Seventh Heaven

US (1927): Drama/Romance/Silent

In this romantic classic (Frank Borzage's specialty) of the silent film era, a beaten-down Paris street urchin Diane (Janet Gaynor) meets and finds redemption in the arms of Chico, a bold sewer worker (Charles Farrell), while war rages. Chico then goes to war and comes back blind. 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 that launched the successful teaming of Gaynor and Farrell, which would continue in half a dozen features.

Seventh Heaven was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1995. (amazon.com)

 View a clip of scenes from this film with commentary by Paolo Cherchi Usai on YouTube.com.

5 nominations, 3 Awards