#12: Sunrise

Sunrise (Murnau, 1927)

Sunrise, in my opinion, is not only the best silent film, it's the best film to be released prior to Citizen Kane. It's incredibly emotionally expressive with nothing but body language and hardly any captions. The movie starts with text that says: "This story happens nowhere and everywhere. It could happen anywhere at anytime." It's presented as a modern instance of a story common to all man. The characters don't have names (As is the case with many silent films) and are presented as archetypes, but also as extremely human and animated individuals.

Considering the limitations of 1920s technology, the visuals are incredible. Things the characters are thinking at the time are illustrated masterfully with nothing but double exposures. In terms of pure visual expressiveness, Sunrise hasn't been surpassed.

The story is, a man and a wife live on a farm, and the man is having an affair with a woman from the city. The woman lures him with stories of how fun and exciting it is to live in the city, and tells him they could live like that together if he just sells the farm. They plot together to kill his wife, then at the last minute he changes his mind. So the man goes to the city with his wife and has the fun time he was imagining with the other woman. It's such a simple, elegant story about love and temptation, that works because the characters are so human.

Also, Sunrise is an interesting cultural study. For instance, the murder plot relies on the assumption that neither the husband nor the wife can swim, whereas the assumption in today's culture would be that they can. Also, you see in the 1920s a married woman really had no options but to stay with her husband. After he plots to murder her then changes his mind, she runs about frantically with no idea where to go except back into her husband's arms. When they go into a church and he begs for her forgiveness, she gives it immediately. Anytime after the 60's the same plot would lead almost immediately to divorce. Then there's the technology of the 20s. Cameras where you look into from the back and see an inverted image, then have to block all light and remove a shutter manually. Cars with wooden wheels and horse drawn carriages sharing the same road, with no traffic lights. I also think the ways people in the 20s have fun look a lot more exciting than the ways people in the 00s have fun. When I'm going out with a group of people I'd rather go to a fair and dance to a big band then just go watch a movie or go somewhere and drink. (Stupid modern culture.)

Rating: ***** / 5

28/101