Sunrise a Song of Two Humans [Blu-ray]

Blu-ray: What a magnficent release from Masters of Cinema and no-region coding either !
In 1927, German film director F.W. Murnau (known for his role in German Expressionism) was invited by William Fox to make an Expressionist film for Hollywood and in return, Murnau created a film that would simply become a true classic and a true masterpiece with "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans".

The film is highly regarded as a masterpiece and is featured in the American Film Institute's "100 Movies List of Great Films" (#82) and the British Film Institute's critic's poll as the seventh best film in motion pictures. The film won an Academy Award for "Unique and Artistic Production" at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929 (including "Best Actress in a Leading Role" for Janet Gaynor and "Best Cinematography" for Charles Rosher and Karl Struss) and was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Although the film was highly regarded then and...

Silence is Golden
Pure visual poetry. No serious movie-lover or historian should be without this disc. It is Region Free and so will play anywhere. It is also a new scan, since MoC felt that the 2005 scan wouldn't be good enough for a 2009 Blu-ray release (hear that, Criterion?), and it's gorgeous. The only real digital work that has been done is to stabilize the frame and even out the flicker, something that nearly drove me mad about the 2005 DVD release (but only after repeated viewings). Everything else is here, scratches, an occassional missing frame or two, film grain (thank god!) so the result is like watching a screening of a very good print. Sunrise, like Murnau's other monumental classic, Nosferatu, suffered a fragile and dangerous history, but has survived nonetheless. In typical Murnau fashion, the first half of the story is a brooding thriller, then it moves, quite logically, into a romantic comedy, then turns to tragedy. Murnau liked to cover the whole spectrum in his films, mixing...

Best artistic film of 1927 is still worth watching
From the press release:

This new 2009 reissue of Sunrise (for the first time anywhere in the world in 1080p HD on Blu-ray, in addition to a newly mastered 2 x DVD set) contains two versions of the film: the previously released Movietone version, and an alternate silent version of the film recently discovered in the Czech Republic, which is of a higher visual quality than any other known source. The Blu-ray edition includes both versions in 1080p HD. Czech archive of a higher visual quality than any other known source. Supplements include:

1. Restored high-definition transfers of two different versions: the American Movietone version, and the silent Czech version Original English intertitles on the Movietone version, and optional English subtitles on the silent Czech version
2. Original Movietone score (mono) and alternate Olympic Chamber Orchestra score (stereo)
3. Full-length audio commentary by ASC cinematographer John Bailey on the Movietone...

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