man's castle (1933)
What makes Borzage's very humanist film ring out the most in its limited runtime is its lyrical and often surreal images. Those simple motifs of a train whistle, those summer nights. The stillness captured. The film doesn't always bat 1000 but when it finds its conclusion we are moved. Finding the poetic in the drab, Borzage allows the imagery to become more and more artful near the end, allowing the world to blossom along with our heroine. Our hero too, in fact, Man's Castle selects neither for our identification and rather we watch as two flawed human beings grow together into one strong tree.