F.W. Murnau’s beautifully photographed 1927 melodrama is one of the last great silents made in Hollywood, but also perhaps the least typical silent ever made in Hollywood. To begin with, it’s got music and sound effects, but no dialogue (and virtually no title cards). Then, it’s essentially a work of German Romanticism, since Murnau made no effort to tailor his first American film to studio tastes. Peasant George O’Brien is lured by city vamp Margaret Livingston (pictured above) into a murder plot against his faithful, innocent wife (Janet Gaynor, who won an Oscar, despite her bizarre, Princess Leia-like hairdo). The scheme doesn’t go as planned, yet the sentimental simplicity of the tale still pack an emotional wallopand nowhere more so than in O’Brien’s frantic search for Gaynor, presumed drowned, in the rushes. (NR) Grand Illusion. Fri. Dec. 26-Thurs. Dec. 31 (closed Mon. and Wed.). BRIAN MILLER
Sunrise
