Sunrise 1927 and its use of Expressive Montage
By Daniel Blumensev
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans was prolific German director’s F. W. Murnau’s first American picture, released in 1927. Although the film’s financial success was substandard, critics worldwide praised the film for its German expressionist-rooted originality and innovation, particularly in the areas of music, inventive intertitles, expressive montage and its use of the subjective camera. Although the first ‘talkie’: The Jazz Singer, was released a month before Sunrise, Murnau’s film was still silent, without any spoken dialogue. Due to being a silent picture, minus some prerecorded sounds, Murnau successfully implemented a variety of effective narrative resources in order to tell the film’s story as best he could without the use of dialogue (Sunrise 1927). The most visually stunning resource Murnau implemented in Sunrise was expressive montage, being the technique of editing shots together into a sequence from which ideas, as well as the entirety of a film’s themes and power lie in (Odin 1989). In the absense of dialogue, expressive montage was employed through the use of various complex in-camera tricks carried out by the film’s two cinematographers: Karl Struss and Charles Rosher, in order to enhance the film’s narrative and themes as well as invite the audience into the minds and emotions of the film’s protagonists: ‘The Man’, ‘The Wife’ and ‘The Woman from the City’ (Sunrise 1927).
There are many uses and, ultimately, effects of the expressive montage used throughout the film. The most common use of the expressive montage in the picture is to create the dream effect, the sneak peak into the hopes, desires and dreams of the protagonists. The most famous example of the ‘dream’ montage happens in the second act, and ultimately is used in order to signify the renewel of the couple’s relationship, a profound, intimate and astoundingly beautiful moment. In context, this iconic road scene consists of ‘The Man’ holding ‘The Wife’ close to him in his arms and taking her across the busy city road. The two, lost in each other’s gazes, literally drift across the road with all the cars barely missing them as they cross. Suddenly the camera booms down and the background shot of the city dissolves through into a peaceful pasture of the farm, making the audience feel the couple’s connection to each other in this intimate moment, who are in a world of their own, together, in a peaceful rural environment. The couple stop and embrasse, then the background suddenly dissolves back to the street scene and we are revealed to the havoc that the couple’s moment of bliss has caused on the road. All the cars are honking, the drivers are shouting at them and then the two break from their bond and realize what they have caused. Still transfixed by the intimate moment they just shared, the couple get dragged off the road. This is undoubtedly one of the strongest moments in cinema history, mainly realized by it’s use of expressive montage. As optical printing was not yet invented in 1927, this montage was created in-camera by the film’s two cinematographers: Charles Rosher and Karl Struss through the use of double exposure. This technique meant exposing the film once to one image and then marking the gate of the camera (where the first shot of the couple walking was filmed, in the case of Sunrise, with a large black scrim in front of them), and then threaded back up in order to film the second sequence; being the background of the busy road and of the peaceful pasture, all then composited in-camera to create this mesmerizing effect. (Sunrise 1927). Although the use of dialogue wouldn’t have even been necessary to carry out this message of the couple’s renewel, it could however have been used by having the couple throw back some sentimental words at each other thus the audience would understand that their relationship had been reconciled. However, fully supporting Alfred Hitchcock’s claim that ‘Silent cinema is the purest form of motion picture’, this message of the couple’s renewel was perfectly portrayed through the use of visual filmmaking; ultimately the expressive montage (Truffaut 1984). This montage of the couple walking across the road, paralized in each other’s eyes, having all the cars barely missing them, and then the background dissolving through into a tranquil pasture makes the audience feel, more than dialogue could ever make one feel, the moment of transcendence that the couple are experiencing. Through the use of this double exposure, from the background of the road dissolving into a peaceful pasture, Murnau makes his audience literally see the world around the couple dissolving and a world of their own appearing, signifying the couple’s oblivion to the world around them and their total loss in each other’s souls.
