7th Heaven

Starring: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Albert Gran, David Butler, Marie Mosquini, Gladys Brockwell
Directed by: Frank Borzage
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Drama, Romance
1927

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A sewer worker (Charles Farrell) saves a troubled woman's (Janet Gaynor) life.

Review:

Tim: It took me many years to track down Frank Borzage's 7th Heaven. This winner of 3 Academy Awards proved elusive, but I'm glad I stuck with the search. The version I watched was on Youtube and the quality wasn't great, but the movie was. I have to say, I'm a little surprised by that. I wasn't sure how to feel about sitting down for 1 hour and 50 minutes of a silent film, but I was engaged the entire time. Borzage crafts a brilliantly executed movie that mines depths I didn't expect. This is easily one of the best movies of 1927 and although not as famous as some of its contemporaries, is absolutely a great film.

The movie starts out looking at these characters, living unglamorous lives. We have Chico, a sewer worker whose dream in life is to emerge from his subterranean job to become a street cleaner (which is somewhat heartbreaking). We also have Diane, a prostitute who is routinely beaten by her sister. I have to admit, I was surprised that the movie would start out so dark. The movie doesn't pull many punches as it sets up these characters. Chico's introduction to Diane might be heroic, but his words to Diane are anything but. We see these characters doing their best in adverse situations. I really appreciated how Borzage introduced these characters and allowed us to understand what was happening in their lives. We see the dreaming Chico focused on the future, on what his life will be like. We see Diane struggling with her lot in life and when presented with an opportunity to better it (all she has to do is lie), she can't find it in herself to deceive, even when it would change her life.

This movie is about far more than just your average romantic drama. It's a story of Chico and Diane, but it's also about the time period in which they live. It's about faith, love, trust. One of the most powerful scenes happens fairly early on. Chico is explaining why he's an atheist. He tried to give God a chance and prayed that he would get a job cleaning streets and have a wife. God didn't deliver, so he doesn't believe in him. A passing priest hears this story and gives Chico an appointment as a street cleaner. A few moments later, the police approach Diane and in a spontaneous moment to save the distressed woman, Chico claims she's his wife. To continue the ruse, she moves in and pretends to be his wife for when the police inevitably call to follow up on his story. Borzage handles this beautifully- you have a man who gives two reasons for why he doesn't believe in God and minutes later, God answers both his prayers (true, not in the way he'd expect, but as they say- mysterious ways). It's a wonderful scene and treated with subtlety so it's not cramming its message down your throat.

We follow Chico and Diane as they slowly fall in love in his 7th floor apartment, which represents their own little heaven. Tragedy looms in the form of World War I, which sweeps through Paris and whisks Chico off to war. Borzage manages to direct a brilliant movie. He does so many small things that compel you to climb deeper into the story. He directs a film that feels epic in scope, while also feeling intimate. The way shots are framed, the way you could watch this movie at a surface level or dig in deeper, it's all quite remarkable. I do want to comment on the ending. It's unexpected, a bit jarring, and hard to believe. I've thought a great deal about it- while I can't say I loved the conclusion, it feels ambiguous enough to intrigue me. Can we really believe what we see on screen? Is it meant to be a literal interpretation, or is there some other explanation? It might not be a fantastic ending (it smells a bit of studio interference), but it allows you to question what you see.

As I've mentioned, Borzage directed this movie brilliantly. This film won Best Director, Dramatic Picture at the very first Academy Awards. He deserved this award. The movie also won the first Best Actress Award. Janet Gaynor was excellent in this movie- she conveys so much emotion- strength, naivety, fear, tenderness. She really was fantastic. It's interesting that when she won, it was for three films- this one, as well as Street Angel and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. The final Academy Award this movie won was Best Writing, Adaptation. It's an impressive haul at the first Academy Awards and it's deserving.

I do want to mention again how much I enjoyed Janet Gaynor here. The only other film of hers I've seen was A Star is Born, a decade later. She was good there, but there was something special about her performance here. There's no doubt she was a talented actress. I know some have criticized the performance of Charles Farrell. He can't compete with Gaynor for talent, but I enjoyed his performance as well. Gaynor and Farrell had obvious chemistry, so it wasn't surprising when I saw that they went on to make another 10 films together. Both did well here and were enjoyable to watch.

I know not everyone loves this movie, but I certainly did. I thought it was a deeply emotional movie about faith, war, love, redemption, and many more human emotions. Adapting it from a stage play certainly helped, but Borzage directs a movie that felt like it really captured the human condition. This is a movie that sticks in my mind and I continue to think about.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 8



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Street Angel, Wings