Sunrise (1927)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: F.W. Murnau
Writers: Carl Mayer, H.H. Caldwell, Katherine Hilliker, Hermann Sudermann
Cinematographers: Charles Rosher, Karl Struss

Cast: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston

Murnau’s much lauded film bares more than a passing resemblance to Zola’s The Beast Within (1890), but it’s a comparison that does it no favours, and while Sunrise contains sequences of breathtaking beauty and poignancy, it lacks the depth of feeling and visceral punch that might have made it a masterpiece - that said, it’s still a cracking film. Iain.Stott