Sunrise And German Expressionism

Question 1

Character Types

Answer 1

• Anti Heroic
• Obsessive, Paranoid, Tortured (Mad)
• Melancholic

Question 2

Sunrise - Opening Scene

Answer 2

Title card

Busy City

Question 3

Context

Answer 3

• Aftermath of WW1
• German people felt guilt, despair, revolution and poverty
• The madlad Hitler was rising to power
• German cinema became sad and dealt with themes of mass murder

Question 4

German Expressionism

Answer 4

• Crisis in character’s life
• Slow, evocative acting rather than extremes
• 1919-1929

Question 5

Cinematography

Answer 5

• Extreme camera angles creating an off kilter view
• Tilted angles to disorientate
• High angles create the feeling of being looked down on
• Shifts in viewpoint

Question 6

The Tonal Shift

Answer 6

Makes the transition from a Fritz Lang film noir to a Charlie Chaplin love story, based on the mental state of the husband.

Question 7

The Cast

Answer 7

The Man - George O’Brien
The Wife - Janet Gaynor
The Woman From The City - Margaret Livingstone

Question 8

What do the characters names say about them?

Answer 8

The Man is named the man. He is an individual person and is owned by no one.

The wife is named the wife. She is owned by her husband and not free, the exists only to he his wife.

Question 9

FW Murnau

Answer 9

Fled Germany after Goebbels tried to recruit him to make Nazi propaganda, was recruited by William Fox and given complete creative control over Sunrise which initially flopped

Question 10

Social Representations

Answer 10

The city represents Industrialization

The wife represents stereotypical woman for the life, she is contrasted by the city woman who represents a new wave of woman’s empowerment. Binary opposition.