Sunrise 'A Song of Two Humans' (1927) Directed by F.W. Murnau | VHS-AVI (ISO)

Synopsis :
Considered by many to be the finest silent film ever made by a Hollywood studio, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise represents the art of the wordless cinema at its zenith. Based on the Hermann Sudermann novel A Trip to Tilsit, this "Song of Two Humans" takes place in a colorful farming community, where people from the city regularly take their weekend holidays. Local farmer George O'Brien, happily married to Janet Gaynor, falls under the seductive spell of Margaret Livingston, a temptress from The City. He callously ignores his wife and child and strips his farm of its wealth on behalf of Livingston, but even this fails to satisfy her. One foggy evening, O'Brien meets Livingston at their usual swampland trysting place. She bewitches him with stories about the city -- its jazz, its bright lights, its erotic excitement. Thrilled at the prospect of running off with Livingston, O'Brien stops short: "What about my wife?" Drawing ever closer to her victim, Livingston murmurs "Couldn't she just...drown?" (the subtitle bearing these words then "melts" into nothingness). In his delirium, the husband agrees. The plan is to row Gaynor to the middle of the lake, then capsize the boat. Gaynor will drown, while O'Brien will save himself with some bulrushes that he'd previously hidden in the boat; thus, the murder will look like an accident. The next day, the brooding O'Brien begins slowly rowing his unsuspecting wife across the lake. Halfway to shore, he makes his intentions clear, but is unable to go through with it. As his wife cringes in terror, O'Brien rows to the other side of lake. Once ashore, she runs away from him in terror, as he stumbles after her, trying to apologize. Gaynor boards a streetcar bound for the city, with O'Brien climbing aboard a few seconds afterward. Upon reaching the city (a renowned set design), O'Brien continues trying to make amends to his wife. They sit disconsolately at a table in a restaurant, unable to eat the plate of cake that is set before them. Slowly, Gaynor begins overcoming her fear. The couple wander into a church, where a wedding is taking place. Breaking down in sobs, O'Brien begins repeating the wedding vows, thereby convincing Gaynor that she has nothing to fear. Together again, the couple embraces in the middle of a busy street, oblivious to the honking horns and irate motorists. Anxious to prove to each other that all is well, the husband and wife spend a delightful afternoon having their pictures taken and "dolling up" in a posh barber shop. They cap their unofficial second honeymoon at a joyous festival in an outsized amusement park. More in love with each other than ever before, O'Brien and Gaynor head back across the lake in the dark of night. Suddenly, a storm arises. Pulling out the bulrushes with which he'd planned to save himself, O'Brien straps them onto Janet, telling her to swim to shore. The storm passes. Washing up on shore, the unconscious O'Brien is brought home. But Gaynor is nowhere to be found, and it is assumed that she has died in the storm. Half-insane, O'Brien strikes out at Livingston, the instigator of the murder plan. Just as he is about to throttle the treacherous temptress, he is summoned home; his wife is alive! As Livingston stumbles out of the village, O'Brien and Gaynor cling tightly to one another, watching the sun rise above their now-happy home. Together with Seventh Heaven, Sunrise earned Janet Gaynor the first-ever Best Actress Academy Award, while Charles Rosher and Karl Struss walked home with the industry's first Best Photography Oscar. The film itself was also in the Oscar race, but lost out to the more financially successful Wings. Hal Erickson
Title :  Sunrise 'A Song of Two Humans' (1927)
Directed by F.W. Murnau
Duration : 95 min.
Subtitles : English, Spanish, Portuguese
Genres : Drama, Romance  
Countries : USA

 

Tabu (A Story of the South Seas) 1931 | Directed by F.W. Murnau | VIDEO (ISO)

Synopsis :
Tabu is a lyrical documentary of Polynesian life, given added audience appeal with a fictional plotline. The story concerns a young island girl (Anna Chevalier, who like everyone in the cast is a non-professional) who has been consecrated to the gods by her tribespeople. It is thus "tabu" for her to marry; still, she falls in love with a handsome young pearl fisherman (Matahi). The island's holy man takes the girl away in his schooner. Her lover swims after her, but eventually sinks disconsolately into the ocean. Shot completely on location, it was supposed to be a collaboration between German director F. W. Murnau and American documentary producer Robert Flaherty. Flaherty withdrew from the project when he realized the film was taking a romanticized approach. Murnau never lived to see the final product; he was killed in a car accident just before the film's opening. Begun as a silent film in 1929, Tabu was released in that form in 1931, despite the fact that talking pictures already had been established for nearly three years. Hal Erickson
Title : Tabu
Ano : 1931
Directed : F.W. Murnau
Duration : 81 min.
Original card : English
Subtitles : Spanish, Portuguese
Genres : Drama, Romance, Nature
Country : USA - Unknown 

