L'Heure suprême !

This could have been something awful. It's high schmaltz, really fever-pitched melodrama, and the plot relies on a huge number of coincidences. But it all works beautifully, through a perfect combination of acting, directing, and photography, not to mention the incredible lighting and set design. This is one of the great silent movies, and one of the great screen romances. Janet Gaynor had quite a year in 1927, turning in fantastic performances in this, as well as F. W. Murnau's Sunrise. 10/10

A year later, Buster Keaton in The Cameraman would do a brilliant spoof of the famous staircase crane shot from Seventh Heaven.

7th Heaven (1927)

Coming at the end of the silent era, we might expect a film of the highest order in that silent era sense, untainted by sound, depending on gesture and action to keep the plot going. And Seventh Heaven really is a great film. It's complex, subtle, beautiful, and not clunky, not a bit what some people picture when they think of silent films.

It also is a great love story. Janet Gaynor was becoming a big star (she won best actress for this performance among others that year) and her counterpart Charles Farrell is a convincing charming actor. It's Paris 1914 when we begin, and that's not half bad. Then there are some early versions of the war, including some scenes with flame throwers that ought to surprise everyone.

What becomes of our two leads as they struggle to stay together during all this is for you to see, but it's told with economy (even at two hours the movie never drags) and with touching honesty. The director, Frank Borzage, made a whole bunch of good films during the 1930s, in the sound era, but this shows a real mastery of the earlier basics of cinema. Credit also goes also the cinematographer Ernest Palmer, a lesser known veteran who made the most of a lot of great sets and a range of interior and exterior scenes. Keep an eye on that, especially a moment toward the beginning where the camera follows the actors up the circular stairs, floor after floor, seamlessly. This will be echoed with perfection at the end of the film, so it's not just showing off.

And keep some Kleenex handy. It'll get to you.

This movie took me completely by surprise. I had never heard of it, but got it because it's set in Paris. It turned out to be a really beautiful movie. Beautifully shot, beautifully acted. Two rather shy individuals fall in love, almost against their wills, or at least against his will. We watch the relationship grow. Never trite, very seldom over-acted. The battle scenes in World War I are remarkable for their effectiveness.

And the end, which I won't reveal, hits you right in the mid-section and knocks your breath out.

Even someone who doesn't like silents would enjoy this, very much. It makes you understand why some people thought that by the introduction of talkies in that same year, 1927, silents had developed to the point that the first sound pictures were actually something of a regression in many ways.

I finally had the chance to see the beautifully preserved copy of Seventh Heaven(1927)on DVD and can say that it is really worth it.For many years one aunt who has been a movie fan had told me how great the 1938 remake was but I felt really disappointed after seeing it for reasons that I will not comment here. I kept telling her that the 1927 original was supposed to be much better and I have confirmed it today. I find both Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell brilliant in their performances.The movie should be appealing to modern audiences for the reason that its plot can be summed up in one single word redemption.Janet Gaynor's Diane is proof that you can overcome terrible obstacles in your upbringing and make considerable changes in your self esteem through falling in love in an unexpected place and with an unexpected person. Charles Farrell's Chico is that creature from the sewer who instead of complaining about his fate is full of self worth and incredible self esteem. He may be wrong in many things but is basically a remarkable fellow capable of going out of his way to help others.Little does he know what life has in store for him and how that meeting on the streets will change his life.

Janet Gaynor plays a waif in the great tradition that Lilian Gish created in Broken Blossoms (1919).Giuletta Massina in La Strada (1954) and Samantha Morton in Sweet and Lowdown(1999) are others that I remember very vividly.Charles Farrell is incredibly contemporary and having found stardom right after the arrival of the talkies it is a shame that he did not become a lasting name in the same sort of Gable, Cooper or Joel McCrea.Gaynor and Farrell look wonderful together. it is no wonder that the studio kept pairing them until exhausting the partnership.

All together the production is remarkable.The direction, staging, editing and music are top notch however its considerable length and story coincidences render it as a would be masterpiece.That says a lot.Coincidences and the melodramatic tone present in segments of the 20's films is as unnecessary then as they are today. I recommend Seventh Heaven to all movie fans.Sit and enjoy it.

Two scenes stick out in my mind.

1. Janet Gaynor walking across the plank into the apartment where Chico is waiting. She looks like an angel descending to earth.

2. The crane shot where the two lovers run up the stairs to the seventh floor (seventh heaven). This is a place where the two are isolated from the rest of the world and time stands still.