In short, be as specific as possible when recounting what you've seen! Good luck.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
SUNRISE (1927), F.W. Murnau
Thanks everyone for your comments last week. This week, I'd like you to try to be more rigorous in directing attention to the formal features of the Shot That Moved You. Remember the way we spent a good deal of time in class visually breaking down the individual shots that make up the scene in The Gold Rush where the tramp "meets" (and fails to be met by) Georgia? Try to do the same here with your chosen shot. Ask yourself how the shot is lit; at what angle the shot is taken, and at what distance from the actors; whether or not the camera moves, and if so, in what way; how objects are arranged within the frame, and what kind of composition these objects make; what's in and out of focus; how long the shot lasts; and so on. (That list, by the way, is far from exhaustive.) Once you've taken stock of the concrete details of the shot, but only once you've done so, then go on to speculate about the meanings that such details suggest, and what effect they have on you as a spectator.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
36 comments:
There were a couple of different shots that I really enjoyed in this movie, Sunrise. One that really sticks out is when they are on the boat and he stands up and starts walking towards her. The camera tightens directly on his face at a little bit of an angle and lingers there for a good few seconds. If i remember correctly I think it's sort of short looking upwards at him. He is obviously the main focus of the frame, but it remains interesting because he's not right in the dead zone, he's slightly off to one side. It's a pretty intense closeup, and the way it's lit makes his face look like it's half glowing and half in darkness. That's what I enjoyed most about this shot is that the lighting seemed to be so symbolic to what was going on. He is conflicted between light and dark, good and evil. The blonde or the brunette. This shot really captivated me because i honestly had no clue..was he actually going to do it?? I thought this moment in the movie was really full of suspense and did a very god job at keeping the audience guessing, with his mix of facial expressions.
I apologize for the weakness of this post, I was absent for the first movie and wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for.
okay, just a shot, and only a shot:
The small sculpture - of what I presumed was a replica of some great Roman equivalent (a headless venus?) - that the Husband and Wife innocently knock over preludes my favourite shot: the smiley-face ball for a new head that they think they broke.
Briefly, I love how the couple was sweetly ignorant of the possibility of the headless sculpture as a finished work of art. It represents their renewed love quite fondly, by tying back with an earlier caption that mentioned how happy and childlike they used to be when they were madly in love. There is something quite heartwarming and comical in the notion of the couple working together to fix a mistake that they didn't even make. Oh, the "simplicities" of the country life...
One of the shots that I enjoyed the most was when the couple was in the restaurant, and the husband pushed the plate of food towards his wife as an attempt to make her feel better, which only made her more upset. The lighting in this scene was on the husband's face, making him appear more sincere and apologetic. Even after what he tried to do to his wife, I almost felt sorry for him at that moment. I also found it a bit ironic. At the beginning of the film, his wife had made him dinner, and entered the kitchen only to realize that he had snuck out to meet with the city girl. She was clearly upset, and the husband's gesture with the plate of food could have triggered her memory of that pain she felt when he left.
For the movie Sunrise I've chosen a shot closer to the end of the film. After they've left the city and are in the boat on the way home there is a 5 or 6 second shot where the camera rests on the couple holding each other. The lighting is beautiful as the shot uses "moonlight" to make the water shine and reflect in the upper right hand corner. It also frames the couple in a soft but bright light. The tranquility and romance of the scene seemed to solidify how they'd changed as a couple as well as contrast with their earlier, potentially violent boat ride. The couple looked comfortable and at peace in each others arms. It was a beautiful shot that really stood out for me.
The shot that moved me the most was at the very beginning of the film. It was the scene where the wife entered the eating area with a bowl of soup for her husband that had just took off to meet with another woman. When she first entered the dining room, the music was cheery and she was stirring the bowl of soup. A second after she entered, she realized that her husband was gone. Instantly, her body language spoke: she slowed down her pace immensely, she stared straight down and didn't once look up, she slowly sat down with her head hanging, ect. I could almost feel this woman's pain because she projected it so well. From that shot, the audience realizes that the man should not be with the woman that he just took off with, and something is very wrong.
