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George O'Brien,
George O'Brien,
Janet Gaynor,
more...
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F.W. Murnau,
F.W. Murnau
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: 20th Century Fox
: Classics, Drama, Classic Drama, Silent, Silent Dramas, Classic Drama, Silent Drama
: 95 min.
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Considered by many to be the finest silent film ever made by a Hollywood studio, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise represents the art of the wordless cinema at its zenith. Based on the Hermann Sudermann novel A Trip to Tilsit, this "Song of Two Humans" takes place in a colorful farming community, where people from the city regularly take their weekend holidays. Local farmer George O'Brien, happily married to Janet Gaynor, falls under the seductive spell of Margaret Livingston, a temptress from The City. He callously ignores his wife and child and strips his farm of its wealth on behalf of Livingston, but even this fails to satisfy her. One foggy evening, O'Brien meets Livingston at their usual swampland trysting place. She bewitches him with stories about the city -- its jazz, its bright lights, its erotic excitement. Thrilled at the prospect of running off with Livingston, O'Brien stops short: "What about my wife?" Drawing ever closer to her victim, Livingston murmurs "Couldn't she just...drown?" (the subtitle bearing these words then "melts" into nothingness). In his delirium, the husband agrees. The plan is to row Gaynor to the middle of the lake, then capsize the boat. Gaynor will drown, while O'Brien will save himself with some bulrushes that he'd previously hidden in the boat; thus, the murder will look like an accident. The next day, the brooding O'Brien begins slowly rowing his unsuspecting wife across the lake. Halfway to shore, he makes his intentions clear, but is unable to go through with it. As his wife cringes in terror, O'Brien rows to the other side of lake. Once ashore, she runs away from him in terror, as he stumbles after her, trying to apologize.
Gaynor boards a streetcar bound for the city, with O'Brien climbing aboard a few seconds afterward. Upon reaching the city (a renowned set design), O'Brien continues trying to make amends to his wife. They sit disconsolately at a table in a restaurant, unable to eat the plate of cake that is set before them. Slowly, Gaynor begins overcoming her fear. The couple wander into a church, where a wedding is taking place. Breaking down in sobs, O'Brien begins repeating the wedding vows, thereby convincing Gaynor that she has nothing to fear. Together again, the couple embraces in the middle of a busy street, oblivious to the honking horns and irate motorists. Anxious to prove to each other that all is well, the husband and wife spend a delightful afternoon having their pictures taken and "dolling up" in a posh barber shop. They cap their unofficial second honeymoon at a joyous festival in an outsized amusement park. More in love with each other than ever before, O'Brien and Gaynor head back across the lake in the dark of night. Suddenly, a storm arises. Pulling out the bulrushes with which he'd planned to save himself, O'Brien straps them onto Janet, telling her to swim to shore. The storm passes. Washing up on shore, the unconscious O'Brien is brought home. But Gaynor is nowhere to be found, and it is assumed that she has died in the storm. Half-insane, O'Brien strikes out at Livingston, the instigator of the murder plan. Just as he is about to throttle the treacherous temptress, he is summoned home; his wife is alive! As Livingston stumbles out of the village, O'Brien and Gaynor cling tightly to one another, watching the sun rise above their now-happy home. Together with Seventh Heaven, Sunrise earned Janet Gaynor the first-ever Best Actress Academy Award, while Charles Rosher and Karl Struss walked home with the industry's first Best Photography Oscar. The film itself was also in the Oscar race, but lost out to the more financially successful Wings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Special Features:
- Commentary by John Bailey (ASC Cinematographer)
- Outtakes with optional John Bailey commentary
- Original scenario by Carl Mayer with annotations by Murnau
- Murnau's Lost Film: Four Devils
- Original Four Devils Screenplay
- Original Sunrise Screenplay
- Theatrical Trailer
- Original movietone score (Mono)
- Alternate Olympic Chamber Orchestra score (Stereo)
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| cinematic summit
by RMorris
June 27, 2007 - 9:30 PM PDT
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A movie that explored the limits of refined cinematic story-telling. All the ingredients, light, shadow, character, timing, story, are perfectly integrated and executed. The three main actors reveal the souls of their characters mainly by body language and subtle facial gestures in a natural, flowing, subtle form of mime. Each was completely convincing, from Janet Gaynor's innocence, horror, fear, hurt, and forgiveness, to George O'Brien's tortured face and humped body expressing his loss of humanity as a result of sexual obsession, to Margaret Livingston's callousness and isolation from the community she has invaded like a cancer. Despite the evil, one almost feels sympathy for her in the end, a lonely, dejected, defeated predator.
If you're not much into silent cinema this is the best place to start to explore the possibilities afforded by the lack of sound. |
| More than meets the eye
by SBarnett
January 23, 2007 - 9:52 AM PST
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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| One of the ten best films ever made, "Sunrise" works magnificently on every level. Famed for its cinematography and German Expressionist production, (Murnau used midgets and slanting sets to create the illusion of cinematic space) this "wordless" film takes as its raw material romantic melodrama common in its day (and ours) and transforms it into a vision of archetypal substance and what, for the cinema, must be seen as mythic proportion. The main characters fail to live the simple lives they wish to lead, yet in doing so they become something else, something greater--human. The Wife sees herself as a simple peasant, yet happily leaves her child and longs to be seduced by the pleasures of the city--champagne, dancing, romance--even her husband. The Husband, once a happy farmer, gives in to his dangerous passion and his equally dangerous duty. And perhaps most interesting of all, The Woman from the City plays fast and loose as a temptress, yet risks losing everything for love. Every scene from the film burns with a supernatural clarity--the moon rising over a swamp, a couple crossing a street, the eye of a would-be murderer, a drunken pig slipping on a tile floor, a body drifting in the water--scenes that have yet to be surpassed even today. A truly unforgettable experience. |
| Depiction of Country-City Dialectic
by JMVerville
October 24, 2004 - 5:52 PM PDT
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6 out of 8 members found this review helpful
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I did not find this film to be that entertaining, per se, but the great visual depictions were unarguably influential and beautiful. There is a definite reason why the two cinematographers won the very first Academy Award in cinematography.
What truly interests me about the film is not necessarily the melodramatic story behind this, but rather the fact that this is so interesting as a study of views that many people had in the 1920s; a concept that agrarian life is naturally virtuous, and that city life is often very corrupt and contributes to decadence and immorality. The country-city dialectic is something that people do not think about so much, nor do they think about it in more recent times as anything but the 'backwards nature of the country people' when this film shows that at one point, people thought nothing more of this dialectic as demonstrating the backwards ways of the city people.
It is very interesting to see such a passionate portrayal of the sins of the city, and the virtues of the country. This very one-sided study of the country-city dialectic makes this film very interesting, in addition to the cinematography. The symbolism is very interesting. Overall, an interesting watch. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 8.43)
152 Votes
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