Rhode Island College Digital Commons @ RIC Honors Projects Overview Honors Projects 2016 Mutual Aesthetics Joseph D. Sherry Rhode Island College,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/honors_projects Part of the Other Film and Media Studies Commons, and the Visual Studies Commons Recommended Citation Sherry, Joseph D., "Mutual Aesthetics" (2016). Honors Projects Overview. 117. https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/honors_projects/117 This Honors is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Projects at Digital Commons @ RIC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Projects Overview by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ RIC. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. MUTUAL AESTHETICS VISUAL STYLE IN THE FILMS OF F.W. MURNAU AND JOHN FORD, 1928-1941 By Joseph D. Sherry An Honors Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for Honors In The Film Studies Program The School of Arts and Sciences Rhode Island College 2016 Sherry 1 Introduction F.W. Murnau wrote, “All great arts have had great artists born to understand them as no other men can, and the motion picture is the single art expression of our age.”1 Murnau made this remark shortly after his masterpiece, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), was released by Fox Film Corporation. Sunrise’s production riveted the entire studio lot due to its scope and Murnau’s international reputation; its subsequent critical success solidified Murnau’s place in Fox’s top-tier of directors. But John Ford, also one of Fox’s top-tier directors, once brusquely remarked, “It’s no use talking to me about art .