This is breath-taking movie with plenty of shots to choose from. For me however, the most memorable shot in the film is the one where the couple was returning home after their night in the city. The specific shot being where the camera is quite a distance ahead looking at the boat coming towards land. The moon is very well lit in the background but there are clouds surrounding it giving it a fairly ominous look. The light from the moon reflects off the water and outlines the boat for us to see. I like the shot because it’s serene and beautiful now but the movie also foreshadows a problem for the couple to overcome in the close future.
My favourite shot from a technical point of view was the composited shot of the couple walking through traffic, so lost in each other's eyes that they are soon in a garden (Eden?) I found myself dumbstruck when I first realized that I was looking at a composited shot, (they had those back then? HOW?) and in awe that there were 'cars passing' between the couple and the camera to give depth.
But from the movie as a whole my favourite shot was the Farmer's Wife when she is first shown after her drowning. Her hair is finally loose (did you notice how she resisted having it unpinned at the hairdressers, and how her hairstyle was identical to her elderly mother's?) and she looks angelic.
It represents a very physical rebirth as opposed to her husband's spiritual regeneration in the church.
And as offensive as I might find the implication that she bore some responsibility for her husband's infidelity because of her dowdiness, I suspect that that would have been a common attitude in a contemporary audience.
The one shot that really stood out to me was the one where the man is going to meet his mistress for the first time that the audience is shown and he is walking through the dark, grim forest with the moon originally over his shoulder as the camera follows him from behind and eventually rotates its way around him entirely until it has positioned itself a full 180 degrees from its original position. This shot reminded me of many modern day long flowing shots and really caught my attention as it wasn't exactly in place with the static shots of its time. It was quite a long shot lasting around 20 seconds and it was lit very darkly. The dark and dreary forest was only lit by the moonlight and originally, as the character was in between the moon and the camera, it cast a silhouette which added to the mood that something bad or potentially dangerous was about to happen. When watching this I just knew something that would change the plot for the more dangerous was about to come. The general movement of the shot kept my attention and was quite possibly the most exciting shot in the film.
how the shot is lit; at what angle the shot is taken, and at what distance from the actors; whether or not the camera moves, and if so, in what way; how objects are arranged within the frame, and what kind of composition these objects make; what's in and out of focus; how long the shot lasts;
I am going to elaborate on my previous comment, since I realized that I didn't explain it well at the shot level; hopefully I remember the details:
In terms of pure shot, the sculpture (with the smiley-face head) stood out in that it was focused on for several seconds, giving the viewer time to engage with it; it was also a close-up, so the focus was merely on its ridiculousness.
Moreover, the shot turned to a longer close-up of the photographer, where the viewer watches - very methodically, and almost in slow-motion - his reaction, which is comic, of course.
The shot then turns back to the sculpture, and the viewer sees once again the hilarity... :)
The shot I enjoyed the most was closer to the end. When the Husband and all the men were looking for his Wife, and he see's the bullrushes scatterd with what I beleive was her scarf(I could be wrong). I just found this very ironic as when the plan to kill his wife was being made he was ment to use the bullrushes to save his life and then scatter them around. Yet it appeard to have not saved her life but were scatterd around. To me this made it even More so ironic because if he had used them as planned it wouldnt have saved his life possibly either. Making the original plan all together a failure either way it went. I say this because he realizes he loves her and cantt kill her, but what if he had realized this to late? or if the bullrush's didn't save his life(in either situation of in the proposed plan and when the storm hit). I think its just a twist of fate that what was ment to save his life makes him think his wife has lost hers.
There was one shot in “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” that stood out in my mind. This shot occurred after the Man and his Wife sat in on the wedding ceremony of two people in the city. As they left the church, the people waiting for the bride and groom were lined up outside. The way the shot was set up made it look like it was the Man and Wife’s wedding. The camera was positioned looking straight on to the front of the church, such that the focal point was on the Man and Wife standing in the doorway of the church. The gathering of people outside the church was divided into two lines, angled in a way that, once more, drew attention to the Man and Wife. The gathering of people was facing the door, eagerly waiting to catch a glimpse of the bride and groom, when the Man and Wife emerged from the church instead. They were gazing at each other with the loving look that is so commonly seen in newlyweds. The way the shot was set up and the body language of the characters created the illusion that this was the wedding of the Man and Wife. I thought this shot was very symbolic to the plot of the film because it represented a new beginning of the Man and Wife’s relationship. The experience they shared at the wedding ceremony was a process similar to renewing their wedding vows. The Man and Wife were able to rediscover their love for each other and start fresh with their relationship. The setting of the wedding was symbolic of this new beginning of their relationship, almost as if they were marrying each other for the first time.
