C2SC Silent Cinema: Sunrise

Question 1

What is the significance of the 28th of December 1895?

Answer 1

It was on this date in the Salon Indien du Grand Cafe, Paris that the Lumiere Brothers first showed films to a paying audience - also known as the date of the birth of cinema.

Question 2

Who was in the audience at the Salon Indien du Grand Cafe in 1895?

Answer 2

Georges Melies

Question 3

What two traditions in cinema do the Lumieres and Melies represent?

Answer 3

Realism and expressionism

Question 4

Name one Lumiere brothers film

Answer 4

E.g. Workers Leaving A Factory, Train Arriving at the Station, The Gardener etc.

Question 5

Name one Melies film

Answer 5

E.g. A Trip to the Moon; The Kingdom of the Fairies, The Impossible Voyage

Question 6

What was the name of the camera/projector patented by the Lumieres?

Answer 6

The Cinematographe

Question 7

Name the two cinematographer on Sunrise

Answer 7

Karl Struss & Charles Rosher

Question 8

What type of camera did Karl Struss use for the famous ‘marsh sequence’ in Sunrise?

Answer 8

A motorised Bell & Howell which allowed him to explore space on a dolly.

Question 9

Sunrise is one of the first silent films to which a score was added. What was the name of the brand under it was released?

Answer 9

Movietone

Question 10

Who wrote the score for Sunrise?

Answer 10

Hugo Riesenfeld

Question 11

Who directed Sunrise?

Answer 11

Friedrich Wilhelm (FW) Murnau

Question 12

What was Murnau’s family name?

Answer 12

Plumpe

Question 13

Name three other films by the director of Sunrise

Answer 13

Nosferatu, The Last laugh, Faust, City Girl, Tabu.

Question 14

What was the name of the huge Berlin-based studio which produced many of Murnau’s films?

Answer 14

Ufa

Question 15

What was the name of the Hollywood mogul who produced Sunrise?

Answer 15

William Fox

Question 16

Name the three stars of Sunrise

Answer 16

George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor and Margaret Livingston

Question 17

Name the two film movements associated with Murnau’s work in Germany

Answer 17

German Expressionism
Kammerspielfilm

Question 18

Which cinematic codes create the ‘expressionism’ in German Expressionism?

Answer 18

Mise-en-scene
Performance

Question 19

Which cinematic codes is used most ‘expressively’ in Kammerspielfilm?

Answer 19

Cinematography

Question 20

What is the term used to describe the cinematography in Kammerspielfilm, for which Murnau became famous?

Answer 20

the ‘unchained camera’

Question 21

In what sense can the tracking shot in Sunrise be described as both realist and expressionist?

Answer 21

Realist: it is following The Man’s actions
Expressionist: it positions the audience with The Man, creating subjectivity and aligning use with his feelings as he walks towards TWFTC.

Question 22

Identify two ‘realist’ uses of sound in Sunrise

Answer 22

Street sounds in the City; the bell; the sound of the storm

Question 23

Identify the main source of ‘expressive’ use of sound in Sunrise

Answer 23

The score by Hugo Riesenfeld, used for example in the ‘marsh scene’

Question 24

In what senses does Sunrise have a ‘duel identity’?

Answer 24

Hollywood film made by a German director
Realist & expressionist
A ‘silent’ film with a synchronised soundtrack (although not a talkie!)
Via characters such as The Wife and TWFTC - contrasting representations of femininity, rooted in Hollywood realism and German Expressionism.

Question 25

What is a 'flapper'?

Answer 25

A young, hedonistic, financially independent and sexually liberated woman. This identity was expressed via shorter dresses and bobbed hair, a more androgynous silhouette (minus corset), smoking, drinking, dancing to jazz and generally focussed on fun. Although she was an 'apolitical' figure in some ways, the flapper nevertheless represented an image of freedom as well as a threat to conventional, domesticated femininity .

Question 26

What is a 'vamp'?

Answer 26

The vamp was a popular archetype in films of the 1920s. Whilst sharing many of the characteristics of the flapper, the vamp was more overtly amoral and predatory. men were warned in newspaper and magazine articles about the threat from the vamp to family life. In Film Noir, the vamp became the 'femme fatale'. Physically the vamp inevitably had black hair (in a bob if a contemporary setting). 1920s vamps included Theda Bara, Louise Brooks and of course, Margaret Livingston in Sunrise.