SEVENTH HEAVEN (IM SIEBTEN HIMMEL)

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	SEVENTH HEAVEN
	IM SIEBTEN HIMMEL
	USA 1927 - Regie: Frank Borzage - Drehbuch: Benjamin Glazer, nach dem Stück von Austin Strong - Kamera: Ernest G. Palmer - Ausstattung: Harry Oliver - Darsteller: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Ben Bard, David Butler, Albert Gran, Gladys Brockwell, Emile Chautard, George Stone, Jessie Haslett, Lillian West, Marie Mosquini, Brandon Hurst, Lewis Borzage Sr., Dolly Borzage, Sue Borzage, Mary Borzage Sr. - Produktion: Fox Film Corp. - Premiere: 6.5.1927 (Los Angeles) - Archiv: Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne - Farbe: schwarzweiß

Some of the tender love scenes, of the enraptured duos, are amongst the most beautiful ever filmed.
(Jean Mitry: Histoire du cinéma, vol.3; Editions Universitaires, Paris 1973)

It is a beautiful picture because the souls of unimportant people are important, and because these souls are handled gently and tenderly by a great director.
(Welford Beaton, The Film Spectator, 28.5.1927)

There's no doubt that SEVENTH HEAVEN was the screen's most popular love story. Nobody who saw it has ever forgotten it; nobody remembers it with anything but the fondest recollections. And yet it is frankly a miracle that SEVENTH HEAVEN turned out so well. Its story is maudlin, lugubrious and dishonestly sentimental. Every trick in the book is tried, re-arranged, and tried again, to squeeze the last tear out of the spectator. Why then, is SEVENTH HEAVEN so impressive - such a good film despite its "schmaltz"?

There are three very good reasons. Two of them are in the charming and thoroughly likeable performances of the stars, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The third, and most important reason is its director - Frank Borzage. He can take the most obvious sub stuff, the most crass soap opera, and turn it into a thing of wonder and beauty. Nor is he even terribly subtle about it; sometimes he hammers away at the emotions without respite, as if to say, "This is 'schmaltz', so let's give it the fill treatment!" And with Borzage it works. I don't know how or why. I only know that he can bring tears when almost any other director would bring only squirms. SEVENTH HEAVEN is sill the yardstick for all movie love stories.
(Joe Franklin: Classics of the silent screen; The Citadel Press, 1959)

It's the soul of SEVENTH HEAVEN that gets you, the soul put into it by an understanding script, sympathetic direction and superb acting. It doesn't matter much what else is in a story that has a soul, nor where the soul comes from. This one comes out of a Paris sewer and rises to sublime heights. SEVENTH HEAVEN is a magnificently told story. There is not a foot in it that could be eliminated without harming it, nor is there a scene which could have stood more footage. It proves that it is the treatment which a story receives, not its ingredients, that gives it entertainment value. The film does not possess extraordinary story value, but it is an extraordinary picture on account of the inspired manner in which it is presented. Nothing more drab than the setting for this story could be imagined - nothing but poorness that approaches poverty, drabness unrelieved by material things, but it is a beautiful picture because the souls of unimportant people are important, and because theses souls are handled gently and tenderly by a great director.
(Welford Beaton, in: The Film Spectator, 28.5.1927)

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