Alert: This is not a review! This is an essay and it contains spoilers as the whole story is described along with my opinions and thoughts. Don't read the essay if you haven't seen the movie yet!
Beauty is seen throughout F. W. Murau's ''Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans'', perhaps one of the best silent films ever made. Released in 1927, it is certainly such a very excellent movie. Several of F. W. Murau's films are considered classic (''Nosferatu'', ''The Last Laugh'', and ''Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans). But Sunrise can easily be said the best film directed by Murnau.
The film needs to be watched in order to understand it's merits. The beauty, and merits of the film is simply great. Cinematography, performances, story, screenplay- and everything else, make it such a wonderful film.
We never know what are the names of the characters. The two protagonists are The Man and his Wife.
The film begins with a train approaching a village. It is summer vacation, and and the vacationists reach the village.
Among the vacationists there is a Woman from the City. We see, one evening, she, dressed in black, leaves her hotel and walks to somewhere. She reaches a houses and whistles. Then, after a while, she goes away.
The residents of the house are a farmer (The Man) and his wife. The Man leaves his home, and when he reaches the woman, in a dark and empty place...
Meanwhile, while the man was on his way to the woman, women of the village discuss that the Man and his wife were once so carefree and cheerful, and now he has loves the woman from the city.
Anyways, after the Man reaches the Woman from the City, we see that they are in love with each other. The woman, certainly a vamp, after talking about their love, tells him to run to the city after selling his farm. What about his wife? She tells him to murder her. Though the man initially hesitates and starts hitting the woman, she then makes him kiss her and describes to him the plan to murder his wife. She tells him to drown his wife, and hands him a bundle of reeds so that he can save himself.
Then what? The man reaches home. His wife is asleep. He goes to his bed and falls asleep.
The next morning, he tells his wife that they would be going for a boat trip. The wife, overjoyed that her husband is, at last, paying attention to her, laughs and cheers with joy, and tells the maidservant that she would be away for a while.
They are on the boat. Their dog realizes that something is wrong and jumps into the water. The wife, startled, helps the dog to get into the boat. The man then again gets to the shore and takes the dog back home.
Again the journey starts. The man steps forward, intending to throw his wife off the boat. But he cannot. His wife is terrified. When he reaches a bank, the wife runs away. The Man follows her. She has hired a trolley. He also gets on the trolley. The wife is crying.
When they reach a city, the wife tries to run away. The man catches her, and tells her repeatedly not to afraid of him. She continues crying. They enter a restaurant. The man gets cakes. His wife touches one, and continues crying. She gets out of the restaurant. The man gives her flowers. Finally she stops crying and they somewhat reconcile.
They see a wedding and the man starts crying because of what he tried to do. His wife now comforts him. They reconcile.
After that, they have a cheerful time in the city, and the middle part is completely romantic comedy. Their visit at the barber shop, taking photos at a photographer's shop and other adventures are cheerful and funny. They have a romantic time. After this, they hire a trolley to get back to their village.See this scene. At the evening, while they are on their way to the village, they are cheerful and happy and lovely in the tram. At the morning, while they had been on their way to the city the man was filled with guilt and shame, and his wife with fear and sorrow. Both were filled unpleasant feelings. But at the evening, their love have deepened; they are happy, they are cheerful, they are lovely. Within just a few hours, their strained relation have into deep love, true deep lovely love.
While on a boat back to the village, suddenly a storm starts. And by that, it means a TERRIBLE storm. The man hands his wife the reeds. The boat capsizes.
After a few moments, we see the husband has survived. He goes back to the village, gets some people to help him, and tries to find his wife at the water. He doesn't find her, he only finds the reeds. He returns home sad and heartbroken.
The woman in the city arrives to his house. He tries repeatedly to strangle her.
Meanwhile, the wife is not dead! A few men find her unconscious at the water and take her home.
On the other hand, the man is trying to strangle the woman from the city. The maidservant informs him that his wife's not dead. The man leaves the woman from the city, and runs to his wife, who wakes up. They reconcile... and it brings a smile, and to some, it may bring tears of joy and emotions.
The woman from the city goes away...
Just think about the story. Within one day, so many things have happened. The man, blinded by his attraction towards a femme fatale, tried to murder her wife, then felt guilty and ashamed, the man and his wife reconciled, had a cheerful romantic time at the city. They were on a boat back to village. A storm had started. He thought his wife was dead. So he tried to murder the vamp. But his wife was not dead. They reconciled once again.
They were on the boat on both the morning and evening. But things were different. At the morning, he was filled with an intention to murder his wife. At the evening, he was filled with love for his wife. He had left home at the morning as a villain, and came back home at the evening as a hero filled with love for his wife.
Cinematography is definitely fantastic. The camera positions and camera works are wonderful.
Janet Gaynor, who had played the wife, won an Oscar that year for her roles in three films: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Seventh Heaven, and Street Angel. Her performance is truly great; giving a wonderful performances and bringing her character to life. The film also has great performances from George O'Brien (as The Man), and Margaret Livingston (as the Woman from the City) and they are supported by Bodil Rosing, Ralph Sipperly and others.
Just think of the theme of the film. At the early stage, it was filled with dark suspense. Then at the middle part, it became a romantic comedy, a cheerful and hilarious romantic comedy. The last part was filled with drama and slight suspense, then the final parts were romantic and emotional.
The femme fatale didn't know that her intentions would go wrong. Instead of separating the man from his wife, her evil plan went wrong. Nothing could separate the man and his wife. Instead, their love deepened, and the evil vamp had to go away.
I have added it to my list of favorite films. It's a love story filled with beauty and poetry. Sunrise, a beautiful song of two humans.
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