A story told with few words. We see a solitary man and a solitary woman, each alone with their thoughts. She is in the country, staring out a window. Nature is quiet, waiting for spring, trees are bare. He is in the city, walking from the docks, watching, somewhat aimless. She walks a country lane. Both are alone. She writes him a letter, offering an opportunity. Will he take it? I appreciate that film like these are called "visual poems". Because, really, as films they rather stink. But if we see them as poems, unfolding before our eyes rather than eyes, they are interesting to meditate to. Now, that does not mean it should be rated a good film simply because it is a good poem. The two should be considered entirely different subjects, just as movies and TV are.

This essentially presents an identical concept to AUTUMN MISTS (1928) – with a similar title, no less! The poetic aspirations related to city life are laid on even more thickly here, with its scenes depicting industrial labour (perhaps a nod to the contemporaneous and similarly 'experimental' Russian school of montage). The result, however, is just as drab – to say nothing of singularly unenthusing (especially at an 80 year-old juncture)! Frankly, I find little actual novelty involved in some of these would-be "avant-garde" shorts; incidentally, the director of this one was himself a renowned movie critic/historian.

Herman Weinberg described this as a 'film poem' and instead of words (of which there are few), he uses images. It's really quite artistic--a treat for the eyes. While I am not a huge fan of this sort of thing, this was pretty captivating and seemed to show that Weinberg had the eye of an artist. This is a little less apparent in the later images of the city--but more pronounced when he showed images of the pretty young lady. It was as if Weinberg was really captivated by the lady. Incidentally, this woman who soon after married Weinberg--so she must have been quite pleased by how he portrayed her in the film and his feelings for her seemed apparent in the film! I wonder what ever became of them. Regardless, the scenes of the man in the city and the lady in the country do eventually come together--making for a nice little avant-garde sort of thing. Impossible to really give this one a numerical rating--it's just so unique.

Identified in the open titles as a "film poem", Autumn Fire is reminiscent of Murnau's Sunrise (incidentally subtitled "A Song of Two Humans") Two lovers, separated by time and space, ponder a reunion. The film is longish for it's slip of a plot, which concentrates on the contrast of isolation in both the city and countryside. It's all worth it however, for the simple but heartfelt climax, as the couple is reunited in New York's Old Penn Station. Worth seeing if you get the chance.