![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/sunrise-1.jpg\" "\\"Sunrise")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
directed by F.W. Murnau<\/a> Let me just quickly tell you about me and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans<\/em>. It’s been on my see-soon list for years, as one of the most highly regarded silent films ever. Initially I added it to my Netflix queue, knowing it had been released on DVD as part of a Fox box set though not individually. Netflix apparently lost their copy or something and decided not to replace it, putting in the “unavailable” section of my queue instead. Plan B: Wait for it to come on during TCM’s Silent Sunday Nights or 31 Days of Oscar program. Several months later, it did, and I smiled and set my DVR. Which decided to flake and tape only the first five minutes. Foiled again. About a year later, I moved to LA and what should be showing at the local repertory cinema? Yep, Sunrise<\/em> accompanied by a live band with an original score. And it was one of the best cinematic experiences of my life, so apparently the cinema powers-that-be just knew that I needed to wait and see it in a cinema rather than on DVD or TV. Thank you.<\/p>\n The story is simple. A husband ignores his sweet but inconsequential wife in favor of a femme fatale (or vamp, since we’re in the 1920s) from the big city. The vamp convinces the husband to kill the wife to get her out of the way, but as he’s about to do this, he can’t and instead takes the wife to the city and they reconstitute their love. The very simplicity of the story, however, is what allows director F.W. Murnau room to exercise his Expressionist-influenced visual flair and create a dark, moody landscape for the characters to inhabit.<\/p>\n Though I’m far from seeing all the silent films available (which is still only a small percentage of the ones that were made), I feel fairly confident in declaring that Sunrise<\/em> represents the epitome of silent film art. It’s not for nothing that it won “Outstanding Artistic Achievement” at the first ever Academy Awards – an award that was never given again. If you can see it in a cinema, do. Otherwise, keep your eye on TCM, as they do play it occasionally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans directed by F.W. Murnau starring George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston USA 1927; screened 8 July 2008 at the Silent Movie Theatre, Los Angeles Let me just quickly tell you about me and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. It’s been on my see-soon list for years, as one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,1016],"tags":[1074,1066],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1653,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/favorite-films-one-letter-at-a-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":1664,"position":0},"title":"Favorite Films, One Letter at a Time","author":"Jandy","date":"November 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I rarely organize my collections alphabetically, at least not as the major organizational tool, since the letter the title starts with is usually less meaningful than the year it was made or the genre that it's in. But there's a meme going around film blogs (starting with Blog Cabins) to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33120,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/the-story-of-film-on-tcm-chapter-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1664,"position":1},"title":"The Story of Film on TCM: Chapter 2","author":"Jandy","date":"September 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Turner Classic Movies is airing the US premiere of The Story of Film: An Odyssey one episode per week from September through December, accompanying it with selected films discussed in each week's episode. It's a film history eduction in and of itself. I'll be presenting my thoughts on the documentary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/The_Story_of_Film-banner1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":33135,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/the-story-of-film-on-tcm-chapter-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":1664,"position":2},"title":"The Story of Film on TCM: Chapter 3","author":"Jandy","date":"September 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a time of fantasy cinema and its brilliant alternatives. Movies were on a high. This sublime tension should have lasted forever. Chapter 3 of The Story of Film follows pretty closely on the heels of Chapter 2. The way Cousins transitions from one chapter to the next makes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/SoF3-banner1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":473,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/afis-100-years100-movies-2007-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":1664,"position":3},"title":"AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies — 2007 Edition","author":"Jandy","date":"June 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Film Institute released an updated version of their 100 Years...100 Movies list of greatest American movies. Apparently they're going to do that every ten years. I only saw the tail end of the special last night--did any one else catch it? I think I saw the top fifteen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25554,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/50dmc-24-most-beautiful-movie\/","url_meta":{"origin":1664,"position":4},"title":"50DMC #24: Most Beautiful Movie","author":"Jandy","date":"August 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions. Today's prompt: What's the most beautiful movie you're ever seen? I guess you could answer this beautiful-looking or beautiful-sounding or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/50DMC-night-of-the-hunter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20996,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/100-reasons-i-love-the-movies\/","url_meta":{"origin":1664,"position":5},"title":"100 Reasons I Love the Movies","author":"Jandy","date":"May 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A few people I know have done this ambitious meme that highlights not your top 100 films, but 100 things you love about film. I've mostly interpreted that as \"100 moments or scenes that I love\", but it varies from a single shot to whole films to certain tropes or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/100-reasons-featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nstarring George O’Brien<\/a>, Janet Gaynor<\/a>, Margaret Livingston<\/a>
\nUSA 1927<\/a>; screened 8 July 2008 at the Silent Movie Theatre<\/a>, Los Angeles<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/murnau-sunrise-300x214.jpg\" "\\"Sunrise")
I’ve heard over and over that silent film had reached a heady apex of artistry by the 1920s that was shattered by the coming of sound and its attendant clunky equipment, but I’m not sure I ever fully believed in the poetic power of silent film as a fully realized art form until I saw Sunrise<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0I’d been impressed by individual elements of several silent films – the physical comedy of Buster Keaton, the pathos of Charlie Chaplin, the Expressionist oddness of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/em> -\u00c2\u00a0but never had I seen a film that combines the traditional qualities of silent film with a such a timeless sense of humanity and beauty.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/sunrise_large-300x201.jpg\" "\\"Sunrise")
Near the beginning, the vamp coyly leads the husband through the wet and disorienting marshes near his farm, a scene ripe for interpretation by Freudian critics, let me just say. Similarly, the near-murder scene is overacted by both the husband and the wife, but Murnau uses the overdetermined silent movie acting style to great psychological advantage – out of context, the scene could easily be laughable today, but no one in the cinema was laughing. Later, the city is a bustling, dangerous place, showcasing the physicality and motion that silent films perfected before sound came and changed the game.<\/p>\n