My favorite shot in Sunrise was the close up on the mans face while he was in the boat about to go through with murdering his wife. I thought the close-up on the distrought look on his face as well as the climatic music built the level of suspense very dramatically. The Director made you constantly ask yourself if it was going to actually happen or not during the start of the film and this shot was the climax of a conclusion the audience did not expect
Sean Pallick
The shot that moved me the most in F.W. Murnau’s “Sunrise” was the shot when the man and his wife were leaving the church and the spectators thought that they were the new married couple. The entrance to the church was dark and the outside was light, which I believe implied that the man and his wife have left the darkness of their past behind and our now entering a new phase in their relationship. The angle of the camera was set up so that it forced the audience to focus on the man and his wife, not the spectators. Even the spectators were lined up in a “V” such that the focal point was the man and his wife. I believe that this was one of the few shots where the camera was entirely stationary; giving the sense that there is a newfound stability in the couple’s relationship. This is also one of the longest shots in the film and I think it is to help emphasize that the man and his wife have gotten over the attempted murder and are now ready for whatever challenges lie ahead.
The one shot that stuck to me the most was the wedding scene in the big city. The Man and his Wife venture into this joyous occasion whilst be moved by the whole ceremony. i found that this scene symbolized a re marriage or a rebirth of their decaying marriage. In this moment The Man and his Wife find as though they were the ones just married. The Man completely drowns the thought what he was about to do to the love of his life, his wife, and what he would do for that...woman... who could get bored of him at any moment. They are like children, carefree...always happy and laughing...
The shot that caught my attention the most was the introduction of the Wife, while the mistress was calling for the Man. During this scene the mistress is waiting outside the Man and Wife’s house calling for the Man with soft whistles. This scene stood out because of the lightening that was featured when the Wife was introduced. When the Wife was introduced on screen, the lightening was bright and luminous. This was due to what she was wearing and the color of her hair, which made the Wife stand out. While the audience watches the Wife prepare dinner, the scene is then shifted to the mistress waiting outdoors. When the scene is shifted, the lighting has vanished, and the mistress is standing in a gloomy setting. The scene was lacking brightness because of the mistress’ dark colored garments, and the outdoor surroundings, such as trees and fences. After this scene the audience can recognize good from bad, from the lightening that was used. Usually a bright, luminous setting would represent “good”, and “bad” would be represented by gloomy and shady lighting.
One shot that I liked was the shot where the man sat on his bed looking out at his wife while swiftly moving his head away from the multiple transparent apparitions of the city girl. It was a static shot shown directly after an innocent shot of his wife feeding the chickens. If I can remember correctly the preceding shot of his wife was bright with a lot of sunshine while the lighting in the shot of the husband was, in contrast, quite dark. It was a shot that showed the man's conflicting emotions of both lusting for the city girl while also being ashamed by her. A thing I liked about this shot from a technical point was the overlaying of separate shots in the same shot which was also used in other shots such as when the city girl was talking about the city and the backdrop behind them suddenly changed to scenes of the city.
Another thing I'd also like to mention is the several transition shots showing the village. Depending on the mood of whats currently happening in the plot these transition shots, despite being of the same village from the same point of view, seem very different. When the plot was dark, such as right after the man and the city girl plotted to murder his wife, the music was tense and these shots were usually during the night-time or very early in the morning when it was still fairly dark out. When the plot was happier, such as after the man and his wife had re-fallen in love, the music was more carefree and the shot was taken during the daytime when there was a lot of sunshine.
My favorite shot in Sunrise is when The Man is searching a marshy riverside in search of The Woman From The City. The mood is set by the mist emitting from the river, and the only light is cast down from an eerie full moon. The camera seems like its own entity, already observing the scenery before The Man wanders into the shot.
One part in particular that I think is interesting is how neither The Man nor The Woman can find each other at first, despite being relatively near. It’s not until the camera pans quickly to the Woman about a meter or so away, that The Man is able to see her. It gives the impression that their vision is restricted to what the camera – and thus, the audience – can see.