Another use of the expressive montage to further the narrative of the newly established connection between the couple happens towards the end of the picture, when ‘The Man’ and ‘The Wife’ are sitting in a café in the city, enjoying yet another intimate moment together. This scene revolves around the couple having drunken some wine in a café and then they hold each other tight, close their eyes, and the top of the frame transitions to a group of angels flying overhead, thus the lovers, as Lotte Eisner puts it: ‘...are drunk with happiness, and feel as light and weightless as the airy acrobats’ (1973). This montage is similar to the road into pasture montage, as both montages further the theme of the couple’s newely restored relationship. Then a waiter enters the double exposure, breaking the couple’s blissful moment, returning them to reality, and gives them the check. This expressive montage is implemented here, as with the road montage, in order to further the narrative of the couple’s renewel of their relationship. This montage symbolizes, supporting John Bailey’s claim: ‘An idealic moment of what the couple imagine their love to be’, as the shot is constructed of the couple in the bottom of the frame dreaming of their love, and their ‘love’ is represented through this montage of angels flying, spinning around and playing the violin overhead, which is double exposed (Sunrise 1927). Thus due to this double exposition montage, where the characters are looking up, with their eyes closed, dreaming, of what their love is like, and we see this ‘love’ overhead, represented by angels, the audience thus understand, not through dialogue but through this expressive montage the theme and narrative of this film in this particular moment, being the renewel of the couple’s love.
The second great example of effective expressive montage used in the film in order to portray ‘dreams’, happens in the beginning of the film when ‘The Woman from the City’ tells ‘The Man’ about how magnificent the city is. The scene revolves around the two lying in the grass starring into the distance, where the upper part of the frame of the night sky dissolves into a zoom shot of the luminous city. Then through a dissolve transition the city scene fills the frame, with various shots of multiple exposure such as of a conductor conducting an orchestra on the left hand side of the frame and people dancing on the right hand side, are presented to us. Then the city scene dissolves back to the man and woman, with the woman dancing with joy of the fact of taking the man back with her to the city. Then the two embrasse and the scene ends. With dialogue the effect of this scene could have been carried out by having the woman simply describe to the man how wonderful the city is, but through the use of expressive montage, Murnau makes the audience experience visually, with the two characters, how wonderful the city is. This is due to the nature of the shot being in double exposure, where we get to see both the two characters in the bottom left of the frame looking up at the city, which is located in the upper part of the frame. Thus, as there is no dialogue, this expressive montage is employed in order to further the narrative of the woman seducing the man to come to the city with her, as she literally shows him what the city is like, in this double exposure shot.
Having covered the effect of portraying the dreams, hopes and desires of the protagonists through the use of expressive montage, Murnau’s other goal of the expressive montage was to portray the deep mind-sets and psychological states of his characters in the picture, through montages of flashbacks and double exposed shots. In the beginning of the film, an effective montage is used in order to portray ‘The Man’s’ guilt and obsession with drowning his wife. We see the man coming home after his secret rendez-vous with his lover, and going to bed. Lying in bed, ‘The Man’ looks at his wife and we get a double exposed shot of a body of water covering him. Continuing to look at his wife, ‘The Man’ dissapears and the water covers the entire frame. This expressive montage was used to portray ‘The Man’s’ total obsession with drowning his wife, and that his guilt and conflict with self, is ultimately drowning him (Sunrise 1927). The next morning we get a super imposition montage of ‘The Woman from the City’ fading in and out of the screen in multiple places around ‘The Man’, hugging and kissing him. This montage represents ‘The Man’s’ psychological state of being tormented and seduced by his lover, and whether to murder his wife or not. We then see an imaginary flashforward of the man throwing his wife overboard, presented in slow-motion. As we see ‘The Man’ holding onto his head before and after the flashforward, this montage is employed in order to, not through dialogue, but through imagery, show us, ‘The Man’s’ disturbing mind-set of drowning his wife.
F. W. Murnau’s 1927 film: Sunrise is still today, considered a masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever made, being 5th on Sight and Sound magazine’s 2012 critic’s poll of the greatest films of all time. The reason Sunrise is still getting and undoubtedly will continue to get this acclaim and recognition is because of Murnau’s innovative and original use of narrative resources in order to replace spoken dialogue, such as music, title cards, expressive montage and the subjective camera. The use of expressive montage, implemented by the film’s two directors of photography, Rosher and Struss, was to further the narrative and effectively portray and develop the themes of the film, through the camera tricks of double exposure.
