*It might seem strange to start a series about Best Picture-winning films
with a film that never won Best Picture, but at the 1st Academy Awards two awards were given out, Outstanding
Picture and Most Artistic and Unique Quality of Picture. While the Academy has since retroactively named Outstanding Picture-winner Wings (subject of my next post) the sole winner of an award that didn't yet exist, I didn't
feel that this blog would be complete without both winners of the
original Best Picture awards.*
Absolutely
stunning. Sunrise captures the apex
of an era and evokes the need for a time as beautifully simple as itself. A
film about love and trust, Sunrise
draws us along with little pause, despite it's slow pace, and none of the
raunchy, melodramatic flash of today's Hollywood. Artistically ground breaking,
technically flawless and penned to one of the greatest movie scores, George
O'Brien and Janet Gaynor deliver raw, evocative performances that demonstrate
the true art of the silent film.
Outstanding Performance- George
O'Brien (The Man)
O'Brien
captures the true ambiguity of human nature brilliantly. Although horrifying in
his bursts of madness, when he attempts to actually murder his wife, the
realization that he is unable to is both cathartic and surprisingly empathetic
and his revival from faded adulterer to charming, newly devoted husband is
seamless.
No comments:
Post a Comment