Blog Entry 13

In this essay I’m going to prove how everything in the film Sunrise directed by F. W. Murnau has an opposite and clashing force. Throughout the film you can see direct polar opposites. They tend to collide as these worlds intersect. F.W Murnau uses many techniques to portray the opposites. This black and white film uses lighting, superimpositions, shots of city and urban life among other things to show opposites.

Sunrise, directed by F.W Murnau revovles mainly around three characters: the husband, the wife and the mistress. A woman from the city, (the mistress) arrives to a small rural town for a vacation. she begins a love affair with a married man and stays longer than she should have. It becomes obvious to everyone exactly what is happening.

The first interaction we see with the husband and mistress is near the swamps. Initially, the directer begins to compare the city and small town. As the mistress begins to entice the vulnerable husband with the city life, the director introduces us to images of a metropolis. We see the bright lights, buidings, fast moving cars and big bands playing. At fist, there's a superimposition of the city on the swamps as the two forbbiben lovers lay on the grass. There, we see two completely different places being joined to show the immense difference. The city and rural are also comapred with the husband and wife. In a shot where the husband and wife are walking together in the city the scenerary changes into the woods and than back to the city later on. We see them walking in a busy city full of people, then the background changes to the peaceful and isolated woods.

The film, Sunrise by F. W. Murnau begins with a text that says “…For wherever the sun rises and sets in a city’s turmoil or under the open sky on the farm life is much the same; sometimes biter, sometimes sweet.” Right from the beginning there are many comparisons. The audience gets a feel for where the direction the film is going. The text mentions sunrise and sunsets, which is very popular in the movie. The next polar opposites that are mentioned are the city life and farm life. That’s a theme that is constantly being compared through various ways by the director. The last thing in the text is about both places being bitter and sweet at periods of time. As you can see, the movie sets the tone for comparisons.

Night and day play an enormous part in the entire film Sunrise. The night generally associted with evil and mischief. It's when all the bad things occur, and this certainly rings true in the film. When we see the infidelity first happen it's at night. This is also when drowning the husbands wife is proposed by the mistress. The husbands image is then tarnished, he now begins to appear like a monster. He's shown as bareric, hunched backed and demonic. The next time the night is depicted in the Sunrise the husband and wife are on a boat. It almost seems as if though the night is going beautiful and everything is perfect as the husband and wife are in bliss. All of a sudden a storm begins. the boat tips over and the husband and wife are seperated. The town goes looking for the wife, along with the husband who survived. She appears to have been drowned but is found barely alive.

Another thing that occurs at night is that we see the mistress a lot more. She is portrayed as evil so it would be only fitting to see her at night. The vamp can be seen at night with dim lighting in the swamps and in the town trying to seduce the husband. F. W. Murnau places close attention at night. The set placed under a dim light.

The opposite to night was day in the film Sunrise. In the day we see the wife more often. She is assicated with good. In the day time the husband takes the wife for a boat ride to drown her. Since it's morning which is linked to positivity in the film she survives and the husband changes his mind. They later have an experience similar to a honey moon in the city, after the incident on the boat. The morning is full of happiness and a significant change of heart for husband and wife.

Right aorund the time when both husband and wife had a change of heart they sat and watched a couple get married. The pastor says " God is giving you,in the holy bond of matrimony a trust... she is young and inexperienced. Guide her love her." These are two things he did not do for her since the vamp entered there lives. Instead of guiding he was been tricked and mislead and instead of loving her he was cheating on her. He goes on to say"... keep and protect her from all harm". He did the exact opposite to his wife. He was putting her in harms way and inflicting pain and suffering on her.

One other major parallel comparison was the wife and the mistress. The wife was a loving mother. A devoted, wholesome, innnocent, traditional, good wife. The mistress on the other hand was all the opposite. She was a single, misbehaving, malicious, negative vamp. The wife was a caring mother who was very sensative with light clothing and never seen doing anything negative. Every time the vamp was seen she was up to nothing good. She could always be seen smoking a cigarette and in dark clothing. In a parallel editing sequence we can see the mother embracing her baby crying while the vamp is huging and seducing her husband smiling.

Sin and redemtion are compared plently of times in Sunrise. The hunsband continually cheats on his wife. Besides that he also tries to kill her. He commits many sins but he is able to redeem himself. When he finally gets forgiveness from his wife she almost dies. At the end of the film when it is apparent she is alive they embrace and kiss in the final shot. He was to redemption after all the sins he committed.

The film Sunrise was a ground breaking film that used many techniques still used today to show extreme opposites. It won two Oscars in the first Acamedy awards ever. It was among the first sound films. The theme of polar opposites is seen vivdly .