Review of Sunrise (1985) by Khalid P — 09 Sep 2007

No other movie has ever broken my heart within the first fifteen minutes. The story is quite straightforward: a farmer's lover tells him to drown his beautiful, doting wife, and though at the moment of decision he finds he can't do it, the damage is done -- his wife realises just what her husband was considering.

With the wife shattered and heartbroken by her husband's intentions, the two have to rediscover their vows and love for one another -- after which they act like newlyweds until tragedy again threatens them.

The middle of this film reverts to some traditional silent film archetypes -- the barbershop scene, the dance scene, the kissing in the street and gumming up the traffic scene -- but adds a few fun twists as well, including a chase scene involving a drunken carnival piglet.

And though some of these scenes are silly and overwrought (in the high style of silent films), the context of the first fifteen minutes looms painfully overhead, and when disaster strikes near the end, the film reverts to the gripping and devastating tone of its beginning.

I'm quite serious when I say I cried, I laughed, I cried and I laughed again. Anyone who thinks for a minute that silent films are inferior had better have given this Oscar-winner a try before saying a damn word.