Sunrise

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Film Description

A landmark of silent cinema and one of the finest films of any era. A woman from the city dazzles a married farmer in a small community and plots to rid him of his wife. Addressing themes of temptation, reconciliation and redemption, it's a tale told with lyrical simplicity and was named by Cahiers du Cinema in 1967 as 'the single greatest masterwork in the history of the cinema'. You can see why. Although it borrows its language from Dutch genre painting, expressionism and theatre among others, it is in the end a purely cinematic spectacle.

Film Information

DVD Extras

Newly restored high-definition transfer, progressively encoded; Original English intertitles; Original Movietone score (mono) and alternate Olympic Chamber Orchestra score (stereo); Full-length audio commentary by ASC cinematographer John Bailey; Outtakes with either John Bailey commentary or intertitles; Murnau's 4 Devils: Traces of a Lost Film � Janet Bergstrom's 40-minute documentary about the lost film Murnau made for Fox after Sunrise; Original 'photoplay' script by Carl Mayer with Murnau's handwritten annotations (150 pages in pdf format); Original theatrical trailer; 40-page booklet with essays, reprints, and rare production stills.

Technical Details

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Reviews & Articles

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Review by Graeme Hobbs on 2nd February 2004

One of the great triumphs of Sunrise is that it synthesizes disparate elements into a purely and overwhelmingly cinematic spectacle. The film, entirely written and conceived in Germany but filmed in America with complete license from the Fox Studios, borrows from a number of sources for its look. In its depiction of people and interiors in the village it resembles the world of Dutch genre-painting with the gossiping women, the table set for a meal and the wife feeding the chickens through a doorway. Any welcoming domesticity created by this though is undercut by the set design borrowed from expressionist theatre. The angular, shadowed rooms with their sloping tables and floorboards in the early scenes show this well. Expressionist techniques, which Murnau learnt from his years with Max Reinhardt’s theatrical company also extended to the actors with George O’Brien playing the first half of the film with lead weights in his boots to enhance the look of being entirely sunken under the weight of his adulterous and murderous thoughts. When the woman describes the city to the man, the painted cityscapes are reminiscent of those of George Grosz and later when we are transported to the city the sheer spectacle of the monorails, fairground, merry-go-rounds and fireworks resemble the renowned excesses of a UFA production.
A whole bag of cinematic tricks are used as well. Images are overlaid such as when the woman from the city has her arms around the man as he thinks of her, and back projection is used when the newly-reconciled couple are walking among the city traffic surrounded by trees. Add to that some of the ‘unchained camera’ pioneered two years earlier by Karl Freund in The Last Laugh, notably in Sunrise when it follows the man to his marshland tryst and you have a film so entirely comfortable with pushing the boundaries of its cinematic language that it was awarded an Oscar for ‘Unique and Artistic Picture’, the only time such an award has been given.
It might be thought that Sunrise would falter under the weight of so much input, but it doesn’t. All the elements are melded together into a simple tale. It works because Murnau plunges us into the story from the outset and doesn’t let up, carrying us from one scene to another and immersing us thoroughly into each situation, whether this is lust in the marsh, the joy and excitement of the fairgound or the terror of a storm. He takes us from darkest psychological drama to tenderness to slapstick and at every point Sunrise is nothing less than sure about what it’s doing and why it’s doing it. It is a complete marriage of style and substance and it was Murnau’s great skill that he could synthesize all its elements so readily. It is rare to come across a film in which so many elements combine to produce such an indelibly pure cinematic experience. Its misfortune was that a fortnight after its release, talkies made an entrance with The Jazz Singer. Initial scepticism about the concept soon gave way to enthusiasm and domination of the form. When you see Sunrise, it’s hard not to think that cinema was about to forsake its gains for something as trivial as talking actors.

