Analysis of Sunrise - Essay Example

Analysis of Sunrise (1927) Introduction The movie Sunrise 1927 is a silent movie, which is also known as Sunrise: A song of Two Humans. German film director, F. W Munrau, directed Sunrise (1927), for the Hollywood audience. The film was an adaptation of Hermann Sudermann’s 1914 short story, A Trip to Tilst. The film managed to win one of the first Academy awards at the time when the era of silent films was ending. The depiction of women in films has always been considered an important discourse in the representation of women. In Sunrise (1927), city women are depicted as problematic, trangressive and even having threatening presences. This essay will discuss the depiction of city women in the context of the silent film, Sunrise (1927), through the analysis of various literary works on film and women representation. Summary and Plot analysis of Sunrise (1927) The film is set in a 1920’s lakeside town when a city woman (Mary Livingstone), goes for vacation. During the night, the city woman lingers to a farmhouse occupied by a man, George O’brien and his wife, Janet Gaynor. The Man leaves his wife after he hears the woman from the city whistling. His wife is left alone with memories of their once deep love relationship. The man and the woman from the city are in a love affair under the moon. The woman wants the man to sell his farm and follow her back to the society. She also suggests that the man drowns his wife. However, the man violently refuses. However, the woman convinces the man. The unsuspecting wife is taken for a boat ride where she is to be drowned. She later becomes suspicious about the trip while they are in the lake. The man is unable to drown his wife. He goes back to the shore, where the wife flees to the shore. The wife then flees and the man tries to follow her. The wife from the farm then goes to the city where she is overwhelmed with the city life and her husband is close behind her. The man then gives the woman flowers and other gifts and she is then convinced to stop crying. They reconcile and while in the city, they see a bride who get married in a church. The man asks for forgiveness, after which they go back to the farmhouse. A twist in the plot of the film is when the woman and the man travel back to their home; a storm causes their boat to sink. The man saves the wife but he wakes up convinced that his wife has drowned. He asks the town people to help search for her body. They do not succeed and when he gets back to their house, the woman of the city reappears thinking that the plan had succeeded. The man turns violent on the woman from the city. He tries to kill her before he is told that his wife survived. He is happy as he kisses her and lets the woman of the city get out of the town. Depiction of the City Woman as trangressive, problematic and having threatening presences in Sunrise (1927) F. W. Munrau’s depiction of women in the silent film, Sunrise is an approach of representing women in rural and city settings. The city woman is depicted as being problematic, trangressive and even having threatening presences. The film pits the city woman against the rural woman. Victorian melodrama usually depicts the woman as either a vamp or a virgin. Munroe borrows this expression in his silent film, whereby the rural woman is represented as a ‘virgin’; the city woman is the ‘Vamp’. The city woman is problematic in the context of Sunrise (1927). Mary Livingstone plays a demanding woman. She demands that the farm man sells his farm. This is a challenge to the man who depends on the farm as his source of living. He also asks the man to kill his wife so that she can take her place. The man finds it a problem top sell his farm and go to the city. He also finds it hard to drown his wife. However, the power of the city woman is reflected in her seductive prowess. She easily convinces the man to go ahead with the plan. The city woman manages to bring problems to a small rural town. She causes problems amongst the wife and the man. Their marriage and love was blissful and happy. However, the city woman manages to disrupt the peaceful life of the man and his wife. The presence of the city woman is threatening to the marriage of the rural couple. She convinces the man to kill his wife. The man agrees to do this. This not only shows that the city woman is threatening but evil. Her plan involves drowning of another woman. The threatening presence of the city woman is captured through Mary Livingstone in this silent film. Even when the man tries to violently revolt the woman’s demands, she still pushes him to committing the heinous act. Her presence threatens the couple’s relationship. On discovering the man’s intent, the wife runs away. The man has to save his marriage by following his wife to the cit. The presence of the city woman in the lives of the couple leads to a nearly broken relationship between the two. The city woman in Sunrise is also a representation of trangressive attitudes amongst city woman. The city woman is rebellious to the modern and acceptable perspectives of the place of the woman. The city woman does the opposite of