Blog 13 (sunrise)

Jarvis Emery
American Film
HUC 270 Die Reise nach Tilsit
Dr. Joyce Rheuban
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a 1927 American film directed by German film director F. W. Murnau. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer
from the short story “Die Reise nach Tilsit” ( In English means “The Trip after Tilsit”)
by Hermann Sudermann.
Sunrise won an Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Production at the first Academy Awards Ceremony in 1929. In 1937 Sunrise's original film was destroyed. A new film was created from a surviving print. In 1989, the film was deemed culturally, historically, significant by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry. In a 2002
critics poll for the British Film Institute. The movie was named the seventh best film
in the history of motion pictures.
In 2007 the film was chosen #82 on the 10th anniversary update of the American Film Institute's 100 Movies of great films. Sunrise is one of the first films with a soundtrack
of music and sound effects recorded in the then new Fox Movie tone sound on film system. With all that is said about this film, and all the awards it was rightfully so nominated, and won, I want to discuss what was not nominated that should have
been, starting with the Director.

Director F.W. Murnau know for films such as Faust, Phantom, and Nousferatu directed this film.
The director in a movie plays the biggest and one of the most important parts in a film. The director is responsible for overseeing creative aspects of a film. They develop the vision for a film and carry the vision out, deciding how the film should look. They also direct what tone it should have and what an audience should gain from the cinematic experience. directors are responsible for approvin camera angles, lens effects, lighting, and set design. They coordinate the actors movement.
The director works closely with the cast and crew to shape the film and may often take suggestions on pertinent issues. The director also advises on color grading of the final images, adding warmth or frigidity to the composition of the shots to reflect the
emotional subtext of the character or environment. They also participate in the sound mix and musical composition of the film. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Unique, and artistic production, and Cinematography, which to me is all because of the director. It was his vision, his idea for the whole process. From the first flashback of him playing with his family, and then seeing he was falling on hard times the directors use of light and camera techniques was flawless. The effect when the couple was walking in the street and it was like the were walking right through the cars into the fantasy as if they were walking in a field of flowers into a beautiful sunset coming back to reality to show that people stop short and crashing into each other was all from the director, so for a film to be partially praised those reason and the director not be nominated is a slap in the face. For the way the film is seen, the style, and the overall tone is what get a film nominated, so if you nominate the film for Best Picture, you have to nominate the director as well.

Next is the Husband played by actor George O’Brien. The fact that this man was not recognized the Academy Award committee was an absolute disgrace. I’m not a big
fan of silent films in anyway, and when I hear and read about great actors in the silent film area I’ve always question how can that be when they weren’t speaking, all of it
has to go together, from there movement, reaction, and how the deliver their lines.
After watching the film I was proving wrong. George O’Brien’s acting techniques where amazing.
Starting with the first time we see him. When we see him he is at the dinner table looking rather sad, and miserable, when he hears the whistling of his mistress he slowly looks around to make sure his wife does not see him. When film goes into the flashback of him and his waif with there child he is such a proud, happy, and carefree husband and father.
The we see him having to sell some of his live stock because of the bad choice he made
For his girlfriend. The expression on his face is not over the top depressed like I’ve seen in other silent films, but more of a it’s my own fault for being in this mess. When the film comes back to present day when he sees his girlfriend his face lights up like a little kid on Christmas morning. When the girlfriend suggest he kills his wife he emotions shows that he is in love with his wife and this is just a thing that the two of them have, he then pushes her away from him. I felt the way he was able to jump back and fourth from relaxed in his girlfriend’s embrace to being so upset with her with such timing was amazing. The top scenes that did it for me was when him and his wife went to the church and watch the strangers getting married. When the priest said…” God is giving you in the holy bound of matrimony a trust. She is young and inexperienced. Guide her and love her, keep and protect her from all harm.. Wilt thou love her?” I’m was so glad that by the year this film came out they new how to use close ups. The expression on his
face and the emotion that he showed was priceless. Just by he reaction alone you can
tell that he was probably thinking that those word were said to him and he made the
same promise, and from this day forward that’s actually what he was going to do,
he’s not going to get rid off his wife, child, and farm for his girlfriend, he’s going to
give up his girlfriend for his wife, and braking down in tears in his wife lap showed
that he was sorry for not only having a girlfriend, but for ever contemplating the
thought of killing her. For that entire seen alone should have got him a nomination.
When he is in the solon getting groomed there is a woman who looks exactly like his mistress. When she grabs his had he shows that he is uncomfortable in the most humorous way. The way he approaches the man who is sees flirting with his wife was timeless. As he is strongly gazing at the man he lowly goes into his pocket and pulls
out a blade, slowly he goes toward the man with the knife and quickly jabs it to the
mans lapel the man grabs his throat as if the husband just get it, when in fact he just
cut the flower that the man took from his wife. That made me jump because I was thinking he was actually going to cut him, or at the very least point it and threaten him.
George O’Brien show the character’s playful side when he his chasing down the piggy at the carnival into the elegant party, and then dances for the crowd of people with what is know as the “Peasant dance” Another climax scene for O’Brien was when he actually lost his wife in the very unexpected storm. He was so struck with grief , you could tell from the close up on his face when he calls for her to the extreme longshot when he is walking back into the room without her, the director stays in that shot and shows him fall to his knees onto the bed. The best lighting and camera angle came from when the mistress comes to the door the director goes for another extreme longshot to show the husband in the doorway looking at the mistress all you really see is the shadow of the man looking down at the mistress, and without him moving you can tell not only does he blame her
but he wants to kill her. When they find his wife and he looks as if he is saying “take me instead” was such a moment. With all that I describe on both the talents of F.W. Murnau, and George O’Brien, I wonder how the Academy Awards Committee didn’t see it.