Released in the same week as 'The Jazz Singer', F.W. Murnau's masterpiece 'Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans' represents the pinnacle of silent film art. In outline, the story doesn't sound like anything special. A young man from the country has an affair with a voracious flapper from the city. She convinces him to kill his wife, a simple country girl. However, it's Murnau's presentation of this simple but powerful story that makes it unforgettable. He takes what we expect from silent films - the form of storytelling, the cliches, even the plot twists - and turns them on their head.
To the modern viewer, silent film can sometimes seem difficult to watch, with leaden action and hackneyed situations. Murnau seems almost to comment upon this fact in this film - the camera is frenetic, especially in the scenes set in the city. Lights, movement, rushing people, automobiles madly crowding the roads - it's a gorgeous sight. The contrast between tranquil country and maurauding city, darkness and light, sunrise and sunset - even sound and silence - are all explored with expert subtlety.
It's a shame that Murnau is best known for `Nosferatu', a much lesser and rather derivative horror story, rather than this, the Citizen Kane of silent cinema. Only a few years after `Sunrise's' release this form of art was dead, just as it had found its feet as a legitimate form of art.
If you only ever see one silent film - see `Sunrise'. It may well change the way you think of silent film forever.
To the modern viewer, silent film can sometimes seem difficult to watch, with leaden action and hackneyed situations. Murnau seems almost to comment upon this fact in this film - the camera is frenetic, especially in the scenes set in the city. Lights, movement, rushing people, automobiles madly crowding the roads - it's a gorgeous sight. The contrast between tranquil country and maurauding city, darkness and light, sunrise and sunset - even sound and silence - are all explored with expert subtlety.
It's a shame that Murnau is best known for `Nosferatu', a much lesser and rather derivative horror story, rather than this, the Citizen Kane of silent cinema. Only a few years after `Sunrise's' release this form of art was dead, just as it had found its feet as a legitimate form of art.
If you only ever see one silent film - see `Sunrise'. It may well change the way you think of silent film forever.