Review of City Girl (1930) by Matt M — 18 Jan 2013

A city waitress marries the son of a wheat farmer, but struggles to be accepted by the man's family and especially the father, who believes she will be unfaithful. This tension unfolds one stormy night.

This film, which was thought lost for a long time, portrays perhaps the most genuine achievement by Murnau to bridge realism with German expressionism. But while in the technical aspect he takes artistic liberties that are remarkable, with the light play and the camera movements resembling a celluloid dance, the narrative aspect and its dead beat rhythm seems frustrated, perhaps by the advent of the talking pictures.