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| The sun rises over the main couple's idealized country home. |
Release Date: Sept. 23, 1927. Running Time: 94 minutes. Screenplay: Carl Mayer. Based on: "The Excursion to Tilsit," by Hermann Sudermann. Producer: William Fox. Director: F. W. Murnau.
THE PLOT:
A young farming couple has fallen out of love in their small lakeside town. This leaves The Man George O'Brien) vulnerable to the wiles of the Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston), who tempts him into a promise to murder The Wife (Janet Gaynor). The woman urges him to stage a boating accident, using bundles of reeds she has gathered to stay afloat himself as his wife drowns.
The next morning, The Man takes The Wife out onto the water. When he is far enough from land, he prepares to throw her in... But her pleas and his own sense of guilt stop him just short of committing the crime. Back on land, she flees (sensibly enough), and he gives chase, pleading with her not to be afraid of him. He follows her into the city. Once there, away from the daily pressures that have worn on both of them, they rekindle their romance. But a storm strikes during the return boat trip, promising to complete the crime he no longer wants to commit!
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| The Man (George O'Brien) plots to murder his Wife (Janet Gaynor). |
CHARACTERS:
The Man: Lean and tall, George O'Brien towers over everyone else in the frame. In the first half, this makes him a figure of menace, particularly when he looms over his wife on their boat. Once he has rediscovered his feelings for her, his height makes him more a figure of comic awkwardness, never seeming to quite fit within the spaces he inhabits. O'Brien manages the conversion from sinister to romantic, though viewed through modern eyes it is difficult to forget that the man who is grinning and dancing at the 60 minute mark was prepared to murder his pretty companion all of 30 minutes earlier.
The Wife: Janet Gaynor won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress. The first Act sees her in despair at her husband's obvious lack of interest in her, crying herself to sleep near their infant child. She is so eager for him to be as he once was, she ignores clear warning signs when he suggests the boat trip. After, she recoils from him in terror for most of the next 20 minutes, but isn't quite able to make herself flee from him entirely. The breakthrough scene comes when they slip into a young couple's wedding and both remember how they used to feel about each other, with both of their faces changing as they listen to the exchange of vows. Gaynor's performance sparkles throughout, keeping her character fully alive despite the idealized nature of her character.
The Woman from the City: Margaret Livingston's dark-haired temptress receives far less screen time than the central couple, but she is an effective presence. In contrast to The Wife's constant modesty, the Woman is seen in states of partial undress at multiple points. When she suggests the crime, The Man initially responds with violence toward her - which she uses to spark more ardor, to tempt him even more strongly into doing her will. A later scene hints that her true motive isn't to romance The Man, but rather to bilk him out of the money he'll receive from selling his farm, though his change of heart also sees a change in her fortunes.
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| The Man is tempted by memories and fantasies of his mistress (Margaret Livingston). |
THOUGHTS:
Sunrise: A Song of Two Human was the other first Best Picture winner, granted the one-time-only Award for Best Unique and Artistic Picture. The Academy dropped the award the year after and retroactively determined that the award for Wings was the definitive one - but at the time it was announced, Sunrise's award was regarded as equivalent, hence its inclusion in this sequence of reviews.
Though a much smaller-scale story than Wings, Sunrise is in its way every bit as technically ambitious. Director F. W. Murnau, a leading figure in German Expressionism after the release of Nosferatu, composes every frame with absolute care. In-camera effects were utilized to superimpose images over each other. This is used to particularly startling effect when The Man contemplates his mistress's suggestion of murder. As he wrestles with his conscience, ghostly images of The Woman are layered over the frame - a transparent image of her seductively clinging to him, while an even more faded image of her lips brushes his ear in the upper right, and an all-but-invisible image of her eyes fills the upper left of the frame.
The movie is presented almost like a fable, including the characters being presented less as individuals than as archetypes ("The Man" ; "The Wife" ; "The Woman"). The script also makes heavy use of dualities. The Wife is the type of pure, adoring love that is idealized; The Woman offers a carnal love that The Man craves. There are two settings: the lakeside village and the city, both of which are presented in romanticized terms. There are two boat trips: The one near the beginning, that almost ends in murder; another at the end, that ends in a storm.
This duality extends to the tone. The first part of the film feels very much like a thriller. Then, after the couple reconciles in the city, it becomes a romantic comedy - an often very funny one. By the time the couple is frolicking in a photographer's studio - with Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette sneaking into the soundtrack as they cover up the accidental destruction of a statuette - you'll be hard pressed to remember the grim events that kicked all this off. But the liveliness of the movie's middle half hour makes the ending all the more effective, as The Man is faced with the possibility of losing the woman with whom he has just spent one of the best days of his life - and in a way that so closely resembles the murder that had been planned at the start.
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| Accidentally decapitating a statuette in a photographer's studio. |
OVERALL:
Sunrise does present modern viewers with one major challenge. Not only does the Janet Gaynor character forgive her husband for trying to murder her... She proceeds to spend an idyllic day with him, the two laughing and frolicking like children. The contrast is effective, and makes the emotion of the end stronger, but I suspect a lot of people will be just yelling at the screen for her to run from this obvious psycho.
If you can get past that, the movie remains impressive. The comical and romantic moments are genuinely charming, and George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor make a lovely central couple. It is also technically remarkable. Projection shots put the characters in a world of their own; superimpositions create startling visual moments; and the sheer artistry of the framing makes the movie a constant delight for the eyes. At a mere 94 minutes, it never threatens to overstay its welcome, and its sheer simplicity ends up working very much in the story's favor.
It's probably not for all tastes - and indeed, was not a particular box office success even at the time. But it stands up as an important work of cinema, and as an effective work of art.
Overall Rating: 9/10.
Outstanding Picture - 1927/1928: Wings
Outstanding Picture - 1928/1929: The Broadway Melody
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