Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.
This time, F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.
In the countryside, a married man finds himself tempted by a visitor from the city. Deciding to murder his wife and escape from his mundane life, the man has a last minute change of heart. Their passion reignited, the married couple embark on an adventure to the big city, where they might get lost in the crowds and perhaps find each other once again.
At time of recording, it was ranked 250th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Show Notes:
- Recorded 25th September 2021.
- Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans at the Internet Movie Database.
- The Top 250 at time of recording.
- Ben Nicholson offers a brief introduction to the films of F.W. Murnau at Sight and Sound, December 2016.
- Katherine Blakeney at Inquiries Magazine on the influence of F.W. Murnau on German expressionism, Spring 2011.
- Aja Romano at Vox looks at the influence of German expressionism on Tim Burton’s films, December 2019.
- Greg Miller at Wired on the way the brain processes information in a cinematic cut, September 2014.
- David Bordwell at Observations on Film Art on models of the mind and psychoanalysis in watching and processing film imagery, May 2012.
- Laura Rascaroli at Kinema on the history of the dream metaphor in cinema, Fall 2002.
- Dave Kehr at The New York Times looks at the transition of Hollywood from silent cinema to sound, January 2010.
- John Patterson at The Guardian reflects on 1927 as a point of intersection between Metropolis and The Jazz Singer, September 2010.
- Michael Freedland at The Guardian reflects on the arrival of feature-length sound movies with The Jazz Singer, September 2017.
- The Manchester Guardian reports on the arrival and the inevitability of sound in motion pictures, April 1929.
- Rudolf Arnheim on “Sound-Film Confusion”, 1929.
- J. Hoberman at The New York Times reflects on the transition from silent cinema into sound, November 2017.
- J. Hoberman at Tablet Magazine discusses the cult and legacy of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, May 2020.
- Nosferatu in Love, May 2014.
- Colin Dwyer at NPR reports on the infamous Urban Myths episode starring Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson, January 2017.
- Richard Brody at The New Yorker looks back on the career of William Fox, January 2020.
- Alyssa Katz at Criterion discusses F.W. Murnau’s work on The Last Laugh, April 1994.
- Greg Cwik at MUBI discusses the importance of The Last Laugh in the evolution of silent cinema, May 2020.
- Gary Arnold at The Washington Post looks back on the life and career of Daryl Zanuck, December 1979.
- Gregg Kilday and Ben Svetkey at The Hollywood Reporter look back over the history of 20th Century Fox, August 2018.
- Dave Kehr at The New York Times looks back at William Fox’s cultivation of auteur filmmakers, December 2008.
- Dave Kehr at The New York Times discusses the “Ford at Fox” DVD box set, December 2007.
- Noel Murray at The A.V. Club discusses the “Murnau and Borzage at Fox” DVD box set, December 2008.
- Mordaunt Hall reviews Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans at The New York Times, September 1927.
- Lawrence Van Gelder places Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans in its historical context for The New York Times, January 1989.
- Jonathan Rosenbaum at The Guardian looks back on the production and development of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, January 2004.
- Natalie Brown at The New Zealand Herald on the ties between the royal family and Adolf Hitler, December 2019.
- The Chronicle of the 20th Century, 1995.
- Bill Desowitz at The Los Angeles Times reflects on how Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans changed cinema, January 1998.
- Shari Kizirian at The San Francisco Silent Film Festival discusses Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans as a game-changing moment for American cinema, April 2011.
- Roger Ebert at The Chicago-Sun Times reflects on Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans as a marvelous technical achievement, April 2004.
- Brian Darr at The San Francisco Silent Film Festival provides programme notes for Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, April 2009.
- The New York Times reports on the legacy and box office performance of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, October 2006.
- Jason Bailey at The New York Times looks back on the first Academy Awards ceremony, January 2021.
- Raquel Stecher at Turner Classic Movies looks back on discontinued Oscar categories, April 2021.
- Stuart Klawans at The New York Times reflects on the enduring resonance of the first Academy Awards ceremony, February 2005.
- Emily VanDerWerff at Vox discusses the attempt to create a “Best Popular Film” category at the Academy Award, August 2018.
- Henk-Jan Vinke at The Counter Culture looks on Sunrise: A Story of Two Humans as a film in the public domain, August 2013.
- Timothy B. Lee at Ars Technica discusses the possibility of Steamboat Willie enters the public domain, January 2019.
- Dennis Lim at The Los Angeles Times reflects on the German films of F.W. Murnau, March 2009.
- Hans Pols discusses anomie in the American city in Osiris, July 2003.
- Darren Mooney at The Escapist discusses Superman as an archetypal story about rural and urban America, February 2021.
- Peter Coy at Bloomberg reflects on the hedonism of the 1920s, January 2021.
- David Bird at The New York Times looks back on Janet Gaynor as the first Best Actress winner, September 1984.
- Tim Gray at Variety looks at how the Academy Awards reacts to category fraud, November 2020.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: f.w. murnau, films, Fox, German Expressionism, history, hollywood, Movies, murnau, silent cinema, sunrise, sunrise: a song of two humans |
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