A silent, cold morning awakens as the first sun's rays hit the landscape, painting it crimson and gold, bouncing off the droplets of morning dew. A bird flies overhead as the sun rises higher and the flowers shyly open their delicate petals.
Imagery remains one of the most powerful mediums in moviemaking.
Through October 19, the UCLA Film and Televsion Archive offers a rare opportunity to see this film as well as many of Murnau's other extant top-rated films borrowed from both Germany and Madrid's film archives. His art moved in such a poetic and beautiful way - a stunning and haunted way. This allowed him to go beyond the normal boundaries of movie making. But Murnau's style is not merely expressionistic. Murnau had control of every aspect of the film.