I can’t help but notice the heavy use of smoke and mist, not only during the riverside scene, but during the film in general, a lot of which seems centralized around The Woman From The City. There’s smoke from the cigarettes and candles, mist from the environment, and even the opening shot is of steam bellowing out of a train. This may symbolize The Man’s feelings of uncertainty, and his clouded judgment about the plan to kill his wife. It’s interesting to note that during the latter half of the film, when The Man and his Wife are enjoying themselves, the use of smoke is absent, only returning when we are shown a shot of The Woman From The City, once again enveloped in smoke from her cigarette.
Sorry about that last paragraph. I know it strays a little from just a single shot.
There were a couple of shots that stood out for me from Sunrise. One of the most memorable one is the first time we see the husband and wife on the boat. The way that the camera captures the husband's demeanor as he is contemplating if he should kill his wife or not. The way that the husband's face is always cast down covered in shadow given him a grubby look compared to the light and innocence look the wife has oblivious to what is about to happen to her is very captivating to show. The music especially began to get suspenseful when the husband began to move closer to his wife and extanding his hands towards her, in preparation to push her over to her death. This shot is powerful in showing the distraught the husband is experiencing trying to figure out whether or not he can actually go through murdering his wife.
The shot that moved me was the one of the husband and wife walking through the traffic after they had exited the church. The couple walking through traffic, enthralled with each other, is completely oblivious to the world around them. The traffic swirls around them miraculously missing them as they stroll without breaking a step. To me this shot represented that, at last, the influence of the 'Women from the city' and the draw of the city itself over the Husband and wife was finally broken. The traffic representing the malevolent force of the city moves about them and around them but never touches them. The surrealness of this shot is enforced by the use of rear projection for the shots of the traffic. I felt that the use of this technique was used in part to demonstrate that while the couple is physically in the city and among its dangers, they are together separate and immune from it.
The one shot that caught my eye was when the woman from the city was waiting at the riverside for the man to arrive. I found this scene very interesting for a couple of reasons. The lighting, which was cast down from a full moon, was very bright and it gave the women from the city a glow that made her seem angelic. The way the director captured her face made her seem innonect despite the fact that she is trying to break up a marriage. This scene was quite the contrast compared to the scene earlier showing the man walking through the dark and grim forest.
Also, the woman from the city is playing a flower in her hand and tosses it away when the man arrives. I interpreted this as a metaphor to the relationship that the women from the city had with the man. She has the man hypnotized to do her bidding. He is there to satisfy her needs but as soon as something or someone better comes along, he will be dumped like just like the flower in the scene.
In the movie Sunrise, I notice the women from the city always have these dark scenes like in the beginning the camera follows her to the farmer's well lit house. The one scene that caught my attention was this dramatic still image of the farmer walking alone with the moon shinning out to the left of him and a mist of fog between the sky and ground with his back facing us. It was this form that give this scene of darkness and mystery. He meets the lady from the city and her face is bright and his is dark. It seems that their faces are contrasting to one another and it creates a gap between them that they are not meant to be together. Its like the woman from the city gave this shadow of darkness to the farmer because his face expressions are dark because his mind is conflicting with doubts about his marriage and this women from the city. It is totally different when he is with his wife at the city for the day. Once again as the farmer approaches his house it is lighten up with the "sunrise" which I find somewhat related to the title of the movie.
I think the darkness and the light embodies the relation with good and the evil. The evil was women from the city manipulating the farmer to kill his wife and sell his farm land to be with her. The good is the farmer's wife because she is has always been there for the husband even after he tried to kill her.
The men and the wife walk though the traffics in the city and without seeing anything in their sight, no traffics, no ones, except seeing each other. At the time they keep walking, the camera was stay behind and following them all the way. They seems like had a long journey to be sure their relationship when they walk through the forest. We (the camera) were behind and watching their far walk all along.
