The Coastside Film Society's 4th Annual Silent Film Night in Half Moon Bay. - 3

1927 was the year the silent film achieved artistic perfection and then died. In that year, F.W. Murnau's tense psychological drama Sunrise was released. Critics were quick to acclaim that Sunrise was the finest film ever made. It won three academy awards including the coveted best and most artistic picture of the year. The public could care less. You see, 1927 was also the year in which the first talkies were released. That's what people wanted to see. As a result, Sunrise was a box office flop and few people alive today have heard of it. That's a shame because it is great film still revered by an awful lot of critics.

Landon Palmer in his review of Sunrise published in FilmSchoolRejects.com raved. "Here you have it all: A horror film whose use of shadows is worthy of any Universal monster movie, a romantic comedy worthy of a wise-cracking Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, and an adventure/thriller worthy of Bogart. (The film) goes so many places, accomplishes so much emotionally, earns all of it, and does so through a visionary style that also manages to suck the audience in."

This is the fourth year in a row that the Coastside Film Society has hosted a silent film night in Half Moon Bay featuring coastside artist Shauna Pickett-Gordon. The music playing in the background of this clip comes from Shauna's performance during the Film Society's 2012 Silent Film Night screening and from a rehearsal for the 2013 screening. As you can see, the music Shauna is pulling together to play during Sunrise will be darker to match the more contemplative mood of the film.

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