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After the visual fireworks of Sunrise and the now-lost splendour of 4 Devils, F. W. Murnau turned his attention to this vivid, painterly study of an impulsive and fragile marriage among the wheatfields of Minnesota. During a brief stay in Chicago, innocent farmer s son Lem falls for and weds Kate, a hard-bitten but lonely waitress. Upon bringing her home at the start of harvest time, the honeymoon soon turns into a claustrophobic struggle as they contend with the bitter scorn of his father and the invasive, leering jealousy of the farm s labouring community.
Tenderly romantic and tough-minded in equal measure, City Girl is one of cinema s great pastorals, featuring some of the most delicate performances Murnau ever filmed and influencing directors such as Terrence Malick and Jean Vigo.
The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Murnau s penultimate film in a glorious HD transfer.
SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT EDITION
Tenderly romantic and tough-minded in equal measure, City Girl is one of cinema s great pastorals, featuring some of the most delicate performances Murnau ever filmed and influencing directors such as Terrence Malick and Jean Vigo.
The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Murnau s penultimate film in a glorious HD transfer.
SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT EDITION
- A ravishing new high-definition transfer of the Fox silent version restoration
- A new 2008 score (2.0, 5.1) composed and arranged by Christopher Caliendo
- Exclusive full-length audio commentary by film scholar David Kalat
- A 28-page booklet with writing by Adrian Danks and rare production stills
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By T Everson
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
City Girl, a film often overshadowed by F.W. Murnau's earlier silent masterpiece, 'Sunrise', is a brilliant film and really deserves a full re-evaluation. Happily, this stunning transfer by the Masters of Cinema series, allows just that.
City Girl was released in 1930, just as the silent film began to fall into rapid decline with the advent of the 'talkies'. However, by this time Murnau really was a master of his craft, having cut his teeth with 1922's eerie 'Nosferatu', by the time he released 'Sunrise' six years later he had cemented his position as one of the world's most important (not to mention successful) filmakers. It was also, tragically, his penultimate film, as he was to die in a car crash the following year. Comparisons with 'Sunrise', then, are unfair, as Murnau wanted to create a different kind of film here.
The story is a simple one. A farmer's son, Lem, is sent to the city to sell the families' harvest of wheat. Whilst on his eye-opening business trip, he meets Kate, a cafe worker. A wonderful sequence ensures, resulting in the girl being taken back to the farm with Lem as his wife. However, Lem's uncompromising father is deeply suspicious of this city girl, and the film follows Kate's attempts to become accepted by the father. The early interchanges between Kate and Lem are beautiful, and the scene with them playfully running through the wheatfields ahead of meeting Lem's family is one of the purest, happiest scenes ever committed to film.
This film is a great starting point for anyone interested in silent cinema - there are title cards throughout, and with a fantastic soundtrack recorded in 2008, it is easy to forget you are watching a film 80 years old.... Read more ›
City Girl was released in 1930, just as the silent film began to fall into rapid decline with the advent of the 'talkies'. However, by this time Murnau really was a master of his craft, having cut his teeth with 1922's eerie 'Nosferatu', by the time he released 'Sunrise' six years later he had cemented his position as one of the world's most important (not to mention successful) filmakers. It was also, tragically, his penultimate film, as he was to die in a car crash the following year. Comparisons with 'Sunrise', then, are unfair, as Murnau wanted to create a different kind of film here.
The story is a simple one. A farmer's son, Lem, is sent to the city to sell the families' harvest of wheat. Whilst on his eye-opening business trip, he meets Kate, a cafe worker. A wonderful sequence ensures, resulting in the girl being taken back to the farm with Lem as his wife. However, Lem's uncompromising father is deeply suspicious of this city girl, and the film follows Kate's attempts to become accepted by the father. The early interchanges between Kate and Lem are beautiful, and the scene with them playfully running through the wheatfields ahead of meeting Lem's family is one of the purest, happiest scenes ever committed to film.
This film is a great starting point for anyone interested in silent cinema - there are title cards throughout, and with a fantastic soundtrack recorded in 2008, it is easy to forget you are watching a film 80 years old.... Read more ›
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By T Everson
Format:Blu-ray
This is a re-release of the earlier Blu-ray only version, which was subsequently released separately on DVD. Now, those editions have been deleted and re-released as a Dual-Format edition. So the content on the discs is exactly the same. Because of this, the review below is mainly taken from the Blu-ray review I submitted.
City Girl was released in 1930, just as the silent film began to fall into rapid decline with the advent of the 'talkies'. However, by this time Murnau really was a master of his craft, having cut his teeth with 1922's eerie Nosferatu, by the time he released Sunrise six years later he had cemented his position as one of the world's most important (not to mention successful) filmakers. It was also, tragically, his penultimate film, as he was to die in a car crash the following year. Comparisons with 'Sunrise', then, are unfair, as Murnau wanted to create a different kind of film here.
