Murnau's Sunrise - A Snapshot

In 1927, FW Murnau was invited by Fox Film Corporation to direct Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Murnau had become well known for his films Nosferatu and Faust, both of which came from the legendary UFA canon of which they gave us Dr Mabuse, Metropolis and The Blue Angel. This meant that Murnau had become a well respected director of German cinema and a reputation for making films that appealed to a mass audience. Sunrise, however, didn't fare too well at the box office due to unfortunate circumstances. It was released as a silent in the very last days of silent cinema. It had been left in the dark for The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, a film in which you could hear the actors speak and hence, the first "talkie" film was born.

Murnau would only make three more movies after this so his life in Hollywood was cut short. This is due to being involved in a car crash in California. It is therefore that we treasure films like Sunrise for their lasting effect on American cinema that despite its box office failure, modern day viewers can still marvel at the camerawork, can still get caught up emotionally in the storyline and can see the blueprints as to how cinema should be made.