Frank Borzage
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We get a glimmer of the error of the newfound optimism of the protagonist of Silver Linings Playbook when he throws a hardcover copy of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms through the closed window of his bedroom in his parents' attic.
This leads, however, to Pat flinging a copy of “A Farewell to Arms” through a closed window at 4 o’clock in the morning, and awakening his parents with a maniacal rant against Ernest Hemingway.
In one hilarious scene early on in the film, an enraged Pat bursts in to his parents’ bedroom and rails against Ernest Hemingway’s heartbreaking ending in “A Farewell To Arms”.
Agony by agony, Silence imitates the classic films about religious intolerance and spiritual doubt: Father Rodrigues and Father Garupe hide in tall ferns from avenging warlords, evoking Sternberg’s Anatahan (1953); their witnessing of enslavement recollects Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff (1954); their surprise at the Japanese converts’ devotion recalls Borzage’s The Big Fisherman (1959); Rodrigues’s questioning by a devious old samurai (Issey Ogata) is a twist on Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest (1951); a recurring Judas figure representing abject mankind brings to mind Buñuel’s Simon of the Desert (1965); an icon of enduring faith references Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987); even Neeson’s appearance unfortunately brings to mind Batman Begins (2005).
He also gets a phone call from his mom early on about a TV broadcast that night of Janet Gaynor in 7th Heaven, signaling that Mitchell's Hollywood Dream Factory investigation will loop back as far as the silent era.
He name checks actress Janet Gaynor and her starring role in Frank Borzage’s 7th Heaven in the script.
At the beginning of the film, she calls to talk about 7th Heaven.
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Directed by Lana Wachowski
influenced by History Is Made at Night (1937)
Themes
It is as wildly hopeful about the matter of romance as canonical greats like Borzage (“History Is Made At Night”) and Murnau (“Sunrise”) and Powell-Pressburger (“A Matter of Life and Death”) and bluntly meta about the edifices of its very premises.
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Directed by Josh Boone
influenced by History Is Made at Night (1937)
Visuals
In unintentional design, the film is like Frank Borzage (“History is Made at Night”) meets Cameron Crowe (you know that guy), and I can’t resist a line like “I fell for him the way you fall asleep, slowly and all at once” when it is delivered with open, unabashed, pluperfect Grace.