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are the audible part of the set. The recorded sound follows many of the same principles audibly
as defines German Expressionism visually. Murnau’s style comes out in almost every element of
this film.

While the German Expressionist movement has had lasting effects in film across the
world, and has been mimicked in Hollywood, few Hollywood films were as fully expressionistic
as F.W Murnau’s Sunrise. Murnau, a father of the movement, manages to not lose his style on
his departure across the ocean. Murnau was invited to make a Hollywood Expressionist film and
does exactly that. The elements of expressionism are obvious throughout Sunrise. While telling a
universally relatable story, Murnau never gives in to realism. Instead, he tells the story through
fantastical imagery and set design. The film tells a story of human darkness rather than one of
monsters and fantasy, but does not lose the fantasy elements that defined German Expressionism.
Instead Murnau opts to find the fantasy in the realistic. The story itself is still one of fantasy, as
The Man’s fantasies of the city and The Woman from the City are the driving force of the
narrative. Murnau taps into this to tell the story in his signature style. While Sunrise might not be
a part of the German Expressionism movement, it still finds its place firmly beside the greats of
the movement.

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