Lorenz Lubota is a city clerk with no direction in life. One day on his way to work he is run over by a woman driving a chariot and he is immediately infatuated with her.
Direction
Murnau's camera literally floats through Lorenz's psychological breakdown.
Cinematography
German Expressionist shadows that swallow souls whole.
Acting
Alfred Abel's face does more work than most actors' entire bodies.

Director
F. W. Murnau
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Nearly lost for decades; only rediscovered in the 1990s when a Portuguese film archive found a damaged print with Portuguese intertitles.
Murnau made this immediately before 'The Last Laugh' and 'Nosferatu,' experimenting with subjective camera techniques that would revolutionize cinema.