what the society expects her to do. She seduces the man when society believes that the man should be the one to seduce the woman. She has a certain attraction towards the man that makes her to order the man into committing heinous acts. The role played by the city woman is a role that this society believes should be a man’s role. While men are supposed to be the generators of ideas, Mary Livingstone’s depiction of the city woman shows the city woman as being the generator of ideas. She transgresses the common beliefs and attitudes towards women. Theoretical Context of Sunrise (1927) Traditional debates or discussions in media or literature about what good life entails have often made the cities and the country to be on the antagonistic sides of the arguments. As the size of the cities and metropolitan areas increase, the arguments tend to take more sensitive forms, with the questions of good life and survival and pure being raised. In accordance with a past research, half of the population in the entire world was anticipated to occupy the cities by the year 2006. The separation of the country and the city is a central discussion of the ecological debates that intends to find the solutions to the resultant crises developed by a rapid enlargement of urban centers. Women’s position in these debates plays a crucial role. History equates women with the natural chaotic forces; it also equates them with the forces of the city. Women fall in a distinctive position, as citizens and as symbols, to demonstrate and indicate the direction in which urban center development takes. With the plurality of cultures, which make up the cities, individuals whatever they find necessary for survival; some seem harmless, some trangressive while others are forced to apply taboos (Marston, 1982). The behavior of the people dwelling in the cities reflects a series of identities and outstanding moralities they confer in these dynamic and tense cities. Cities have become industrial centers for producing and making the female subject a topic of discussion within a strange popular society. Women representation in the city tells the kinds of activities that happen in that city as it concerns. Owing to the kind of economy governing the city, capitalistic, women become major tools through which the sensitive city conditions are realized and interpreted. Using an example of the teen makeover film; as majority of the ancient fairytales and myths are characterized, the film has a form of a teaching in how to socialize and how to be an ideal citizen for its characters. Nevertheless, according to the today’s phobia for the female adolescent morals, the films address the issues that arise out of post feminism and the availability of the femininity images that have gained popularity, to teenage consumers. These images may end up threatening the roles of traditional sex and gender, and result to a hostile environment to the nuclear family. In line with post feminism, the makeover film tells that empowerment comes from gender intelligibility and a relationship with the body over mind. However, this must also be linked with the risk-exposed fragile soul, which requires protection, by patriarchy (Kuhn, 1982). The idea of a gentle and nurturing soul has always become used well when illustrating a woman to be appreciated and honored above all other people. This happens whether it is evident in the classic makeover film female characterization, in the female contestants who deserve moral when it comes to makeover shows, or in the classic fairytale princess characterization. Women are illustrated from the perspectives, which have remained in the stuck and untrue women binaries as either being evil or good. Either they are portrayed as people who fulfill roles and identities of patriarchy and limitation or they are displayed as home-breakers, killers, thieves and as representatives of a lot of evil. It is rare for women to presented in more sophisticated terms and as individuals who strongly contribute towards the development of their families and communities or societies. The problematic presentation of women is a product of socio-cultural influences, which propagate gendered bias and stereotypes. The women living in the city are a result of this evil depiction, thus, they end up migrating to the cities to search for freedom sand inner peace. Upon reaching the city, they tend to suffer due to unavailability of jobs for them, or if the kind of jobs offered to them have very low salaries. With no other option left for them, most of them decide to get involved in activities that threaten the morals and the destiny of the society (Marston, 2010). Majority of these city women moved to the city while still young and they have grown from the city, and thus have extensive knowledge about the city. Women’s conditions in the rural society are more rigid and harsh as compared to the conditions in the cities, where change is inevitable. City women cannot practice the traditions practiced in the rural areas, they cannot submit to the chauvinistic natures of rural men. The young women who live in the city have become taught on how to dress such that