I finally had the chance to see the beautifully preserved copy of Seventh Heaven(1927)on DVD and can say that it is really worth it.For many years one aunt who has been a movie fan had told me how great the 1938 remake was but I felt really disappointed after seeing it for reasons that I will not comment here. I kept telling her that the 1927 original was supposed to be much better and I have confirmed it today. I find both Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell brilliant in their performances.The movie should be appealing to modern audiences for the reason that its plot can be summed up in one single word redemption.Janet Gaynor's Diane is proof that you can overcome terrible obstacles in your upbringing and make considerable changes in your self esteem through falling in love in an unexpected place and with an unexpected person. Charles Farrell's Chico is that creature from the sewer who instead of complaining about his fate is full of self worth and incredible self esteem. He may be wrong in many things but is basically a remarkable fellow capable of going out of his way to help others.Little does he know what life has in store for him and how that meeting on the streets will change his life.

Janet Gaynor plays a waif in the great tradition that Lilian Gish created in Broken Blossoms (1919).Giuletta Massina in La Strada (1954) and Samantha Morton in Sweet and Lowdown(1999) are others that I remember very vividly.Charles Farrell is incredibly contemporary and having found stardom right after the arrival of the talkies it is a shame that he did not become a lasting name in the same sort of Gable, Cooper or Joel McCrea.Gaynor and Farrell look wonderful together. it is no wonder that the studio kept pairing them until exhausting the partnership.

All together the production is remarkable.The direction, staging, editing and music are top notch however its considerable length and story coincidences render it as a would be masterpiece.That says a lot.Coincidences and the melodramatic tone present in segments of the 20's films is as unnecessary then as they are today. I recommend Seventh Heaven to all movie fans.Sit and enjoy it.

'Seventh Heaven (1927)' is usually compared to 'Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927),' and not without reason. Director Frank Borzage has a keen sense for lighting and shot composition, perhaps not as effortlessly graceful as that of Murnau, but the film superbly explores three-dimensional space, most memorably in a vertical long take that follows the characters up seven floors of staircases, and a backwards tracking shot through the crowded trenches of a battlefield. Janet Gaynor, who also starred in 'Sunrise,' is once again a perfect picture of fragility and helplessness, a persona at which she was bettered only by Lillian Gish. More interesting, however, is that Gaynor's character undergoes a startling character arc, developing from a weak, embattled victim – a trampled flower – to a decisive and assertive woman, a member of the workforce, and an independent but devoted wife. Her husband, played by Charles Farrell, likewise undergoes a transformation, of the spiritual kind. Together, they share a love so definitive that the formula has since become familiar, but Borzage keeps it fresh.

Perhaps the greatest miracle about 'Seventh Heaven' is that the romance works at all. Farrell's Chico is a haughty, athletic sewer worker, so determined of his own worth that he bores his grotesque colleagues with anecdotes of his future greatness. Gaynor's Diane, a small creature routinely lashed by her sleazy sister, is at first an object of derision for Chico, who uses her mere existence to affirm his atheism. Indeed, so aloof is his attitude towards her that I could scarcely believe that the pair were to fall in love, but the transition is carried out gradually and convincingly. As in most great romances, the two star-crossed lovers are swiftly separated by the onset of war. Here, once again, Borzage's keen eye for visual storytelling results in some wonderful sequences of conflict, with his portrayal of the battlefield perhaps serving as inspiration for Lewis Milestone's war drama 'All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).' Only with the occasional moments of misplaced comedy – the ritualistic bowing of the street-sweepers, for example – does the director fumble with the film's mood.

This reviewer being an atheist, films dealing with a central religious theme face an uphill battle. Chico opens the film not unlike myself, as an obstinate atheist who curses God for failing to answer his prayers. Christianity intercedes through a kind-hearted priest, who offers Chico his dream-job as a street-sweeper, as well as two religious necklaces. Predictably, our hero is converted by the film's end, and, indeed, stages a resurrection that borders on Biblical. This "miraculous" ending could easily have had me rolling my eyes, but – somehow, and against all odds – it didn't. Borzage doesn't play Chico's survival as a startling revelation, and nor does it feel tacked-on, as does the fate of Murnau's hotel doorman in 'The Last Laugh (1924).' Alongside Diane's stubborn insistence that her husband is still alive, to actually see him pushing through the crowds seemed like the most natural thing in the world. And even if Chico is dead, then his wife is already there in Heaven, on the seventh floor, waiting to greet him.

...but I live near the stars.

Another sublime work by John Borzage,one of the greatest directors America has ever had.

Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor were the romantic couple of that era.Both were able to transcend the limitations they were working under,that is to say ,to convey any emotion without using voices.

The soundtrack is particularly good including military marches ("la Madelon" sung in French,"La Marche Lorraine")as well as French folk songs ("J'ai Du Bon Tabac" "Fanfan La Tulipe")and even opera arias.

Remarkable scenes:

Gaynor,sadistically whipped by her sister ,and the relatives from South America,who would not take in those whores Chico (Farrell)discussing faith with his fellow men in the streets at night ,and the "miracle" : the priest telling him he would become a street-washer."The Bon Dieu" (in French in all the lines) cares about you!).

Chico and Diane in the boy's apartment on the seventh floor : this is probably the most romantic scene in the whole silent age ,with the eventual exception of the scene in the church in Murnau's "Daybreak" which also featured Gaynor.These extraordinary lines by Chico: "I work in a sewer but I live near the stars.

The historical episode of "les Taxis de la Marne" and the old man speaking of his old car :" She gave her life for France" .

More than "the river" the complete version of which is unfortunately impossible to see,"Seventh Heaven" contained the seeds of what Borzage (and others) would do later The lovers against a hostile world subject reappear in "little man what now?" and "Mortal Storm" .All in all,the woman is stronger than the man ,it's her who builds the couple ;here,Chico did not want to say "I love you" ,he thought it was silly.And he is a remarkable fellow though; the loyal male friendship between Gobin and Chico predates the extraordinary camaraderie depicted in "three comrades" The priest and Chico's road to Damascus ,we will find them back in "Strange Crago" ,where Borzage's Christian concerns admirably emerge again.

The telepathy,the supreme hour (the French title is "l'Heure Suprême" ) when the two lovers,although they are worlds apart,during which they are "together" not only influenced Henry Hathaway for "Peter Ibbetson" but also predates Borzage's own " I'll always loved you" where the two heroes communicate by music.

The last pictures are so strong we do not know at first if it's reality or if Chico takes Diane away into a dream...or onto the true Seventh Heaven.

But we,the audience, we were in the Seventh Heaven .Borzage was a genius,period.