There are many uses and, ultimately, effects of the expressive montage used throughout the film. The most common use of the expressive montage in the picture is to create the dream effect, the sneak peak into the hopes, desires and dreams of the protagonists. The most famous example of the ‘dream’ montage happens in the second act, and ultimately is used in order to signify the renewel of the couple’s relationship, a profound, intimate and astoundingly beautiful moment. In context, this iconic road scene consists of ‘The Man’ holding ‘The Wife’ close to him in his arms and taking her across the busy city road. The two, lost in each other’s gazes, literally drift across the road with all the cars barely missing them as they cross. Suddenly the camera booms down and the background shot of the city dissolves through into a peaceful pasture of the farm, making the audience feel the couple’s connection to each other in this intimate moment, who are in a world of their own, together, in a peaceful rural environment. The couple stop and embrasse, then the background suddenly dissolves back to the street scene and we are revealed to the havoc that the couple’s moment of bliss has caused on the road. All the cars are honking, the drivers are shouting at them and then the two break from their bond and realize what they have caused. Still transfixed by the intimate moment they just shared, the couple get dragged off the road. This is undoubtedly one of the strongest moments in cinema history, mainly realized by it’s use of expressive montage. As optical printing was not yet invented in 1927, this montage was created in-camera by the film’s two cinematographers: Charles Rosher and Karl Struss through the use of double exposure. This technique meant exposing the film once to one image and then marking the gate of the camera (where the first shot of the couple walking was filmed, in the case of Sunrise, with a large black scrim in front of them), and then threaded back up in order to film the second sequence; being the background of the busy road and of the peaceful pasture, all then composited in-camera to create this mesmerizing effect. (Sunrise 1927). Although the use of dialogue wouldn’t have even been necessary to carry out this message of the couple’s renewel, it could however have been used by having the couple throw back some sentimental words at each other thus the audience would understand that their relationship had been reconciled. However, fully supporting Alfred Hitchcock’s claim that ‘Silent cinema is the purest form of motion picture’, this message of the couple’s renewel was perfectly portrayed through the use of visual filmmaking; ultimately the expressive montage (Truffaut 1984). This montage of the couple walking across the road, paralized in each other’s eyes, having all the cars barely missing them, and then the background dissolving through into a tranquil pasture makes the audience feel, more than dialogue could ever make one feel, the moment of transcendence that the couple are experiencing. Through the use of this double exposure, from the background of the road dissolving into a peaceful pasture, Murnau makes his audience literally see the world around the couple dissolving and a world of their own appearing, signifying the couple’s oblivion to the world around them and their total loss in each other’s souls.
Another use of the expressive montage to further the narrative of the newly established connection between the couple happens towards the end of the picture, when ‘The Man’ and ‘The Wife’ are sitting in a café in the city, enjoying yet another intimate moment together. This scene revolves around the couple having drunken some wine in a café and then they hold each other tight, close their eyes, and the top of the frame transitions to a group of angels flying overhead, thus the lovers, as Lotte Eisner puts it: ‘...are drunk with happiness, and feel as light and weightless as the airy acrobats’ (1973). This montage is similar to the road into pasture montage, as both montages further the theme of the couple’s newely restored relationship. Then a waiter enters the double exposure, breaking the couple’s blissful moment, returning them to reality, and gives them the check. This expressive montage is implemented here, as with the road montage, in order to further the narrative of the couple’s renewel of their relationship. This montage symbolizes, supporting John Bailey’s claim: ‘An idealic moment of what the couple imagine their love to be’, as the shot is constructed of the couple in the bottom of the frame dreaming of their love, and their ‘love’ is represented through this montage of angels flying, spinning around and playing the violin overhead, which is double exposed (Sunrise 1927). Thus due to this double exposition montage, where the characters are looking up, with their eyes closed, dreaming, of what their love is like, and we see this ‘love’ overhead, represented by angels, the audience thus understand, not through dialogue but through this expressive montage the theme and narrative of this film in this particular moment, being the renewel of the couple’s love.
