Sunrise

viewed January 16, 2000 on video

For full information about this film, click here

A film that makes you realize how exciting it must have been in the early decades of filmmaking, when innovations were waiting by the dozens to be made by filmmakers with vision and courage.  F.W. Murnau could have become one of the all-time greats had he not died in a car crash in 1937; but some would say that this film, combined with Nosferatu and perhaps Tabu, place him in the pantheon.  This film is loaded with visions, of such standard themes as the city life, love, and triumph through tribulation.  But the images are brassy and boisterous -- when the male lead, a farmer, is seduced by a city dweller with dreams of urban escape, the visions of fancy cars rolling down city streets, towering skyscapers and jazz bands playing under flashing lights all mix together to create a visual music out of silent film.  Even the titles seem to scream out, sometimes leaping from the intertitles to land boldly among the images.  Murnau was a genius at creating visuals that heightened the senses and lingered long after one's viewing them.  Scenes like that of the lovers walking through an onslaught of traffic (which makes seminal use of the narrow lens) are as stunningly effective now as they were 70 years ago.   If you don't believe me, watch the haunting scene where, after a shipwreck, rowboats search frantically in the night for a missing girl -- it's the same setup used in Titanic.   

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