Journey into the Night

This reconstruction of the earliest surviving F. W. Murnau film—long lost, and then existing only in a partial print—represents a major rediscovery of a work that, even upon its release, was hailed as a milestone in the art of cinema. The story, involving a tortured triangle between a doctor, his wife, and the patient he cures of blindness, is reflected in a brilliant use of natural imagery. Written by Carl Mayer, the treatment, with its wealth of psychological detail, was recognized as an early entry into the Kammerspiel-film. Film historian Lotte H. Eisner, in her book Murnau, cited a Murnau contemporary, the critic Willy Haas: “(Haas) speaks of a certain ineffable musical quality in the film. . . . Carl Mayer’s evocative script, at once simple and exquisitely subtle, shows him to be a great poet. . . . It is impossible, he [Haas] says, to speak specifically of Murnau’s contribution as a director: it is to be seen everywhere in all the great qualities of the film.”