The second great example of effective expressive montage used in the film in order to portray ‘dreams’, happens in the beginning of the film when ‘The Woman from the City’ tells ‘The Man’ about how magnificent the city is. The scene revolves around the two lying in the grass starring into the distance, where the upper part of the frame of the night sky dissolves into a zoom shot of the luminous city. Then through a dissolve transition the city scene fills the frame, with various shots of multiple exposure such as of a conductor conducting an orchestra on the left hand side of the frame and people dancing on the right hand side, are presented to us. Then the city scene dissolves back to the man and woman, with the woman dancing with joy of the fact of taking the man back with her to the city. Then the two embrasse and the scene ends. With dialogue the effect of this scene could have been carried out by having the woman simply describe to the man how wonderful the city is, but through the use of expressive montage, Murnau makes the audience experience visually, with the two characters, how wonderful the city is. This is due to the nature of the shot being in double exposure, where we get to see both the two characters in the bottom left of the frame looking up at the city, which is located in the upper part of the frame. Thus, as there is no dialogue, this expressive montage is employed in order to further the narrative of the woman seducing the man to come to the city with her, as she literally shows him what the city is like, in this double exposure shot.
Having covered the effect of portraying the dreams, hopes and desires of the protagonists through the use of expressive montage, Murnau’s other goal of the expressive montage was to portray the deep mind-sets and psychological states of his characters in the picture, through montages of flashbacks and double exposed shots. In the beginning of the film, an effective montage is used in order to portray ‘The Man’s’ guilt and obsession with drowning his wife. We see the man coming home after his secret rendez-vous with his lover, and going to bed. Lying in bed, ‘The Man’ looks at his wife and we get a double exposed shot of a body of water covering him. Continuing to look at his wife, ‘The Man’ dissapears and the water covers the entire frame. This expressive montage was used to portray ‘The Man’s’ total obsession with drowning his wife, and that his guilt and conflict with self, is ultimately drowning him (Sunrise 1927). The next morning we get a super imposition montage of ‘The Woman from the City’ fading in and out of the screen in multiple places around ‘The Man’, hugging and kissing him. This montage represents ‘The Man’s’ psychological state of being tormented and seduced by his lover, and whether to murder his wife or not. We then see an imaginary flashforward of the man throwing his wife overboard, presented in slow-motion. As we see ‘The Man’ holding onto his head before and after the flashforward, this montage is employed in order to, not through dialogue, but through imagery, show us, ‘The Man’s’ disturbing mind-set of drowning his wife.
F. W. Murnau’s 1927 film: Sunrise is still today, considered a masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever made, being 5th on Sight and Sound magazine’s 2012 critic’s poll of the greatest films of all time. The reason Sunrise is still getting and undoubtedly will continue to get this acclaim and recognition is because of Murnau’s innovative and original use of narrative resources in order to replace spoken dialogue, such as music, title cards, expressive montage and the subjective camera. The use of expressive montage, implemented by the film’s two directors of photography, Rosher and Struss, was to further the narrative and effectively portray and develop the themes of the film, through the camera tricks of double exposure.
Bibliography
Eisner, L. 1973 Murnau. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Limited.
Odin, S. 1989. The Influence Of Traditional Japanese Aesthetics On The Film Theory Of Sergei Eisenstein. Journal Of Aesthetic Education 23(2), pp. 69.
Truffaut, F. 1984. Hitchcock/Truffaut. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Odin, S. 1989. The Influence Of Traditional Japanese Aesthetics On The Film Theory Of Sergei Eisenstein. Journal Of Aesthetic Education 23(2), pp. 69.
Truffaut, F. 1984. Hitchcock/Truffaut. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Filmography
Sunrise (1927) Directed by F. W. Murnau [Film]. USA: Fox Film Corporation.