever made. Universal even billed it as the "first million-dollar movie." This loaded budget would yield something both lavish and ambitious. It would also s...