Sunrise

The story is told in a flowing, lyrical German manner that is extraordinarily sensual, yet is perhaps too self-conscious, too fable-like for American audiences.

Any one who prefers an intelligent and stimulating film to the usual trash is urged to go and see it for himself.

From two points of view, Sunrise is among the most remarkable films that have ever been flashed on the screen. One is the rich, sensitive beauty of the photography; the other the tragic tenseness of the story.

The film is electric: overwhelmingly passionate and sexual.

Rich, strange and gorgeous, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise shows what an artist of the late silent era could accomplish cinematically, backed by an open checkbook and fueled by the highest aspirations even in the simplest of morality tales.

In his first American film, Sunrise... the German director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau creates some of the greatest images in the history of the cinema.

Murnau really was a visionary and I do see what made him such a talent...

Innovative through technology and development which will, without a doubt, be echoed in films yet to come. [Full review in Spanish]

The visual poetry it expended on an admittedly simple, cornball story (country bumpkin seduced by city vamp, pursued and redeemed by his pure-hearted wife) remains fairly dazzling.

I like that the film wasn't overly reliant on intertitles. Murnau let his actors tell the story. The actors are masters of silent film acting which at times is a little cheesy but works within the medium.