City Girl

Beautifully shot and well-crafted film that, unlike some other similar fare, doesn't depict the city as a harsh, frenetic place and the country as idllyilc - it's not as simplistic a stance that the film takes. It seems to be saying it's not the place that makes it what it is, but rather one's attitude towards it.

Lesser known but slightly better than Sunrise. It's a simplistic moral tale, but indescribably tasteful and elegant in every way. The language of the dialogue is just the right slang, the acting is theatrical but very right, and the photography is beautiful without pretense or arrogance. Perhaps its most thrilling aspect is its inspection of gender relations in a world where cities were quickly modernizing, while out in the sticks female independence was as yet unheard of.

Murnau takes a slightly implausible story to heights it would not have reached with another director. Two passages of the film stand out for their beauty and poetry: the harvest scenes and the return home after Lem's wedding. Murnau focuses on the concrete elements simply, allowing the power of these significant moments in these people's lives to shine without covering them up with dialogue and plot. Not to the level of Sunrise (what is?), City Girl remains a fine film in its own right.

It's a fine melodrama, but it strains credulity a bit too much to be great. Everything is a bit too neatly plotted, happens a bit too quickly, and so on. Still, it manages to be touching and captivating and Murnau's compositional sensibilities are fantastic as always, even if this doesn't have the photographic magnificence of Sunrise or The Last Laugh. A damn good film.

Straightforward in concept perhaps, but Murnau's direction and Mary Duncan's excellent performance really do elevate it. One of the more interesting things to note is that the source (a play called "The Mud Turtle" that had a couple short runs on Broadway) actually begins with arrival on the farm. That whole beautiful first third set in Chicago that so effectively introduces these two to us and each other is original to the film, and none of this would be anywhere near as effective without it.

Simple and quite good romance from Murnau that doesn't quite reach the heights of Sunrise but is pretty enjoyable in its own right. Of course some of it is dated, but the underlying messages are familiar and pretty well handled. David Torrence is good as the severe father.

This is pure melodrama, the acting was over the top even for the time period. I still really enjoyed the story, I just wish there was a little more to show if she ended up being happy after all.

City girl: a redemption. Once seen as a threat or fall from an innocence with nature (Sunrise (1927)), here the city, the world of artifice, of imagination finally put to ladders that facilitate climbs towards the ends of rainbows, provides to nature what it had gained her: the act of growing up, of overcoming naivete and magical thinking.

O Pão Nosso de Cada Dia estreava há 90 anos nos EUA. Esse é um dos retratos mais pujantes de uma mulher envolvida na teia do patriarcado, só não dei nota maior porque para ser uma verdadeira obra-prima o véio maldito teria que morrer, arrependimento não cobre nossa sede de sangue esperando milênios por redenção. DVD Obras-primas do Cinema.

You cannot in good conscience expect a romance from 1930 to age gracefully in how it portrays healthy relationships, but City Girl does worse than most. Lucky there is so much else to love that the painful moments can be overlooked.

79.50

(Viewed in 2013): I have a small confession to make: I find Sunrise overrated. Yet I love Murnau. How do I reconcile the two? Quite easily in fact. City Girl is better than Sunrise because it's less of a showpiece and it doesn't sag in the middle. While it lacks the standout shots of Sunrise, its graceful rhythms, its ebb and flow, make for a smoother viewing experience. It's also less typical insofar as the rural folk are more corrupt than the city girl, who has good intentions. Underrated.

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

"'We are SMART cinephiles!'" http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/12/episode-82-cinema-masters-vol-xi.html

Echoes of Sunrise with more focused & meaty plot but less dreamlike fantasy. Great cinematography and solid acting, both settings are beautifully realised and wonderfully nuanced.

Mary Duncan sure gets put through the wringer. Jesus, it's like watching a Von Trier film.

romantic histrionics. a bit sickly sweet in the beginning, and the dialogue is just awful, but it still manages to be very enjoyable, with moments of cinematic brilliance always arriving before the whole thing became too grating.

watched: 2013, 2023

79.500

Filme simples, mas com ideias interessantes, especialmente, pelo diálogo estabelecido com Aurora(Murnau). A oposição campo/cidade é novamente abordada. Em vez da cidade como algo negativo(Aurora), agora se coloca o homem como o grande problema ("eu pensei que os homens do campo fossem diferentes"). Porém, novamente o amor se coloca como caminho de redenção, embora se trate de hábitos ou criações tão distintas como Lem/Kate. Aurora é artisticamente mais completo, porém este filme complementa bem

Decent film! Makes me want to go out and beat up some ill-mannered hicks. Man, that guy with the teeth was UGLY. I hope for his sake they weren't real.

#939

Ok, I admit, I don't know shit about silent films. But there were these great facial expressions and shit, and I stayed awake through the entire thing. And the DVD had a special feature talking about Murnau's 4 Devils and that was even more interesting than the movie itself.

Robo-budgie!!!

905

The love story unfolds too fast to be grounded in any sort of believability, which is common for films this old. If you can get past how ridiculous everything is, then it is quite good. Not as good as Sunrise, but some of the shots are way ahead of their time and everything looks really good.

Lightning, shadows, close-up shots. Naivety and lonely potted plant in the cramped apartments in the city. Great depression and great love. Murnau is master of poetic realism.

Similar to Sunrise in story, but what it lacks in comparison to Sunrise's grandeur it makes up for in focused beauty. Some of the best shots of fields of wheat in film ever -- certainly up there with Days of Heaven.

901

A very engaging story from Murnau, just about as good as Sunrise, and maybe even better in some ways. I would have preferred some kind of vicious comeuppance for "Mac" at the end, he's a real sleazy douchebag. Other than that, it's quite satisfying and sports a few lovely shots.

This a wonderful film very reminiscent of, and just as good as, Sunrise. Even on a shitty VHS copy the images are very good and give the film a wonderful atmosphere. Like in Sunrise the story is simple but captivating and it has a cynical undertone that balances out the uplifting moments perfectly. I'd even say it flows better than in Sunrise, since it doesn't have a single dull moment.

# 932