Sunrise (1927)

Director: F.W. Murnau
Cast: Janet Gaynor, George O'Brien, Margaret Livingston
Duration: 94’

At the behest of his mistress, a man plans to murder his wife so that he may start life anew in the city. Under the guise of this plot Murnau directs a thunderous swansong for silent cinema (the film was screened days before the screening of the first talking film). The love triangle, with each tip representing the viewer’s instinct, logic and emotion, falls apart at the end of the first act. From that moment on a beautiful film, perhaps the most beautiful film ever made, transcends the boundaries of cinema. It becomes passion.

Clearly guided by intense emotion, “Sunrise” attacks the viewer’s senses through a series of increasingly beautiful images. Magnificent frames resulting from the use of innovative for the time techniques and the sequence of a revolutionary musical montage which renders the frames as though they were electrically charged. Murnau’s dark plot twist yields a  desperate ode to love. A peculiar “song of two humans” where each note is surprisingly as it should be. He may pride himself on knowing that at the time of directing “Sunrise” there was no other artist as worthy as him. Butt above all he succeeds in producing a lasting work of art, which continues to remind people how important it is to fall in love afresh and which is consistently found on the list of the top ten most significant films in the history of cinema. Thodoris Karamanolis