Tartuffe (Her Tartüff) 1925 | Directed by F.W. Murnau | VIDEO (ISO)

Synopsis :
How typical of the great German director F. W. Murnau that he used Moliere's scathing satirical comedy Tartuffe as a launching pad for an extended exercise in expressionism. Emil Jannings plays the title character, a religious hypocrite who capitalizes upon the piety of others to line his own pockets. Lusting after Elmire (Lil Dagover), the daughter of gullible millionaire Orgon (Werner Krauss), Tartuffe all but convinces Orgon to hand over Elmire -- and all his land holdings -- on a silver platter in exchange for Divine absolution. On the verge of triumphantly taking over Orgon's mansion and tossing the old man out, Tartuffe is foiled by the deux ex machina arrival of an emissary of the King, who arrests the "hero" for his chicanery (this final scene was imposed upon Moliere by the French censors; originally, Tartuffe got away with his crimes). In his efforts to make the property more cinematic, Murnau adds a framing story concerning an old woman who tries to cheat an old man out of a fortune while the two of them watch a theatrical performance of the Moliere play. Chock full of offbeat camera angles, forced-perspective sets, and spiderlike shadows, Tartuff owes more to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari than it does to Moliere. Emil Jannings went on to collaborate with Murnau in the director's next production, a lavish adaptation of Goethe's Faust. Hal Erickson
Title :   Tartuffe
Original title : Her Tartüff
Ano : 1925
Directed : F.W. Murnau  
Duration : 74 min.
Original card : English
Subtitles : Spanish, Portuguese
Genres : Drama, Comedy  
Country : United States    

The Haunted Castle (Schloss Vogelrod) 1921 | Directed by F.W. Murnau | VIDEO

Synopsis :
The German The Haunted Castle (Schloss Vogelrod) has been described as director F.W. Murnau's "warm-up" for his subsequent Nosferatu. At this point in his career, Murnau was more interested in effects than in story or characterization, but those effects were among the best within the boundaries of Germany's "Caligari School." The cast included Paul Hartmann, Arnold Korff, Paul Bildt and Olga Tschenova. Hal Erickson
Title : The Haunted Castle
Original title : Schloss Vogelrod
Ano : 1921
Directed : F.W. Murnau
Duration : 75 min.
Genres : Horror, Thriller
Country : Germany

Phantom (1921) Directed by F.W. Murnau | VIDEO (ISO)

Synopsis :
Alfred Abel plays a store clerk who is nearly driven to insanity when he sees an apparition of a girl driving a team of white horses. He is sentenced to 20 years in jail when he is convicted of stealing to raise money for a prostitute who looks life the ghost girl. Lil Dagover, Aud Egede Nissen, and Lya de Putti star in this feature directed by legendary filmmaker F.W. Murnau. Dan Pavlides
Title :  Phantom (1921)
Original title : Phantom
Directed : F.W. Murnau
Duration : 125 min.
Subtitles : Portuguese,
Genres : Horror, Thriller
Country : Germany

The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann) 1924 | Directed by F.W. Murnau | VIDEO (ISO)

Synopsis :
An aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.
Title : The Last Laugh (1924)
Original title : Der letzte Mann
Directed : F.W. Murnau
Duration : 1h 17 min
Genre : Drama
Country : Germany

 

Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922) Directed by F.W. Murnau | VIDEO (ISO)

Synopsis :
Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim), a real estate agent, travels to the Carpathian Mountains to sell a castle on the Baltic Sea whose owner is the eccentric Count Graf Orlock (Max Schreck), who is actually an ancient vampire who, seeking power, moves to Bremen, Germany, spreading terror in the region. Interestingly, the person who can reverse this situation is Ellen (Greta Schröder), Hutter's wife, as Orlock is attracted to her.
Original Title :  Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
Directed : F.W. Murnau
Duration : 1h 34min
Genre : Terror
Country : Alemanha

Faust (Eine Deutsche Volkssage) 1926 | Directed by F.W. Murnau | VIDEO (ISO)

Title : Faust (1926)
Original Title : Eine Deutsche Volkssage
Directed : F.W. Murnau
Duration : 116 minutos
Genre : Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country : Alemanha
Synopsis :
Disputing for power over the earth, God and Satan bet the soul of Faust, a learned alchemist. During a plague, this man despairs, burning all his books. At this time Satan sends Mephistopheles to tempt Faust with the return of his youth and the alchemist accepts the pact. One day, bored, he decides to return home, where he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Gretchen, a meeting that will be the girl's dishonor. Adaptation of Goethe's work.