Appreciation of F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

这是一篇关于电影日出:两个人类的一首歌,由德国电影导演f . w . Murnau执导,是美国电影机构的名单上最好的100年100部电影的essay。其创新的德国表现主义的风格令人印象深刻的角色完成了美丽动人的故事。

  Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, directed by German film director F. W. Murnau, is on the list of the American Film Institution’s best 100 films in 2007. Its innovative German Expressionistic style has an impressive role in completing the beautiful moving story. I will explain its effects in the following three aspects. 
  First is the music track. Not like the usual silent films, Sunrise is a perfect mixture of picture and the opportune sound and rhythm. For example, the secret meeting of the man and the woman from the city starts with a heavy and repressive music as the man approaches their trysting place. When they meet, the tune becomes cheerful as a comparison to the heart-breaking one at his house where the wife is left, lonely and sad. Then, the proposal to murder the wife is accompanied by music of madness and conspiracy. Music has been important to be a great expressive media in its story telling. It sooths, comforts, cheers up, saddens and escalates the tension of the audience.
  The second extraordinary feature of this film lies in its settings. The German expressionism has been well known for using extreme distortions in expression to exhibit an inner emotional world rather than the mere surface. Cabins of sharp angles, great heights and crowded gatherings could be found at the beginning of Sunrise. After accepting the murder scheme, the man goes home, passing the gauze-like path and walls printed with frightening shadows of trees, which indicates the dark and dreadful inner world of the man. This film also takes a surpassing move by applying techniques like foldover and image matting. An imagined world appears in the mistress’ fantasy of a glamorous city life. In the man’s struggle, images of his mistress appear, whispering, kissing and caressing him. In the latter part of Sunrise, the couple walks in the street, crowded with people and vehicles, but the next second, they are strolling in the countryside, quiet and sweet. These techniques set the unusual status of picturing at that time, offering a new access to display the mental world.
  What’s more, Murnau demonstrates his understanding of symbolic effect. The title “Couldn’t she get drowned?” is distorted, showing the mental illness and maliciousness of the mistress. Besides, the leading actor is symbolized by all sorts of weather. He is the secret mist, the full moon, the dark night and the sunrise. His betrayal is symbolized with the chilling mist when walking towards his mistress. It always takes place at night. And when the wife forgives the man and is saved from the storm, she is accompanied by her beloved husband and the sun rises with romance, happiness and hope. All these characters have no names, because just as the beginning titles say, “this song of the Man and his Wife is of no place and every place, you might hear it anywhere at any time”, it symbolizes everyone’s life and loving story. 
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