An Analysis of a Shot from the Film, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

An Analysis of a Shot from the Film, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

            Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a film that was directed by F. W. Murnau in 1927. The film is a romantic drama that illustrates the conflicting values between urban and rural lifestyles (Natzén, 2016). Sunrise depicts the conflict through the character if a man residing in a farm, and he is torn between starting a new life in the city with a city gild who is new in the village and staying with his wife and family on the farm. Unlike the values of the village life, the man is having an affair with a woman from the city who came to the village for the summer vacations. The village lifestyle is used to represent the old views while the aspect of the city represents the modern views. As such, the man’s wife represents the traditional roles of women as mothers and housewives, while the mistress symbolizes modernity and sexual liberation in women. The assignment aims to closely analyze a shot from the film Sunrise. The specific shot to be analyzed is between 42.05 and 43.35.

The shot is significant to the development of the story among the characters: man, wife, and the woman with whom the man has an affair. The shot is set to show reconciliation and forgiveness between the man and his wife after infidelity, unfaithfulness, and betrayal (Sterlace, 2019). The camera is shot directly at the man and his wife to demonstrate the interest they have on what is happening in front of them. The man and his wife were perplexed and interested in the vows that the couple was making at their wedding. The camera travels from the man and his wife to the couple having a wedding to show the differences in appearance and emotions expressed during the moment. At 42.40, the camera shows a closeup of the man in tears after hearing the wedding vows between the couple getting married. The man looks distraught and regretful of the things he has done to his wife. The story then progresses to the man getting married, responding to the pastor that he will love his wife, and the other man collapses in his wife’s arms.

The shot is critical to the relationship between the man and his wife as it marks the beginning of forgiveness and building of trust in the marriage. The shot was done in a manner that shows the pain and regrets that the man had endured to the extent of contemplating killing his wife to move to the city with the mistress. In this shot, the man is touched when the bridegroom vows to love his wife. Murnau filmed the shot to also demonstrate the forgiving nature of the wife, as she took her husband in her arms when he broke down in tears. The medium shot showed the couple lying on each other in tears. Murnau tries to show that the wife is empathetic towards her husband’s feelings despite being afraid of him previously. As such, the shot conveys the significance of the love and care the man has for his wife despite the city woman or the city values that try to get them apart. The shot implies that the man still loves and cares for his wife since he breaks down into her arms. Murnau also focuses on the aspect of trust and loyalty as the wife embraces her distraught husband despite the pain and betrayal she has endured. As such, the meaning conveyed is that the couple still values their relationship and helps the audience to see that they are willing to work on their marriage.

According to Martin (2014), filmmakers utilize mise-en-scene to convey the meaning and context of a shot, as well as the entire film. Murnau focused on the costume, setting, lighting, staging, and makeup to convey the context and meaning of the shot. The setting of the shot is a church in the late 1920s. The setting demonstrates the differences between the city and village lifestyles regarding weddings. The audience is shown a couple having a wedding and the man and his wife watching them in perplexity. The church symbolizes the aspect of forgiveness, as the wife warms towards her husband. The setting also makes the man look humble compared to how he was as he prepared to drown his wife. The costumes in the shot depict the manner of dressing in the 1920s. The men dressed in suits and hats, while the women wore hats and modern dresses. The wife has clothes that depict traditional dressing with little skin shown, while the people attending the wedding are dressed according to the city lifestyle: suits and hats (AMC Network Entertainment, 2020). The husband is also in a suit and jacket since he was preparing to leave for the city with the city woman.

The costumes made the story and the characters believable. The husband and his wife’s dressing were different from the men and women in the setting. The wife had a long traditional dress that women would wear in 1920s rural settings. For the story, the wife’s costume in the setting symbolizes anti-modernity, while the bride, bridegroom, and the guests’ costumes represent the modern way of dressing in the city. Murnau also designed the set to be believable to the story and the characters. The audience was introduced to a wedding that influences the husband to remember his wife’s worth when he hears the vows between the couple. Also, the natural lighting in the setting depicts an enclosed place. The natural light illuminates the building and shows shadows. The lighting darkens when the husband hears that the man getting married should protect his wife from any harm. The darkening of light represents a somber mood for the husband.

The shot contributed to what the author understood the film to be about. Murnau used the shot to help the audience understand that the husband still loved and cared for his wife, although he had an affair with a city woman. The husband hoped to come to the city with the other woman, but he ended up in the city with his wife. As such, the audience learns that the shot was incorporated to help the husband to get forgiveness from his wife. It also helps the husband to realize that his wife was still important, and they could repair their relationship. Through the shot, the author understood that the husband had regretted betraying and hurting his wife by entertaining the city woman. At the end of the shot, the wife supports his husband as they walk out of the church. The aspect of support showed that the wife was yearned for her husband’s life, and she was willing to work on their marriage.

Based on the story, the shot marked the turning point for the husband, who had fallen for the city woman’s proposition to drown his wife. As such, watching the bride and the groom exchange vows meant that he could not believe that he almost drowned his wife, and he loved her. Despite the pain the wife had endured from her husband, the shot indicated that she was empathetic to his feelings, since she supported and comforted him when he broke down. The author understood that the film was about betrayal, infidelity, reconciliation, and forgiveness. The shot was characterized by reconciliation and forgiveness, and the couple walked out of the church together. The ending of the shot demonstrated reconciliation between the husband and wife. Symbolically, the reconciliation represented the end of the husband’s conflict between the village and city lives. Although he was smitten by the city woman, the husband stuck with her traditional and village wife.

In conclusion, an analysis of a specific shot enhanced the understanding of the story in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Murnau utilized the right cinematographic skills, production design, setting, costumes, and lighting to achieve realistic mise-en-scene. The shot also conveyed meaning to the audience based on the context of the story. As a result, the shot was significant to the story’s development, since the couple had to reconcile and forgive each other to repair their relationship. The shot marked the beginning of a new life for the couple to rekindle their love, happiness, trust, and loyalty. Therefore, the shot is a crucially meaningful part of Sunrise to tell the story of reconciliation, forgiveness, and regaining trust between the couple.

References

AMC Network Entertainment. (2020). Sunrise (1927). Retrieved from https://www.filmsite.org/sunr2.html

Martin, A. (2014). Mise en scène and film style: From classical Hollywood to new media art. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave McMillan.

Natzén, C. (2016). Multiple Soundtrack Versions on DVD: Scoring Modern City Life and Pastoral Countryside. In Today’s Sounds for Yesterday’s Films (pp. 138-146). Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137466365_9

Sterlace, G. R. E. G. (2019). MOVIES 365: A good movie for every day of the year. S.l.: LULU COM.