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| F.W.
Murnau |
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| Director
/ Producer / Screenwriter |
| 1888 - 1931 |
| Born December 28,
Bielefeld, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany |
| Key
Production Countries: Germany, USA
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Key Genres: Drama,
Romance, Fantasy |
| Key
Collaborators: Erich Pommer (Producer),
Emil Jannings (Leading Character Player), Carl Mayer (Screenwriter), Hugo Riesenfeld (Composer),
Robert Herlth (Production Designer), Walter Rohrig (Production
Designer), Eddie Boland (Character Player) |
| Highly
Recommended: Nosferatu
(1922), The Last Laugh (1924), Faust (1926), Sunrise
(1927), Tabu (1931) |
| Recommended:
City Girl (1930) |
| Links:
[
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [ All-Movie
Guide ] [
Film Reference ]
[ F.W.
Murnau: Master of Light ] [ Web
of Murnau ] [ A
Murnau Fan Page ] |
| Books:
[
Murnau ]
[ From
Wagner to Murnau: The Transposition of Romanticism from Stage to Screen ] [
Nosferatu
] |
| DVD's:
[ Amazon
] |
| 1,000
Greatest Films: Nosferatu
(1922), The Last Laugh (1924),
Faust (1926), Sunrise (1927), City Girl
(1930), Tabu (1931) |
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"Murnau's
influence on the cinema has proved to be more lasting than Eisenstein's.
Murnau's moving camera seems a more suitable style for exploring
the world than does Eisenstein's
dialectical montage, and the trend in modern movies has been
towards escaping studio sets so as to discover the real world." - Andrew
Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968) |
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"Enormously
intelligent and far ahead of his time, Murnau worked to obtain
new dramatic effects from the interrelation of fleeting shots in
fragmenting sequences - in other words, working in filmic
jigsaws whose individual scenes are suddenly stunningly
effective when the final piece is fitted. Using a combination of
the real world and a skilful manipulation of the audience's
imaginations, Murnau used the power of suggestion in new and
amazing ways: thus the unseen and unspoken is constantly sensed
by his audiences, no matter what their intelligence." - David
Quinlan (Quinlan's Illustrated Guide to Film Directors, 1999) |
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"Murnau's
visual style unites the diverse themes and stories that
constitute his best work; his fluently moving camera implies and
openness of attitude that transcends both the rigid schematics
of Expressionism and the limiting conventions of genre. His
films are difficult to categorise (Nosferatu is too
lyrical to be seen as mere horror, while many of his other works
suggest and interest in metaphysics rather than simple story
telling), but they retain an ability to touch the heart and
stimulate both mind and eye." - Geoff
Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989) |
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"A filmmaker in the German expressionist tradition of the 1920s,
Murnau rarely let symbolism or a mythical theme harm the
humanity of his characters - which is why his work is still
vibrant today." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"The camera is the director's
pencil. It should have the greatest possible mobility in order
to record the most fleeting harmony of atmosphere. It is
important that the mechanical factor should not stand between
the spectator and the film." -
F.W. Murnau |
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