Genre: Drama / Romance / Crime Director(s): F.W. Murnau Release Date: 23 September 1927 Movie rating: 8.2

“Sunrise: a Song of Two Humans” (often abbreviated simply as “Sunrise”) is a 1927 American silent film starring George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor. It was directed by German director F.W. Murnay, and it represents an adaptation of a short story from another German, writer Hermann Sudermann. It is widely considered as one of the greatest films ever made. At the first Academy awards ever it won an award for “Unique and artistic production”, and it’s often placed among the 100 greatest films of all time in various polls. The plot follows the lives of husband and wife living in the country, and the fallout from the storm caused by the arrival of an alluring city woman. It is a tale of infidelity, betrayal, and, ultimately, of redemption. Director Murnay was one of the key figures in German Expressionism, a heavily stylized brand of cinema that found its admirers in Hollywood who eventually brought Murnay to America. The film brought a handful of cinematic innovations, and its lush production was extremely expensive even for Hollywood standards. Widely called a masterpiece upon its original release, it is viewed in the same light even today, almost a full century later. Its lush and poetic cinematography led to some Of Murnay’s contemporaries calling it a “cinematic poem”.

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