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Autumn Fire
A story told with few words. We see a solitary man and a solitary woman, each alone with their thoughts. She is in the country, staring out a window. Nature is quiet, waiting for spring, trees are bare. He is in the city, walking from the docks, watching, somewhat aimless. She walks a country lane. Both are alone. She writes him a letter, offering an opportunity. Will he take it?
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Excellent, a Must See
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Blistering performances.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
A story told with few words. We see a solitary man and a solitary woman, each alone with their thoughts. She is in the country, staring out a window. Nature is quiet, waiting for spring, trees are bare. He is in the city, walking from the docks, watching, somewhat aimless. She walks a country lane. Both are alone. She writes him a letter, offering an opportunity. Will he take it? I appreciate that film like these are called "visual poems". Because, really, as films they rather stink. But if we see them as poems, unfolding before our eyes rather than eyes, they are interesting to meditate to. Now, that does not mean it should be rated a good film simply because it is a good poem. The two should be considered entirely different subjects, just as movies and TV are.
I had Herman G. Weinberg as an instructor when I was an undergraduate student attending City College of New York where I majored in Motion Picture Production...attaining a BA degree, graduating in January 1966. The first film course I, yours truly Phil Gries, ever took at CCNY was the History Of Film and Weinberg was my teacher, in the Fall of 1962. The film department was one of the premiere and oldest in the country at the time, founded by Hans Richter in 1941.For a short time Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen were students there, in 1947 & 1953, respectively, studying film production. Herman G. Weinberg reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock...his gate and physical resemblance. His daughter would come to class quite often. He would show the classics to us.Many were silent films, including his own, one and only, directorial and cinematic achievement, "Autumn Fire." Weinberg was very proud of his film. I was impressed. Hard to believe how time does fly...54 years, yet not really so long ago in my mind!
This essentially presents an identical concept to AUTUMN MISTS (1928) – with a similar title, no less! The poetic aspirations related to city life are laid on even more thickly here, with its scenes depicting industrial labour (perhaps a nod to the contemporaneous and similarly 'experimental' Russian school of montage). The result, however, is just as drab – to say nothing of singularly unenthusing (especially at an 80 year-old juncture)! Frankly, I find little actual novelty involved in some of these would-be "avant-garde" shorts; incidentally, the director of this one was himself a renowned movie critic/historian.
Identified in the open titles as a "film poem", Autumn Fire is reminiscent of Murnau's Sunrise (incidentally subtitled "A Song of Two Humans") Two lovers, separated by time and space, ponder a reunion. The film is longish for it's slip of a plot, which concentrates on the contrast of isolation in both the city and countryside. It's all worth it however, for the simple but heartfelt climax, as the couple is reunited in New York's Old Penn Station. Worth seeing if you get the chance.
