Silent Film Sources - Reviews

Sunrise A Song of Two Humans 

SCENARIO by Carl Mayer from an original theme by HERMANN SUDERMANN 

DIRECTED BY F.W. MURNAU 

PHOTOGRAPHY CHARLES ROSHER KARL STRUSS 

TITLES BY KATHERINE HILLIKER and H.H. CALDWELL  

Copyright Fox Film Corporation MCMXXVII Passed by the National Board of Review 

Cast George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingstone, Bodil Rosing, J. Farrrell McDonald, Ralph Sipperly, Jane Winton, Arthur Housman, Eddie Boland 

For wherever the sun rises and sets in the city's turmoil or under the open sky on the farm life is much the same; sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet 
 
 
 
 

Generally considered to be the pinnacle of silent film art, Sunrise was a one-time cinematic combination of patron and artist. William Fox signed German filmmaker F.W. Murnau to come to America to make three films. Fox was upgrading his film production and was attracted by Murnau's prestige, and probably his storytelling skill and visual acuity. Murnau spared no expense with Sunrise, and the film was embraced by critics, though it alienated some audiences. 

A believer in the universality of cinema, Murnau tried to make his leads everyman and everywoman. Stripped of context, the settings are a village of thatched roof houses, a family farm, and the city. Murnau's city is more the peasant's impression of a city: big, loud, and disorganized, an odd mix of American and European styles. An amusement park in the center of a city is a very European concept. 

A delicate film of mood and tone, the first and third acts are somber. The middle section shows that Murnau could make a film that could appeal to middlebrow tastes without completely compromising his art. Lightly comic interludes help develop the characters, such as when O'Brien gets a shave and Gaynor has to deal with a none-too-subtle masher. 

Working from a story by Hermann Sudermann, Carl Mayer's scenario sketches a story of betrayal, love and ultimate reconciliation. Farmer George O'Brien is seduced by a vacationing woman of the city (Margaret Livingstone). She convinces him to sell off his farm, and arrange for wife Janet Gaynor to "accidentally" drown in a boating accident. The scene of their meeting in swamp is staged in bravura fashion with the moving camera following O'Brien, then withdrawing in time to catch Livingstone awaiting her lover. O'Brien invites his wife to go via boat for a day in the city, find himself unable to hurt her, and recognizes his deep unstated love. In the city, they gradually fall in love again, setting the stage for a tragic ending upon their return to the village. 

A good film can survive virtually any score and a great silent film can exist with multiple scores, as does the new Fox Video/Image Entertainment laserdisc release. Sunrise premiered in at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles with a score by Carli Elinor. The picture opened in New York with a Movietone score compiled by Hugo Riesenfeld. This orchestral score is a pastiche of original and classical standards, and presented on the analog tracks of the laserdisc. 

The new score by Timothy Brock on the digital tracks offers the opportunity for the viewer to see the film as if for the first time. While Tim Brock has written his share of experimental, dissonant scores, thankfully, this is not one of them. Brock has provided more of a conventional film score than a silent-film score. Brock's music doesn't make Sunrise a different film, but it does give it a different emotional texture. A bit less film noir, a bit more of a love story, but less romantic, more pastoral, and less contrast with the city. 

The film was never "lost," as Sunrise has been continuously available for rental from the Museum of Modern Art since 1936. I have never seen an ideal copy of the film, which is not surprising considering that the original negative was apparently destroyed along with virtually every other Fox film in the 1937 vault fire in Little Ferry, New Jersey. The video from Critics' Choice is horrible: contrasty, washed out and an overly noisy soundtrack, removing all of the pictorial elements that make the film what it is. The image on the laserdisc is not pristine, as recent restoration efforts by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill discovered that no first-class elements survive. The image on the laserdisc is brighter (not as dark) and cleaner (fewer scratches) than has been seen before, at the cost of some detail. The picture is matted to the nearly-square Movietone proportions. 

Presented with a gatefold jacket, the laserdisc has two added features. There are about 10 minutes of outtakes- unused footage, saved by the editor of the film, Harold Schuster. Each outtake is introduced with a title explaining either how the shot was achieved, or how this take differs from the final film. 

The laserdisc from Fox Video and Image Entertainment also includes a section of Carl Mayer's scenario for Sunrise. The script captures the mood perfectly. It is not a blueprint for the film, but reads like blank verse. Mayer focuses on the tone of each scene rather than the action, and it was up to the director to interpret instructions like "fade out softly." Mayer also uses the character names of the protagonists, which are not in the film. O'Brien's character is Ansass, while Janet Gaynor is Indre. The English language script covers the first 12 1/2 minutes of the film through the scene where O'Brien meets Margaret Livingstone in the pond under the moon. There are also several pages from Murnau's German language copy of the scenario, with annotations in the director's handwriting. These are not translated.  (Review © 1998 David Pierce)