Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
USA 97m Dir: F.W. Murnau Key Cast: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor
Based on: The Excursion to Tilsit by Hermann Sudermann (Short story)
Some people have declared that Sunrise is the greatest film of the silent era and I'm inclined to agree.
The story is simple. A man and a woman live in the countryside with their children and after years of marriage, the relationship has gone stale. The husband is having an affair and his lover tells him to take his wife out in a rowing boat and kill her.
The film sets up the scenario and after about half an hour the husband and wife are drifting across the water in a tiny boat. The tension created is tangible as you wonder whether the man will go through with the murder and what the consequences will be. When he stops rowing and stands up, arms reaching out, my heart was in my mouth.
Of course he can't bring himself to do it and they return to shore where his wife flees in terror. Eventually the husband catches up with her and in the city they have a romantic night together. This section takes up the bulk of the film and there's very little plot to it. It's interesting telling a love story about two people who are rekindling the feelings they once had for each other rather than falling in love for the first time. It loses the awkwardness of a fresh relationship and is just so lovely as the couple whirl around the city and a fair having a truly lovely time.
Sometimes the film gets criticised for the way the wife forgives the husband, failing to take any kind of stance against domestic abuse. Personally though I don't think that's a valid critique because I think the point is that the husband was never going to kill his wife, the threat wasn't really there.
Everything about this film is gorgeous. The sets are stunning including a city street that reportedly cost over $200,000 dollars to build- frankly the money was well spent. Murnau used every skill and technique he's picked up in his years directing with forced perspective, excellent tracking shots and all manner of other excellent elements of cinematography. The intertitles are used sparingly but Murnau certainly makes the most of them, manipulating them to create a range of interesting effects.
Though technically a silent film, Sunrise features sound effects and even the odd line of dialogue in the background. I'd also assumed that the transition from silent films to talkies was overnight but it was actually more gradual than that, with musical scores gradually becoming more synchronized to what was happening on screen and then the use of sound effects before developing into full talkies with The Jazz Singer.
My words can't really do this film justice. I think that this is not only the greatest films of the silent era but perhaps the moment cinema as an artform peaked.
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