BLOG 14

Rosetta Bailey
Dr. Joyce Rheuban
American Film
26 April 2010

Sunrise Paper
I will prove that the director F.W Marnau, somewhat portrays the movie, Sunrise, as a vampire story through the qualities he gives to the Antagonist and the film’s lighting.
In the film, the Antagonist’s appearance is vampire-like. The character who’s called the city woman plays a prominent role in the film. She is the other woman in the film. She’s the one that tries to convince the husband to kill his wife. The city woman skin is very pale. Her eyes were evil. She had sharp and somewhat curved nails. All of these things are characteristic of vampires.
The director indicates through the character behavior that she is a vampire. The entire film she‘s always wearing black clothing. Black clothing is associated with death. The Antagonist was very aggressive towards the husband. Even when the husband tried to resent her, she came on stronger. The man even smacked her and it only aroused her even more. She forced the man to do something that his conscious knew was totally wrong. The man didn’t understand how this woman possessed a certain hold over him. It is evident that the moon’s reflexion turns her on even more. From folklore we are aware that the moon is one of the vampire’s driven forces.
The part of the title of the film which states the “the tale of two humans”, is the one of the main forces behind the movie. The statement means that the wife and city woman are total opposites from each other. The wife is shy, childlike in a sense, and a committed housewife. The wife does her share of work on the farmer. She also appears to be depressed, because the husband doesn’t spend any time with her. However she keep spend her emotions inside. She probably of what the husband is doing, but never once did she bring it to his attention. She is a conservative woman who doesn’t even where makeup.
The shoot when the husband is in the bed room looking at his wife while she feeding the animals, and he starts to visualize the woman. This is an example of Super impression. Also how he told the city told him to kill his wife came to his image. The lighting of the shot at the lake sets the tone of a vampire movie. The light is dark. The camera is forced on the moon. The man and the Antagonist is shot long range medium key. The camera comes in for a close up as the couple kisses.
The contrast in the movie of the wife and the city woman demonstrates the difference between good and evil in the man’s character. He’s faced with an inner conflict whether to kill his wife or not. In the church shot he asks the wife to forgive, because that was like the person who tried to kill her on the boat wasn’t really him at all. That other person even scared him. The wife is a forgive woman, so she forgives husband and then they go off to the city together. They are so into their renewed love, they can’t even see the traffic.
In the sequence at the barbershop it looks as if the city woman is deliberately trying to make the wife jealous as she asks the man if he wanted a manicure .Also the barber is trying to take the husband attention of the wife as another man was trying to approach her. It looks like the barber was working along with the city woman. I believe that he was a vampire too. The barber and the Antagonist probably attentionally had that man in the suit to come and distract the wife. However what they were trying to do didn’t work. It just argued the husband more. Another example that the barber appeared to be a vampire to me was when he was using the razor to shave the husband face he look like he want to cut him and make him bleed. The barber was pale looking just like the city woman. Vampires need blood to survive. That is probably why the woman wanted the wife died so she can live off of her blood.
Another prime example that he’s under the city woman’s spell is that when he arrives home from the lake. The first thing we are shown as viewers is the large spider web. This can be an indication that the city woman has a certain hold over him. He was trying to fight the lust and temptation he was feel, however this vampire was too strong for him to fight off.
The sequence on the boat, various shots shown us the viewers the inner struggle that the man was faced with about killing his wife. The dog in the sequence sensed that something was wrong and dived in the water in the attempted to rescue the wife from her possessed husband. Wife unaware of what was going on was in shock, when she sees her husband try to push her into the water. The wife was so happy at first, with just the thought of spending time with her husband. Eventually the husband good side that loves his wife won the inner conflict and he was unable to go through with it. When the wife and husband are traveling back home from the city on the boat, the wife is knocked overboard. This is ironic because this is how this is how the husband was supposed to kill her. Like the saying “what goes around, comes around”. The point where he realizes that he loves his wife is the same point where he may lose her.
In the lake shot the director cuts from the lake back to the house where the wife is with their child. This shot is to show us the viewers where he’s at and where he should be. There do this technique so well, through parallel editing.
In conclusion the 1927,film the Sunrise, is a story based on a vampire that is trying to stealing a man away from his wife and family for her own twisted reason, and this is made clear through her appearance, behaviors, and lighting of the file