As Silent Septober moves along steadily, we arrive at our second of four films directed by the king of silent cinema and German expressionism, F.W Murnau. This edition features arguably Murnau’s greatest work, a film held in high regard by so many that even other Murnau masterpieces such as The Last Laugh and Nosferatu don’t seem to be on the same level. Regarded by some as the greatest silent film of all time and one of the greatest films of any kind of all time, here we have the 1927 classic, Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans…

The story is a simple one. A farmer meets a girl from the city. They get talking and she eventually tries to get him to drown his wife and things go from there. You might be thinking “that’s it?” but trust me, this may sound like a pretty simplistic plot but nothing is ever simple with Murnau at the helm.

One of my favourite things about F.W Murnau is his ability to make pretty much nothing into something. Take a dark room for example, a dark room, lacking in furnishings and without anyone in it. Just a room. Murnau would be able to take that room and give it not only a story, a purpose but a story and a purpose that would engage the viewer and get their attention, wanting to know more. All that, from a dark room. Now tell me his wasn’t an absolute genius!

As I mentioned earlier, the story itself, although simplistic, is one that can appeal to many different kinds of people. This is because of the wide range of genres that incorporate into the main plot. We have drama, we have suspense and light bits of horror and we even have bits of comedy thrown in there for good measure. This truly is a film for everyone and one that everyone can enjoy.

Also, this isn’t any old one and done kind of film. There’s so much replay value to this film. More times then not, you will find something new that you hadn’t noticed before after each viewing. I know because I notice little bits each time I put it in my DVD player. If there was ever a film that deserved multiple viewings, it’s this one.

On to the acting.. What can I say about the acting apart from it being superb. Without a doubt, the star of the show here was Janet Gaynor who put on a sublime performance as the farmers wife. He facial expressions seemed to give here extra layers of emotion to portray across the screen, really moving the viewer and making them join in her happiness in the pleasant parts and feel her pain in the darker parts of the film. It’s easy to see why she won the best access at the Academy Awards after watching Sunrise.

You cannot possibly do a review of Sunrise without mentioning the fantastic cinematography. Sunrise was one of the films that seemed ahead of it’s time in so many ways but none more so than in the cinematography department. The camerawork here was like nothing ever seen in film before. In the days where there were no motorised cameras and everything was hand-cranked, I believe this is one of the earliest films I’ve seen that has moving cameras. It makes a huge difference to the film, setting it apart from other films released during the time.

When trying to think of one word to describe Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans, I struggle. Words like fantastic, spectacular, moving and magnificent come to mind but none of really seem to do the film justice. This is definitely one that you need to sit down and watch so that you can decide what adjective you want to associate with this masterpiece.

Rating: 10/10