| Overview: | F. W. Murnau--invited to America by William Fox, the promise of complete artistic freedom, and a blank cheque--made Sunrise on the cusp of two eras: it represents the silent film at the peak of its poetic sophistication, and the sound film in its infancy. Fox told Murnau to take his time, to make any film he wished, and Sunrise was completed without any studio interference--as though with a dying flourish in a medium which at that moment had achieved a startling richness of expression. It was the swan song of the era.
Conceived by Murnau and written by Carl Mayer while they were both still in Germany, Sunrise takes a simple situation--the marriage of a peasant couple (George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor) from a country hamlet, invaded by a seductress from the city (Margaret Livingston)--and elevates it to the realm of fable, stripped of melodrama yet brimming with poetic impulses. George O'Brien becomes almost gothically depressed by his affair and plots a Dreiser-like boat accident for Gaynor, his sweet wife. This doom hovers and flits like moonlight over the rest of the film, which lithely tries to dodge it.
Murnau captivated the Americans with his legendary "invisible" tracking shots, and together with double exposures, expressive lighting, and distorted sets, the viewer is immersed in the fate of these simple characters. Sunrise won three Oscars at the very first Academy Awards ceremony honouring the 1927-1928 season. Janet Gaynor won for Best Actress; Charles Rosher and Karl Struss for Best Cinematography; and the film itself won a special Oscar for "Unique and Artistic Picture", the only time this award has ever been given. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this restored edition of what Cahiers du cinéma described as "the single greatest masterwork in the history of the cinema".
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