Sunrise - A Song of Two Humans 1927/28

The Film:

A 1927 silent film directed by F W Murnau and starring George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor (who won
Best Actress that year) and Margaret Livingston. It is a romantic drama about a man torn between two women.

90 years on this film is still considered to be one of the absolute classics of silent cinema - one of the reasons why it is available on Bluray. It is an example of German Expressionism that employs lots of groundbreaking effects (for the time) and makes great use of symbolism to tell the story.

For the first Academy Awards only, two Best Picture awards were given. Sunrise won for "Unique and Artistic" film - Wings (next on our list!) won for Outstanding Picture. People tend to class Wings as the ultimate winner that year - but we're going to watch both and make our own minds up!


The Ceremony:

May 16th 1929 at Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

It couldn't be further from the 89th Awards this year. It was a small, private dinner with 270 guests and a ceremony that lasted about 15 minutes. The winners were informed months in advance that they had won. There were only twelve categories - and many of them (such as the Acting awards) didn't specify a particular film but rather gave the award for a general body of work.

Not quite as glizty as it is now - not a dinner jacket or ball gown in sight!

Other Notable Winners That Night:

The other famous winner of the night was Wings, which is next on our list. There were also two best directors - Lewis Milestone for "Two Arabian Knights" won the comedy award and Frank Borzage won the dramatic award for 7th Heaven. I know very little about either of these films, but apparently they are both still out there somewhere.

Emil Jannings won Best Actor and Janet Gaynor (more about her in a bit....) won Best Actress. Good bits of information to know for Pub Quizzes or Pointless endgames!

Out of the twelve awards given, Sunrise and 7th Heaven took three each (sort of, because they both counted for Janet Gaynor who won her award for starring in both of them!)


What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Having watched Sunrise I can definitely say that I'm glad it won the award - Wings is going to have to go some to deserve being "officially" remembered as the first winner!

However, I haven't seen the other nominated films - "Chang - A Drama of the Wilderness" and "The Crowd". They are still both out there somewhere, so maybe I'll look them up some time.


Our Verdict:

The happy couple!

Where to start....(other than at the beginning, which we have done!).

We sat drinking Negronis on a warm June evening and watched a very well restored Bluray version of the film. I knew a bit about the plot beforehand, and about the general style of the film, but that was it. I really didn't know what to expect.

George is getting upset....

The first twenty minutes or so were very melodramatic - lots of deep stares and furrowed brows and a rather sinister murder plot. But then Janet Gaynor turns it all around and it becomes (at least temporarily) a really lovely love story. There are some wonderful early examples of long tracking shots and some very clever (for it's time) special effects. There's great use of sound effects in an otherwise silent movie - and there are hardly any Title Cards but you sort of don't notice (until one pops up right near the end) because the acting carries everything without words.

Drunken pig!

There are some really good humorous moments - including a
headless statue and a drunken pig (the pig is quite magnificent!). And the drama is well filmed as well, particularly the last 20 minutes played out on the lake in near darkness.

Janet and one of her sideways glances!

And there is Janet Gaynor. (I think Andy is a little bit in love with her after watching this!) She has the most amazing eyes - very important in silent movies - and such a lovely way of being (not just acting - "being") throughout the film. It is very fitting that she will be remembered for being the first ever Best Actress winner.





Overall then, a really good place to start on our trek through 90+ films. Sunrise is on Youtube (as well as being on DVD/Bluray for about a tenner!) and I strongly recommend it....it's fab!