Brandy Bell’s review published on Letterboxd:
Film School Dropouts 2020
Week 1: Auteur - F.W. Murnau
This was unlike any movie I've ever seen. The beginning was a bit slow, and I wish they had given a bit more insight into the characters and why the marriage wasn't going so well. Then, it seemed like everything was resolved by the middle of the movie, and I thought, "Where are they going to go with this?" The tone of the middle of the movie was completely different from the beginning, but it all somehow came together in the end. While the change in tone was distracting, the film was so beautiful to watch that I found myself forgetting that I was essentially watching a completely different movie 15 minutes earlier. There were a ton of FANTASTIC shots in this film - from the words melting off the screen, to when the husband is sitting and thinking and there's the double exposure of the woman from the city all around him, to the man and wife walking together and imagining they are in a meadow, but then realizing they are stopping traffic.
I was underwhelmed by the beginning, confused in the middle, and ended the film completely on board. It truly is a beautiful piece of art.