The shot that moved me has already been mentioned but it is the shot of the husband going to meet his mistress. The shot moved me because it is a long moving shot, the movement of the camera was unexpected and refreshing from the usual placed camera shots. The shot also interested me because of the lighting, the moonlighting caused very dark shadows and also intense lighting on certain parts of the trees and husband causing the scene to become suspenseful. Also what was interesting about the shot is that at the end of the shot the camera interacted with its surroundings as a human would brushing aside branches as it made it's way into the clearing. Another aspect of the shot that added suspense is the fog that moves along the bottom of the clearing, making the viewer question the husbands intentions.
There were two shots in this film that i particularly enjoyed. The first is the scene where the Husband and the Manicurist plot the murrder of the wife. The shot starts on the Husband with a full moon in the background. As he walks away the camera fallows him around what apears to be a gate and then through thick tree and bush. The camera then 'swoops' over the mans shoulder and the Manicurist apears with the Moon at her back as if the shot had gone full circle. The second shot i enjoyed was as the Husband and Wife entered the carnival. The camera seems to hover over the crowd as it follows the couple into the carnival. The movement of the camera without interuption in both scenes is quite cinematicly beautiful.
Adam Sawyer
The shot that i found the most moving was when the man and the woman from the city are walking down to the lake to get the bulrushes. In this particular shot the camera moves slowly across the mud following foot steps that are being made by the two characters there. First off the slow following of the footsteps using the camera gave it a nice climactic feel. Also the footsteps i found were symbolic of just the trouble they were intending on getting themselves into. As walking through mud will always get your shoes dirty , it goes perfectly with the dirty plan they have hatched to kill his wife and the affair that has surrounded it. The fact that she would wear such nice shoes and walk through the mud like that showed how far this woman from the city was really willing to go. All in all I think this shot fit in great and showed more of an artistic side by placing this very creative shot in the film.
there were couple shots that i found very interesting,the first shot that caught my eyes is when the lady from the city first walk out of her door and went towards the man's house, those long shots are wildly used in today's moives, but its really rare to see in the early 90's, for me that shot really introduced the lady form the city, her character and her relation to the surroundings, its almost kind of odd to see a lady such as she walkin in a samll town. and for me when she curiosity looking through the window its almost symbolized what kind of person she is, puls the shot in her house, its a perfect introduction of the lady from the city.
the second shot that i really enjoyed is when they are sitting in the restaurant and the man pushed the plate of food towards his wife,i dont know its designed or not,but this shot is right in the middle of the moive, so for me this shot is a turning point of the moive, the husband is finally sharing some thing which he used to be sharing with his wife, the food symbolized their love ,their lifes, where the plate was placed the movement of his head its all perfectly fit.
The shot that I found most interesting is at the every beginning, after the man heard the city girl's whistling, he leaves his wife alone at home and searching outside for his dream girl. He pushes reeds aside and enters a place on the river bank. When the male figure is walking through the reeds, the camera actually moves with the actor and and the actor's position on the screen constructs a golden point which creat sort of unbalances.(But it looks every comfortable for the spectators). The lighting effects on this picture appears every subtle that I would rather consider this picture was shot in a studio. The artifacial light indicates the moon light, the light of love. It just looks like they are in a dream, a fantastic and a charming dream. I would rather say the picture is shot in a morden time not at 1927.
The shot that really stuck out for me was when the husband and wife left the church. The way the wife was holding the flowers and the husband was holding his wife. It wasn't their wedding but the way the shot was taken it looked as if they were newly weds. To me that was the turning point that told me their marriage was saved/renewed. The way they were looking into each other's eyes really let you know their fire had been rekindled. That whole crucial turning point happened in a solitary shot so for that reason that was the shot that moved me.
Andrew Kleysen
The shot that moved me was the couple walking on the city road where everything was just passing by them just like a dream. The clip was so fast moving behind them that it really popped them into the picture because they were moving so slowly and happily. It was like a dream because they didn't really care in contrast to the first time they crossed the road where the wife was so confused and the husband tried to save her because she was so frightened. For me those shots represented that the first time they crossed the street it seemed that their life was still so chaotic that they paid attention to everything around them while the other shot was representing they were in a dream and everything around them didn't matter as if it was just a backdrop in their love story. The lighting on the first one was darker that it looked scarier and the lighting in the second one looked much lighter as it portrays a lighter mood. The background on the first one looked real like real cars and people were as the second one looked so fake just like a clip of a fast paced city. haha.