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Review by Barry Forshaw on 20th January 2006

One of the great masterpieces of the cinema makes a welcome appearance on DVD. Sunrise was famously acclaimed as “the single greatest masterwork in the history of the cinema” Fully restored and digitally remastered, the film looks as fresh as ever, still justifying its multiple Oscars (Janet Gaynor for Best Actress; Charles Rosher and Karl Struss for Best Cinematography). The director, F.W. Murnau, was one of Germany’s finest, responsible for such classics as Nosferatu, Faust and The Last Laugh. Arriving in Hollywood in July 1926, the Fox Film Corporation promised and gave him complete artistic freedom. Fox told Murnau to take his time, spend whatever he had to, and make any film wished to make. The film that resulted was Sunrise, a psychological thriller which begins when the pleasant and peaceful life of a naïve country man (George O’Brien) is turned upside down when he falls for a cold-blooded yet seductive Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston). This is one of the most moving stories every told on screen – a tale of temptation, reconciliation, reconsecration, and redemption, told with a lyrical simplicity that resonates today.

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Review by anonymous on 19th November 2003

An excellent restored print of a film to watch and learn from again and again.

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Article - "Beautiful Spring; 10 Silent Classics" by John Davies
Monday 23rd September 2002

I hope with this selection both to challenge the prevailing notion of silent cinema as hopelessly primitive, and to encourage pleasurable discovery. Spurred by pioneers like the aptly named Lumiere brothers and Georges Melies, (whose fantasies seem sprinkled with mag...  View article in full

Article - "Sunrise and me" by Neil Brand
Tuesday 1st January 2002

Sunrise is, strictly speaking, not a silent film. Released in 1927 almost simultaneously with the revolutionary talkie The Jazz Singer, it featured a synchronised soundtrack which meant that the music was the same wherever the film played. This was the ...  View article in full

Article - "23 Must-See Films" by John Davies
Thursday 1st January 2004

23. PIERROT LE FOU (GODARD, 1965)


A delight for intellectuals, hedonists and video store film geeks-turned-director alike, here's the quintessential Godard; less famous than the groundbreaking Breathless, less masterfully controlled than...  View article in full

Article - "What You Find: Hidden Gems on DVD" by Graeme Hobbs
Friday 5th November 2004

DVD Extras aren't all about dubious 'featurettes' and photo galleries and theatrical trailers. Now and again the format has given the opportunity to release some exceptional features - often early short films by the director or really worthwhile documentaries. Here a...  View article in full

Article - "Silent Film Round-Up 2004" by Graeme Hobbs
Friday 5th November 2004

Overall, 2004 has been a good year for DVD releases of silent film in the UK. Most pleasing of all has been the recognition that when silent film is given due respect and presented in restored editions that are well packaged, they are revitalized as major works of ar...  View article in full

Article - "Film Preservation: The Nitrate Era " by R. Dixon Smith
Monday 7th April 2008

The year is 1908. The steady torrent of coins increases daily in nickelodeon parlors throughout the world, and every two months the entire population of the globe is exceeded by the number of people patronizing the world’s movie theatres.

But within several...  View article in full

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Collections & Lists

This film is part of the following Film Collections

Best Melodramas

Including: A Star Is Born, All About My Mother, An Affair To Remember, Bad Education, Black Narcissus, Bonjour Tristesse, Brief Encounter (1945), Broken Blossoms, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Dallas (Seasons 1 & 2).

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Including: Abhijan (Masters Of Cinema), Asphalt (Masters Of Cinema), Assassination (Masters Of Cinema), Bellissima (Masters of Cinema), Diary Of A Lost Girl, Edvard Munch (Masters of Cinema), F For Fake, Fantastic Planet, Faust (Murnau), Francesco Giullare Di Dio (Masters Of Cinema).

Sight and Sound Critics Choice 2002

Including: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Andrei Rublev, Au Hasard Balthazar, Bicycle Thieves, Breathless (Godard, 1959), Charlie Chaplin - City Lights, Fanny and Alexander, Fellinis 8 1/2, Intolerance, Ivan The Terrible (Parts 1 & 2).

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