MovieChat Forums > Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) Discussion > humour

humour

posted 17 years ago by VanRippestein
24 replies | jump to latest

I just saw sunrise for the first time. I'm very impressed by it. There is, however one reason why this is not in my top ten: Murnau and humour.

Why did Murnau decide to kill such a moving story by adding such lame humour in the film

SPOILERS
i mean the drunken pig, the drunken waiter, the girl with her shoulder thing
END SPOILER

It just doesn't fit in with the rest of the film. From a very deep and moving story Murau just adds these banal childish humour!

Anyone else got something to say about that?

Ash: [for no apparent reason] ... Groovy.

[–] SimplyBaltimore 17 years ago

It was, to say the least, completely necessary to the entire concept of the story.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] VanRippestein 17 years ago

hmm, to me the humour was kinda dumb. Rather irritating. If the humour was for their sake a good thing, why does murnau show US the humour? the camera shows the joke to us. I think it would be more believable if i saw them lauging and having a good time instead of seeing the jokes.

Ash: [for no apparent reason] ... Groovy.

[–] HombreOfAnotherEra 12 years ago

a lot of people think the humour is unnecessary. i kinda liked it.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jem132 17 years ago

The off-kilter slapstick humor (almost cornball) is often a point of criticism people have with the film. However, I think it's a lovely touch from Murnau and you can't deny the scene with the drunken pig isn't beautifully filmed. I think it adds a lightness to the film (along with that wonderful scene of O'Brien and Gaynor with the photographer), and a warmth.

"I want you to live with me and die with me and everything with me!"

[–] FreakinButtNugget 17 years ago

I totally agree with the original poster. The sudden slapstick-esque scenes midway through the film felt quite out of place. The photographer scene though was handled pretty well and the comic pacing was fine. But the whole pig/dance/shoulder scenario went overly long. Amid all that, Sunrise is still one of the finest movies ever made.

[–] omenous21 17 years ago

While I find it difficult to imagine what the mind set was like in the mid twenties.... I also didin't partake too much to some of those scenes... but they were ok with me.

I don't think Murnau had to do it... but he was giving us a comic relief. The story/film was massively moving for me. I don't think the film needed the comic relief... again though, I don't konw what the mindset of the 1920s was.

I just thought of another thing... I'll use an experience of mine when I was a little kid. Because I didn't get my way to see a certain movie when I was about 8 or 10 years old... I was so upset, that I began to shed tears...I was with my uncle, aunt, and my younger cousin. They had taken me along with them. I was so upset, I even refused to eat dinner at the restaurant we had gone too called Clifton's Cafeteria in downtown la.. (now let me tell you something... back then when I was a little kid, I loved the Fish Fillet Cod and yummy mashed potatoes with gravy they served there)... so for me to pass that up, that means I was really boiling mad.... so my uncle... a clown at times begins to tease me... and begins to refer to previous funny incidents in our lives.... and that just makes me crack up.... I broke. I laughed. I forgot about my anger... and desired the old and familiar meal. I needed that laugh. I needed that laugh to stop being angry. To continue and get my meal.

Perhaps thats what the man/woman needed after the man asked for forgiveness in the church. sure, the girl is upset with him... sure I the viewer was upset with him for being a cheat.... Maybe, murnau needed all of us to laugh to let go of that anger.

Just a theory. I have nothing to back it up.

[–] d.doherty 17 years ago

Murnau has one of the first cards say "Life is sometimes bitter, sometimes Sweet". Humour is part of the sweetness of life. And for the newly reborn couple the City is a wonderland, where the silliest things can happen.

And as for jarring one's gloomy mood (which I gather you prefer yours to remain undisturbed) I suggest that you read William Shakepeare's "Macbeth". In the midst of all the harrowing murders, we have not a drunken pig, but the famous "Drunken Porter Scene".

Thomas De Quincey wrote a famous essay on its unique effectiveness.

"You've got the cool, clear eyes of a seeker of wisdom and truth ....."

[–] SimplyBaltimore 17 years ago

d.doherty said it best.

[–] washburn23 17 years ago

I like the humour especially the photographer's studio section but I think the part where the girl's dress strap falls down, although funny, went on a bit too long.
I thought it was an amazing film overall though.

