Sunrise
These days there's Bollywood and independent film plus flourishing small films that turn-up from all over the world. Still, Hollywood has the most clout, money, and star power. Time was that Hollywood wasn't everything in the world of cinema. Between World War I and the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933, the great challenger to Hollywood was Germany. German films were sophisticated, visionary, and wholly extraordinary in a way Hollywood didn't begin to appreciate until Orson Welles brought us
Citizen Kane in 1941 and film noir, arguably one of America's most important contributions to film. As they were largely silent, adapting German films for American audiences was easy. The title cards were simply changed from German to English. This gave American, and world audiences, easier access to foreign films than we do today. No subtitles, no dubbing.
Unfortunately for Germany, Hitler found many of the films of his country to be degenerate and so the best German directors fled to Hollywood right after the Nazis moved in. For the most part, they didn't do well in the US but some did. The brilliant cinematographer Karl Freund came from Germany and gave us the staple three-camera format TV sitcom, developed for
I Love Lucy, still in use today.
One director landed here however and gave us something really special. His name was Friedrich Murnau and the film he gave us was
Sunrise. You have to try to understand that German film from those days is nothing like what Hollywood was selling. It was Expressionist in that moods and feelings were exaggerated, acting appeared overblown by modern standards, and fantasy and reality were woven together in any way the director wanted. You've probably heard of Murnau's most famous work,
Nosferatu. Even if you don't, you'll know the
haunting images from the film which are disturbing even today.
Sunrise, though it sounds like a vampire movie sequal, has nothing to do with vampires and everything to do with love found, love lost, and finally, the excrutiating power of life in just surviving. Critic after critic has called it one of the most beautiful movies ever made and that's not hyperbole.
Sunrise was honored with Oscars for Most Unique and Artistic Picture (Best Picture), Best Actress, Best Cinematography, and nominated for Best Art Direction. Really, people knew it was great at the time and it's still great now. Much of its magic comes through Murnau's lens where you're never quite sure if what you're seeing is a dream, a memory, or something else entirely. The love plot is stupid simple yet handled with such respectful sentiment that even now it doesn't fall into hokiness the way many love stories do. By the end though, what started as an ordinary love story becomes epic, terrifying, and deeply moving. So much of that is due to the remarkable chemistry between the two leads, Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien (hunky and maybe even better than Gaynor), who deliver performances which aren't remotely upstaged by Murnau's surreal sets.
Ever pick-up a movie and think you know what it's all going to be about and just know you won't like it? A lot of people do this with
Sunrise and it's a huge mistake because
Sunrise is one of the great love stories of all time.
Murnau only made two following films before his untimely death in 1933.