Review of Sunrise (1985) by Mjs M — 19 May 2008

F.W. Murnau?s Sunrise has been called one of the most important silent films of all time, but it?s also rather hard to find because Fox refuses to release it outside of an elaborate boxed set for some reason. Luckily I was able to find it airing on Turner Classic Movies and tivoed it, I?ve been waiting for just the right occasion to watch it.

F.W. Murnau was a German director who pioneered the art of German Expressionism with movies like Nosferatu (the first vampire film), Faust, and The Last Laugh. Sunrise was his first American film, and it turned out to be his last great work as he died a few years later in a car accident. Still, one wonders where he could have gone from here, as this truly is a classic worthy of its reputation.

I can?t comment to credibly on the substance of Sunrise, because I was way to busy focusing on the style to concern myself with the film?s plot, that?s something I?ll worry about on future viewings. For now I?ll just marvel at the film?s beautiful images and amazing technical achievements.

The first thing I notice is the film?s special effects, I have no idea how they pulled some of this stuff off with the technology of the time. There?s one brilliant shot where a couple walk into traffic and the setting transforms into countryside. I?m pretty sure this was accomplished with some sort of rear projection, but it?s quite elaborate either way. Another great shot involved a man sitting in place as a ghostly set of hand embrace him, I don?t know how they did it, but it looks damn cool.

There are other influential tricks here, like an early sequence where a character says something and it cuts to what they were thinking about. That may not seem to impressive today, but that must have been revolutionary at the time, I?m not certain, but that?s the earliest use of that trick I know of and the idea would go unused for decades before it was rediscovered an became a staple of television comedy.

It?s also interesting that all these expensive effects were used for what is basically an intimate character study, now there seems to be an unwritten rule that movies about people talking need to take place in one room and rarely have a moving camera.

If I have any complaint about the film, it?s that it seems a little bit front-loaded. A lot of the great effects and visual tricks are used in the first act and the style seems to settle down for the rest of the movie. That might have been an appropriate choice, but I can?t help but wonder what else Murnau may have dreamed up if the whole movie was as innovative as the first 40-50 minutes.