[–] MrJinx 17 years ago

I agree that the quote: "Life is sometimes bitter, sometimes Sweet", best describes the mood change of the film. And also I think that the Hollywood audience of the 1920s was not yet ready for the bleakness of a humourless tragedy. Murnau had done very dark films before Sunrise, so I don;t think he had an inbuilt knack for including slapstick humour. Nevertheless, I did laugh out loud during the pig scene.

They call me MISTER Jinx

[–] thao 17 years ago

It worked for me.

- This comment is most likely authentic and fairly close to what I intended to say -

[–] Ziggy5446 17 years ago

The humour is a great aspect to the film. Murnau just put a little of everything in the film, romance, comedy, horror, drama, suspense, etc. Pure genius.

[–] stefanbe 17 years ago

I thought the drunken pig bit was funny, but that whole shoulder gag was really unnecessary and I felt was a waste of film on Murnau's part.

Visit my blog: http://myfilmfilledworld.blogspot.com

[–] mlevans 16 years ago

Supposedly studio officials forced Murnau to add the humor. I wasn't bothered by it, but agree that it could have been considerably shorter. This was a frequent issue in dramas and westerns of this era. The prevailing wisdom generally was that audiences simply couldn't set through 90 minutes of tension without some comic relief. Thank goodness Murnau wasn't forced to add any to Nosferatu!

[–] ziggyfeinstein 16 years ago

This comes up all the time, but it is not true. The humor was not forced on Murnau by the studio - it was part of the "sweet" part of life.

Here's what someone (Ed Hulse) who watched Sunrise with George O'Brien at a showing in 1979 had to say:

Then you'll probably be happy to learn that George himself felt exactly
the same way. After we screened SUNRISE with him at the 1979 Cinecon,
I brought up the seeming incongruity of the "comic relief" scenes and
asked him if they were a sop to 1927 moviegoers. He said Murnau
believed it was very important to include the drunken-pig episode as a
relief from the movie's heavier dramatic passages, as an opportunity to
let both the principal characters and the audience "take a breath"
before the storm sequence. At the screening, George laughed with the
rest of us at the drunken-pig scenes, and he told me later that the
picture would not have been as effective without them.

People who tend to underestimate George as an actor -- because he was
an athletic "type" and made more Westerns than anything else -- might
be surprised (as I confess I was) to learn that he was extremely
insightful and perceptive in matters of story structure and character
development. Even in 1979, a half century after George made his last
silent, his memory was amazing, and I found his recollections of plots
and characters remarkably trenchant.

[–] robmeister 16 years ago

I agree that some of the humor (the pig sequence, for example) seemed out of place, but on the other hand, I couldn't help thinking that all of the joy and happiness (and humor) of the the couple trip to the city and amusement park was really foreshadowing the events in the climax. Turned out I was right.

Still, this movie was visually and technically brilliant, if you ask me. And, except for the fact the Husband seemed too "monstrous" (interesting to note that there were times when he walked just like Graf Orlok in Nosferatu -- I know, same director), I think the performances were nicely done.

[–] mmmarjory 16 years ago

..LOL..I was wondering if anyone else noticed that ..what you said about the Man walking like Nosferatu..It seemed so obvious to me, that when I was listening to the commentary track,I kept expecting the commentator to say something about it..As for the Pig thing,I have no problem with it..I thought it amusing that they'd have an Arcade game like that with the object being to get the pigs to go down the Slide...:o)).I thought the Peasent dance was amusing too

[–] dep1353 16 years ago

....Maybe the first use of humor in a horror film;

....The Count complimenting Hutter's cameo of his wife Ellen: "Your wife has a lovely throat." Hutter's first encounter with the vampire while in bed ( he pulls the sheets over his head ). And especially the townspeople chasing the escaped Knock, which is treated almost like a Keaton two-reeler; the mob in the main square looking in all directions only to find him sitting on a rooftop. It even has a similar scarecrow gag found in Keaton's "The Scarecrow".

[–] marvel88 16 years ago

When I watched it tonight, I too thought some of the humor was out-of-place, like the woman's shoulder straps scene, but now that I remember the intro card saying "Life is sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter" I guess it does really support that theory in the story. The first half of the film was some of the most haunting stuff I have seen, but Murnau does show the good in life, too. A really good film with many wonderful elements to it.

"I know you're in there, Fagerstrom!"-Conan O'Brien