Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Way to Murnau (2003)

From the opening titles, one knows what one is in for, with the subtitle “Approaches to a Lonely Master.” The documentary’s director, Alexander Bohr, has taken an overanalyzed and dull ‘approach’ to the life and career of master filmmaker F.W. Murnau.

Emphasized is Murnau’s deliberate separation from his family and early life, and his cinematic visual style based on fine art paintings, which portray Murnau as an Artist worthy of the admiration of the anal academic. But this unbalanced and all-too-short exploration of a complex personality shows favor for mulling intellectuality (is the flight of Faust and Mephisto in Faust [1926] truly a “cinematic reflection” of Murnau’s wartime service in the German Air Force?) and not nearly enough for a contextual historical assessment of Murnau’s rich contributions to filmmaking techniques, his diverse choice of subject matter, or his lasting artistic achievements. Bohr does adroitly employ animated miniatures to illustrate for the viewer Murnau’s innovations in Phantom (1922) and Der letzte Mann (1924).

While it features some beautiful modern shots of the Europe of Murnau’s early life and films, this English-language version of the German documentary only comes alive when it features footage from Murnau’s Schloß Vogelöd (1921), Der brennende Acker (1922) Nosferatu (1922), Phantom (1922), Der letzte Mann (1924), Faust (1926) and Tabu (1931), and the mindnumbing and ultimately directionless narration is ignored.

— Carl Bennett