Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, transatlantic thresholds and transcendental homelessness

AbstractRecent work with the less well-known films of the German director F.W. Murnau (1888–1931) confirms that his was a career of singular artistic vision as well as outstanding technical innovation. His works consistently explore concepts which echo Georg Lukacs' notion of transcendental homelessness, where film is the medium best suited to throw light on the inner restlessness of the modern psyche. From Walk in the Night to Tabu, individuals' peaceful lives are thrown into disequilibrium by external forces. Uniquely in Germany's Golden Era of film in the 1920s, Murnau set his creative team the challenge of solving countless technical issues, the better to externalise his protagonists' inner turmoil. His great films, The Last Laugh (1924), Faust (1926) and Sunrise (1929) all demonstrate how ably he manipulated the new entertainment medium and lent it an artistic legitimacy few others have achieved. Upon his death in 1931 Charlie Chaplin declared Murnau ‘the best man Germany ever sent to Hollywood’, whi...