they attract men. The conflicts between the city woman and the chauvinistic men result in the representation of women as trangressive, problematic and with threatening presence as shown in Sunrise (1927). Modern perspectives on the Sunrise (1927) Feminists and modern audiences will argue against the depiction of city women in Sunrise (1927). Modern feministic literature is critical of the representation of the city woman as a vamp or problematic with threatening presences. This literature is also critical of the representation of the rural woman as a naïve and stupid person or a virgin who accepts and forgives a man who tries to kill her. Munrau’s depiction of the city woman is contrary to the modern understanding of the city woman. She is seen as strong and even her trangressive nature is considered as a powerful and strong position in the fight for equality. In her paper, Mueller (2002), states that the split between country and city is very much at the heart of natural debates that seek solutions to the crises attendant on such a rapid expansion of urban centers. In these debates, the place of women plays a critical role. As custodians of a long history, which equated them with the chaotic forces of both nature and cities, women are in a unique position both metaphorically and as city. Muller (2002) captures the major points of concern which make up much of the recent debates on the relation of women to the city. She states that Male desire and subsequent anxieties about womens independence are understood as the impulse to city planning in such a way as to trap women: the founding fathers busying themselves to curtail womens freedom and imprison them in what initially held out the promise of a fulfilling dream. The independence of women, always a source of anxiety in patriarchal society, becomes particularly acute in the context of the city. Muller (2002) cites an example of how literature has misrepresented the city woman. She claims that Elisabeth Wilson book, The Sphinx in the City , describes how women have been held responsible for the chaotic elements of city life at least as far back as Roman times, when Juvenal focused his attack on the immorality of Roman life primarily on the conduct of women. Their lack of virtue figured as the root cause of Rome’s decadence. Pike (2004), argues on the impact and interpretation of film as cultural materials. Pike suggests that Films represent and reflect the society and how it is modelled around certain perspective. Pike looks at Fritz Langs Metropolis (1926-27), through the set design and vertical orientation of the NewCitys layout as being based on the skyscrapers of 1920s Manhattan; the plots underground mythology of Christians worshipping. He also looks at Bertolt Brecht’s Dreigroschenoper (1928). According to Pike (2004) Brecht displaced the analysis of his own urban situation through time and space, setting it in a London which was simultaneously eighteenth-century, Dickensian, and contemporary. Pike (2004), argues that Langs film and Brecht’s play render specific visions of modernity by plotting the horizontal cityscape onto a vertical axis. A closer examination of these representations can provide a general framework for reinterpreting the role of space and verticality in the urban imagery of modernism. According to pikes argument, film is a representation of one of the many aspects of the urban environment. Sunshine (1927), captures one of the major concerns of the city and society life in the 1920s US. Women from the city are shown to be problematic and trangressive. Sunrise (1927), is a clear depiction of Pikes argument that the city as captured in film cannot be analyzed on this one aspect. Conclusion In a modern perspective, Sunrise (1927), will be considered to be another form of representation that waters down women as troublemakers and the cause of moral decadence in the society. The city woman in Sunrise (1927), brings chaos to a marriage and the small peaceful lake town. The film represents the influence of film through its representation of city culture and its comparison to the rural society. The power of the city woman due to her problematic, trangressive and threatening presence will remain the subject of future analysis on the discourse of film and representation of women. References Kracauer, S. 1995. “Calico-World: The UFA City in Neubabelsberg”, in The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays, trans., ed. Thomas Y. Levin (Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard UP, 1995), pp. 280-289. Kuhn, A. 1982. Women’s pictures feminism and cinema. London: Routledge and Kegan paul press. Marston, K. 2010. Representation of female adolescence in the teen makeover film. Retrieved from: http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10063/1375/thesis.pdf?sequence=1 Mueller, R. 2002. “The City and Its Other”, Discourse 24 (Spring 2002), 2: pp. 30-49; Pike, D. L. 2004.“‘Kaliko-Welt: The Großstädte of Lang’s Metropolis and Brecht’s Dreigroschenoper”, MLN 119 (2004), pp. 474-505. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. 1927. retrieved from YouTube, in nine parts. Read More