The shot that I enjoyed the most was when the man was going to meet the lady from the city at night. The camera is placed behind him so you are watching his back, this part is so dark and all you can see is the bright moon in the top left corner. The darkness in this part gave me the impression that the man was going to see someone evil, like a witch. He had to walk through a dark forest to get to her and throughout this scene the camera shifts positions going from his back, to his side and then from his point of view right before he sees her. This gave the impression that someone could be watching him, just from the way it was shot looking through the bushes. So if someone was watching or following you in that manner they obviously think that you are up to something and sure enough the man was.
I agree with the fisrt comment that this story was a good vs. evil one because every the man saw the city vamp it was dark and at night but when he was with his wife it was sunny and bright.
I like the shot of the band playing there music. All the players in the band are placed awkwardly and unrealistically at different angles opposing one another. In real life this would probably be an unwise choice.
This style also shows up in the carnival scene. All the rides and venues are tightly packed and piled on top of each other. The lights flashing on and off, the buzzing noises and fast music complete the shot.
I guess both these scenes represent the closeness and fast pace of city life. City life being something that the two lovers aren't a costumed to.
The shot that moved me most was when she was left at the table alone. The way he lit her face made her seem so pure and innocent. It also made her tears sparkle, which made her seem so angelic. It really helps you compare the characters of the Wife and the Other Woman, because they are lit so differently. The Other Woman always seems so dark, almost evil. Before you even knew for sure that she was having an affair with a married man, you were given the impression that she was a temptress.
The shot that moved me in the movie, Sunrise was when the couple had just fallen back in love and as they were walking down the downtown streets came upon a shop where newlyweds got their wedding photo's. The particular shot was when the couple knocked over the art sculpture(resembling an ancient Roman figure) thinking they had broken off the head when really they hadn't. The quick reaction of the husband to retrieve the "broken" sculpture, to me, symbolized the renewed love and will to recreate their love by mending their mistakes and resembled another caption that notioned where the couple were young and fresh in love. In this shot, the camera was focused on them knowing the store-keeper was not far away. When the accident happened, the couple's reaction was priceless, how they put the smiley-face ball on its head not knowing whether it was a finished piece of art. Then they took their photos and ran quickly out of the store. It was quite humorous. great story, great plot, overall and great film.
The shot that I found that moved me in the 1927 film "Sunrise", was a shot more near the end of the film after the husband searches for his wife and comes back empty handed. It was the shot in which the husband has realized how much he loves his wife when the city woman comes by his window and whistles. The image of the husband standing in the doorway, spilling warm light from the inside of his empty house is a siloutte. His hands grip together fists of anger and hatred towards the city woman. The image on his face is clear though, his eyes wide. The camera is placed a fair distance away from him and the woman as to almost hide from his rage. It displays also the close distance between the man and woman as she trembles before him. The camera remains still throughout the shot. This shot moved me as it changed the atmoshpere of the film. It shows how much anger he has for a woman in which only days before, loved. It also changes the sympathy felt for the wife to the husband as he tried everything in his power to make his wife love him again, which is suddenly lost in her disapperance and now he remains alone.
The next scene however, changes the atmosphere once again as his wife is found. I feel this plays a large part towards the title of the movie; with every sunset, there is a sunrise, and the ups and downs of their marriage portryaing that. Therefore, leaving us, the spectators with a "sunrise" at the end of the film.
A shot that caught my attention was the one where the couple is going on the train for the second time. Just a few hours ago, they were in that same spot being miserable. But from this moment on, you notice that the director makes use of some amazing contrastic shots. Even with the camera angles. In the beggining of the movie, he uses a lot plongé angles, mixing them up, first the wife is in a "fear" position, while the man is in the "power", but then it all goes backawrds. It's amazing to see how well Murnau uses these concepts.
I thought that the beginning shot of the woman from the city was beautifully constructed. The setting began in the dead of night with the most ominous moonlight. The shot showed a moral struggle on the man's part over these two women. The fact that they dressed her head to toe in black while the wife was dressed completely in white clearly set the stage for the man's struggle between sin (city woman) and purity (wife). The dramatic close ups of the faces of the people not directly involved helped to draw us in to be a part of the people on the sidelines who had no power to stop what the man was about to do.
Post a Comment