The story is simple but extremely effective. A farmer's son, Lem, is sent to the city to sell the families' harvest of wheat. Whilst on his eye-opening business trip, he meets Kate, a cafe worker. A wonderful sequence ensures, resulting in the girl being taken back to the farm with Lem as his wife. However, Lem's uncompromising father is deeply suspicious of this city girl, and the film follows Kate's attempts to become accepted by the father.... Read more ›
City Girl was released in 1930, just as the silent film began to fall into rapid decline with the advent of the 'talkies'. However, by this time Murnau really was a master of his craft, having cut his teeth with 1922's eerie Nosferatu, by the time he released Sunrise six years later he had cemented his position as one of the world's most important (not to mention successful) filmakers. It was also, tragically, his penultimate film, as he was to die in a car crash the following year. Comparisons with 'Sunrise', then, are unfair, as Murnau wanted to create a different kind of film here.
The story is simple but extremely effective. A farmer's son, Lem, is sent to the city to sell the families' harvest of wheat. Whilst on his eye-opening business trip, he meets Kate, a cafe worker. A wonderful sequence ensures, resulting in the girl being taken back to the farm with Lem as his wife. However, Lem's uncompromising father is deeply suspicious of this city girl, and the film follows Kate's attempts to become accepted by the father.... Read more ›
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Brady Orme
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Blu-ray
F.W. Murnau is one of my favourite filmmakers, and due to his undisputed status as a German pioneer alongside the likes of Fritz Lang, it's doubftful this will ever change as can any contemporary director do anything other than simply retread the territory these men have traversed before? From his films for UFA, such as "Phantom", "Faust" and "Der Letze Mann" and his later American works such as the masterful "Sunrise" he continuously pushed the envelope, making films with little spoken narrative ("Der Letze Mann") and pioneering use of special effects and camera angles ("Faust", "Sunrise"). Only Lang's Dr. Mabuse stirs the same nostalgia within us.
So what of "City Girl"? It's definately a step-back from Murnau's earlier extravagance, with little effect work and an almost pastoral feel, which is not surprising considering the film's rural Minnesota setting and attempt by Murnau himself to create "A Symphony of Wheat". The film details the story of Lem, a young farmer's son on his first outing to Chicago to sell their farm's wheat - There he meets Kate who is waitressing at a restaurant there, and ends up thrown headlong into a dream romance that ends within a few days with them being married... Oh, and he makes a loss on the wheat. Which was the lesser of the two evils, me wonders? Sorry, I'm not a fan of marriage. Anyway, Lem's Scottish father is not happy when Lem brings his new bride home, and as the typical fish-out-of-water Kate is subjected to trials-by-fire by the father, and the amorous advances of the workforce. Expect much tension within the new marriage that soon comes to a head as a massive hailstorm threatens to devastate the entire crop.... Read more ›
So what of "City Girl"? It's definately a step-back from Murnau's earlier extravagance, with little effect work and an almost pastoral feel, which is not surprising considering the film's rural Minnesota setting and attempt by Murnau himself to create "A Symphony of Wheat". The film details the story of Lem, a young farmer's son on his first outing to Chicago to sell their farm's wheat - There he meets Kate who is waitressing at a restaurant there, and ends up thrown headlong into a dream romance that ends within a few days with them being married... Oh, and he makes a loss on the wheat. Which was the lesser of the two evils, me wonders? Sorry, I'm not a fan of marriage. Anyway, Lem's Scottish father is not happy when Lem brings his new bride home, and as the typical fish-out-of-water Kate is subjected to trials-by-fire by the father, and the amorous advances of the workforce. Expect much tension within the new marriage that soon comes to a head as a massive hailstorm threatens to devastate the entire crop.... Read more ›
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good film, a must for any Murnau fan
Whilst not his most celebrated film, 'City Girl' is a good watch, no proclaimed masterpiece, but significant in being a very late silent and his last American film. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Daniel Austin
3.0 out of 5 stars
Minor Murnau, though not entirely negligible
One of the perils of making a masterpiece is that subsequent films that might once have impressed tend to disappoint, and that's certainly the case with F.W. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Trevor Willsmer
5.0 out of 5 stars
BEAUTIFUL
This film is a beautiful work by F W Murnau. There is no need to explain the plot or other elements discussed elsewhere. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Robert C. Graham
5.0 out of 5 stars
Almost lost piece of history
I well remember back in the 1970s that the New York Film Festival had a mini-festival of films that had recently been found and restored; they included Jeanne Eagles' "The Letter,"... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Jeff B. Sultanof
5.0 out of 5 stars
Murnau's US period with Fox
Murnau's City Girl has a story-line that is an interesting reverse take on the vamp in Sunrise; here the city girl yearns to be far way from the toil of the city, but little does... Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2011 by A. S. Potts
5.0 out of 5 stars
It looks TOO good!
Although not generally held in the same esteem as "Sunrise", F.W. Murnau's "City Girl" is still a small, delightful film, worthy of re-discovery. Read more
Published on 18 Aug 2010 by George R. Willeman
4.0 out of 5 stars
City Girl
This is a good edition of another Murnau's classics. Not widely known, it was a pleasant surprise; it certainly has its glimpses of the master's best works. Read more
Published on 3 May 2009 by 291b4aoddf5a
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