Ray Pride

F. W. Murnau's 1927 masterpiece is one of the singular accomplishments of cinema, a stunning symbolic love story, perhaps the last great silent film. The Love of Man for Woman is disturbed by the arrival of the Woman from the City. A placid, sunny home contrasts with the murky, moony allure of a dark woman in a swamp at night. She suggests that the wife must die to insure their illicit happiness in the big city: a starting intertitle reads, "Why doesn't she get drowned?" and "drowned" melts away. Strikingly scaled city sets also dazzle; Murnau cast midgets to sit at the farthest reaches of the cafes and bars of his dizzying city. Of Murnau's mesmerizing command of the moving camera, critic Gilberto Perez Guillermo writes: "Murnau's cinema is primarily a cinema of empty space... space becomes the central object: the space traversed during the trolley ride in 'Sunrise,' immeasurably more expressive than any of the individual objects passed. Like Velasquez, Murnau looks past the foreground and into the background." Written by Carl Mayer, art direction by Edgar Ulmer, photographed by Karl Struss and Charles Rosher. With Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien. 95m. Presented with its original recorded musical score.

"Sunrise" plays Saturday and Sunday at the Music Box. See Short runs for details.

(2002-03-07)

Also by Ray Pride

LETTING GO
Giovanni is a psychiatrist in a small town in Italy. His life is good, his home is care-worn and lovely, his wife loves him, his teenage son and daughter are a source of pride. Is his a life of bourgeois complacency? Or is it middle-class contentment? Whatever the case, the portrait of familial intimacy portrayed in Nanni Moretti's masterful, sorrowful "The Son's Room" is achingly tender.
(2002-02-21)

SCOLD WAR
"Hart's War" is many things, none of them memorable or really even very good. First and foremost, I suppose, is that it's a World War II picture about integrity entering the marketplace after September 11. Or perhaps, in monetary terms for perennial underdog studio MGM, is that it's a Bruce Willis is-he-a-good-guy, is-he-a-bad-guy hard-ass action story that cuts together nicely as a thirty-second television spot.
(2002-02-14)

AUTUMNAL CRAFT
The only viewers who might be offended by "Collateral Damage" are those who are offended by mediocrity. Arnold treks to the jungles of Colombia, goes through a series of incredible coincidences, evades an incredible series of munitions lobbed toward his huge head, meets an unlikely series of character actors and eventually saves the day after a neck-wrenching series of plot twists.
(2002-02-07)

SPRUNG
Bucktown's Spring restaurant is one of the most celebrated of the past year's openings. Seven months in, it's exceeded the expectations of partners Sue-Kim Drohomyrecky, Peter Drohomyrecky and 34-year-old chef Shawn McClain. After seven well-received years as chef/partner at Evanston's four-star Trio, McClain wanted to expand on what he knew as both manager and a chef, and to work with innovative cuisine in a more affordable setting.
(2002-02-07)

UNSEASONED
(2002-01-31)

A THOUSAND WORDS
(2002-01-31)

SLUSH LIFE
(2002-01-24)

SCARY MOVIE
(2002-01-24)

FIRE FROM ABOVE
(2002-01-17)

LISTING CRAFT
(2002-01-10)

FICTION REVIEW
(2002-01-10)

VALET SPARKING
(2002-01-03)

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