Rating of
4/4
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
SteelCity99 - wrote on 04/22/18
F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is officially one of the best productions Hollywood ever did during the Golden Age. After establishing his brilliant and visionary reputation through the horror genre, creating timeless and unsurpassable masterpieces such as Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) and Faust - Eine deutsche Volkssage (1926), he moved to America and tried with a totally different genre. He succeeded. In fact, he had so much success, that Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won a unique Academy Award. It is one of the best romantic stories ever told in cinema history and one of the most complete films that may ever be seen. It immediately relies its talent, honesty and emotional power on the most beloved, accessible and heartwarming genres of cinema. This project was probably the one that worldwide masses, especially Germany, were expecting to fail. However, Murnau proved to be a multitalented auteur of legendary proportions and transmits, in 94 minutes, extraordinarily compelling emotions that romance films cannot transmit even nowadays in their purest form. It is definitely, a timeless masterpiece and among the director's best.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans deals with a married farmer who soon enough falls for another woman of the city. She convinces him to come to the city with her, but since he asked her if her wife could come with them, the woman suggests him to murder her wife drowning her. He is shocked by her suggestion, but finally goes along with the idea. The rest of the plot is developed thanks to the farmer's consequent decisions. The film received 4 Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Cinematography and Best Picture, Unique Artistic Production, winning the last three awards. This was the very first and last feature film to be nominated and win the last Oscar because of its artistic value and quality. Wings (1927) won the Oscar for Best Picture, Production that year.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans resorts to that irrevocable connection established by human relationships and the everlasting and enduring power of love. Murnau was one of the few filmmakers that understood that cinema is the work of a whole crew. The camera work and the resulting cinematography is an outstanding achievement. Every image is filmed with extreme delicacy, like a moving painting, like the literary pages of a passionate poet. Whereas early directors like D.W. Griffith (Birth of a Nation [1915], Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages [1916]) and Sergei M. Eisenstein (Bronenosets Potyomkin [1925], Oktyabr [1928]) focused on the magical importance of editing and crosscutting, Murnau made emphasis on the visual style that a camera can transmit and the psychology of the characters, inspirationally orchestrating noticeably long takes just to highlight a particular emotion. Therefore, "The Man" and "The Wife" are very complete characters deviating from clichéd archetypes of recent newlyweds. That is what makes this film a very well-made character study, especially for the male protagonist. This is one of the very first films that feature personalities with constant changes of emotions, and the priorities and motivations of "The Man" are very clear to the spectator. He has an epiphany, which will wonderfully lead the rest of the story along with powerful and necessary reflections. The performances were so natural that the whole atmospheric romance throughout the tear-inducing 94 minutes seemed like a documentary and both symbolize justice being served in the most correct way concerning how our prioritized plans can be suddenly changed by an outside factor.
Evil is ultimately represented in a very peculiar way. The person that can be interpreted as the antagonist ends up being a human being as well with particular personal issues. The antagonist could be also fate, or the nature itself, which physically cannot be beaten after all, but confronted. That is a genius concept, but the original intention of the power such concept is supposed to have is a very hard characteristic to portray on screen. Both George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor are extraordinary, and they have perhaps the most powerful couple chemistry in any romantic film that has ever been directed, quite possibly even redefining the term of love in films. It is particularly interesting how Murnau makes a notable difference between the mood and atmosphere of the farm and the city, the last one being represented as crowded streets full of stores, noise and movement. Industrialization and consumerism are, therefore, an influential motor for the couple's rebirth of a love that was about to be lost because of wrongly taken decisions. The pace of the story is quickly effective, and the result was the perfect mix of drama and some humorous moments of comedy that, at the end, are utterly impossible to forget.
This is visually and emotionally one of the most beautiful films ever made. Although it was made by a German master of cinema, this is the kind of films Hollywood should be really proud of. It became an immediate addition for the USA National Film Preservation Board. This is a very artistic and unique triumph and literally transports you back to the 20's, transmitting a very powerful catharsis in a genius and highly effective way. After all, it is up to us to let the sun rise on the horizon. It is up to us to accept one of the most wonderful and extraordinary gifts God decided to give us in this pathetic, existentialist and rotten existence: love. Heaven and Hell collide in a tormenting concert of emotions; nature plays its role, resulting in possibly the tensest sequence of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Two humans realize the inevitable connection they were meant to have, latterly singing to the sky and uniting in heartwarming depictions of love and interest. Character development enriches the flavor of the film and, yet, the movie does not need to show anything more. The dance scene, the attack of Mother Nature, the traffic accident, a kiss... just mere events that were meant to take place for inner correction and to avoid the corruptibility of the soul. It will make rivers of tears to flow, compensating such audience reaction with a very satisfactory sense of hope at the end, not to mention that beautiful and characteristic feeling of inner warmth.
100/100
