SUNRISE @ THE SILENT MOVIE THEATRE
A pigeon hops onto my table at the Alcove. I can’t afford food, Fatty, unless you’re offering yourself as a kebab sacrifice. But I’ll tell you a bit about beauty. (Fatty settles in at a safe distance.) The other day, I witnessed something truly awe-inspiring. I could’ve soaked my shirt in tears but I kept cool. Have you heard of Murnau’s Sunrise? Some say it’s the best German expressionist film. That’s a big claim, I know. It wasn’t like a Veidt flick, no optical illusion whatnot. This was a gorgeous love story. Yes, I just got goose bumps on my right arm, also. My Education performed live accompaniment. They adapted some of their songs, which you’ll see on Myspace have a cinematic feel. On top of this film, sometimes driving it, countering emotional gestures, heightening the volumes spoken without words. How much can be said without words! The way a face tilts, like this. Or a shoulder’s rise and fall. There are very few title cards in this film. But you sit there and feel. For real. The train ride! After the husband tries to drown his peasant wife for a big city ho-bag but can’t, wifey jumps on the train and he chases after, “Don’t be afraid of me!” They showed that card twice. They end up in the city. He buys her bread and flowers, they watch a wedding, he collapses in her lap and she forgives him, then they almost get run over and there’s this drunk pig…And the music all along, incredible. Then she almost does drown and he strangles the city ho but then no one dies and everything is wonderful. Oh, thanks for your napkin. You don’t need it? Pardon my weeping. More than words, I’m telling ya, some things go deep. Some things are beautiful.
– Daiana Feuer
aw!
Yummm, this review makes me hungry for german films. I hear the pigeon pooped near by.
I felt this, like, in my heart.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Some say it’s the best German expressionist film.
Firstly, in my opinion it’s the greatest films of the Twentieth Century!
Secondly sorry to pop the German expressionist bubble, this film is pure Hollywood,
It was Director F.W. Murnau’s only American film.
Locations include:
Big Bear Lake, and Lake Arrowhead, San Bernardino National Forest,
The scenes in the city were not filmed on location. They were filmed on a vast and expensive set, built especially for the movie at
William Fox Studios - 1401 N. Western Avenue, Hollywood,
So the Krauts don’t get kudos for this one.
Better even then Von Stroihiem’s “Greed”, though my 14 year-old daughter Fuad would have a hizzy-fit for me for saying that.
The awesome American fluid camera movement gives the film its otherworldly quality.
You are very right Daiana, it’s the body language that speaks to us in the movie, the clutched fingers of the “city’ woman, the almost Frankenstein appearance of “The Man” before the deed, are what tells the story, that’s how you can tell a genius Silent film, lack of Title cards. Some memorable ones from this film are:
Title Card: This song of the Man and his Wife is of no place and every place; you might hear it anywhere, at any time.
Title Card: For wherever the sun rises and sets, in the city’s turmoil or under the open sky on the farm, life is much the same; sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet.
“Couldn’t she just… drown…?” and the title card starts to spin as if drowning.
It has an awful lot in common with Montgomery Clift’s “A Place in The Sun”
I apologize and don’t mean to piggyback on to your wonderful review; it’s just that this is my all-time favorite film, from the comical scene in the photographers’ studio to the Catholic Church shot. And all the creepy stuff in-between!
Go see this! You will see that this whole “Talkie” phase is just a fad.
Lot’s of Love,
Mike
malibu mike—piggy back any time! We can win a race that way. I weep with pigeons and write reviews on napkins…your facts totally make me happy.
There’s so much to say about this film. I really love when they show the characters’ thoughts floating over their heads, the way it takes over the screen, taking over their consciousness.
hearts back at ya
You’re a princess Daiana! I was a tad worried you might get irked. I am used to being around a lot of “friends of Bill”, they’re a prickly bouquet to say the least. (To Say the Least was a game show that aired on channel 4 in the 70’s, g-d I miss that show) you are absolutely right there is so much to say about this film! It’s a shame they only give us 200 or so words. Some people reproach me for always mentioning odd things, ( I don’t have the normal editing bay that most people have in their heads) and some may have thought it impolite of me to go on about your article and even have the gall to point out some amendments, but I say they are way too up tight. You just have to say things with love and then you cannot possibly error, and now look, I have made a new friend! With a curious name! Daiana. Which means “Just Create” how cool is that. You must either be from Catalonia, Dominican? But because of the German last name of Feuer I’m going to say Argentina. Your father fled Germany (he was a good German like Shindler, Capt. Klink or Brando in The Young Lions), and then married in Argentina. You were educated to middle school by Jesuits before moving to the US to achieve a higher education, graduate school, am I right? Whichever, Daiana was a Roman goddess of the moon, and I am sure you are a Moonage Daydream!
Love,
Mmm
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