I’ve looked, and there’s never been a thread about this wonderful movie, so I thought I’d start one.
This finally got to the top of my ersatz Netflix queue, and I was so pleased, cuz I’ve wanted to see it for ages. Now I have, and all I can say is……WOW. This is such a gorgeous flick – touching, romantic, amazingly well directed, with amazing special effects and cinematography. Oh and the original music is great too.
Who else is a fan? And are there any other gorgeous gooey silent melodramas, (doe-eyed heroines and dastardly heroes a must) that you can recommend?
Never saw Sunrise, but The Wind, The Scarlet Letter, Greed (though you need to read the book “The Complete Greed” to actually see it), and Rain (with restored ending) seem to fit the bill.
Sunrise is wonderful!
I was at a loose end one evening a few months ago and noticed that there was a showing in a large local concerthall with live accompaniment by a group called Lambchop. So I bought a ticket to see what both of them were like.
The screen wasn’t full sized - in fact it was a bit improvised - effectively a large sheet and the picture would have been maybe 9’ x 12’ at a guess.
The band played in front of it with their backs to the audience. And they played bluegrass!
They took a little time to settle in but it worked really well, in fact I bought a cd which had a fair amount of the music they played on it. The whole audience loved it!
I’ve since bought the dvd but not watched it yet. I suspect the soundtrack on it will be a disappointment, compared to the live music I saw it with…
A bluegrass accompaniment! :eek: That sounds very odd to me, but I’m glad it worked so well.
Unusually for the time, a special accompaniment was recorded for Sunrise, and played at most performances (I think). It’s actually very good, and works quite well as sound effects, occasionally, too (for example in the shot in the barn where the horse suddenly appears – it’s a great moment.
I wish I could see it on the big screen. I’ll have to keep a lookout.
I’d say Pandora’s Box is on the same level as Sunrise, The Wind or Greed. You also might want to check out The Crowd though it’s not as brilliant as the others I mentioned.
One of my favorite silent films that nobody else I know has seen is Jean Gremillon’s amazing **The Lighthouse Keepers** (which is still not available in any commercial format, apparently )
Check out Dreyer’s Vampyr. Not technically silent, but very nearly so, and stylistically more of the silent era than of the “talkie” era. And work your way through as many Murnau as you can. *Sunrise *is his masterpiece, for me, but *Tartuffe *is a particular favorite as well.
*Sunrise *had a huge influence on John Ford. Seek out *The Informer *and The Long Voyage Home, a beautiful movie with a lot of Murnau in it.
And of course I second the suggestion of The Crowd. A masterpiece.
I’d have said bluegrass, Fortean, but others say alt-country… they do all sorts of stuff. There’s a review here, of a Berlin show, which is mainly about the group/music, not the film.
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