best film: Sunrise by Murnau. I should mention that I still haven’t been able to track down and see Abel Gance’s Napoleon– a pretty significant omission by all accounts (it is #176 of all-time on the TSPDT consensus list). With that in mind, the best film I’ve seen from 1927 is Murnau’s Sunrise. Lang’s Metropolis would’ve been a fine choice as well and in most years here in the 1920’s or any decade– it would be the best film of the year.
Murnua’s greatest work– Sunrise
most underrated: Wings. Sure- Wings deserves a better fate than the current TSPDT list where it is absent completely and doesn’t fall in the top 2000. I’d have it somewhere in the top 2000.
Wings is one of those best picture winners that went from overrated to now being underrated
most overrated: Not a thing here or 1927—again— I haven’t been able to locate Napoleon.
gem I want to spotlight: Metropolis from Fritz Lang. It is an era and decade dominated by the Germans so far (with a dash of Eisenstein and Keaton- sure). Murnau’s masterpiece is more lyrical, proceeding Renoir and Ophüls. Lang’s work is harsher- rigid—preceding seemingly an entire genre of science fiction dystopias. A true triumph of set-piece art and world-building.
Lang’s Metropolis—preceding an entire genre of science fiction dystopias. A true triumph of set-piece art and world-building.
trends and notables: The noteworthy history book event here is the advent of sound with The Jazz Singer in 1927– but that has more to do with the technology than the film. The Jazz Singer is no more than a mere recommend and I’d argue the advancement here is nearly all technological and not really a stylistic advancement at all (like moving the camera or the way Eisenstein showed us a film could be edited the year before). It is Murnau and Lang again- the Germans- that are the story. This is the fourth time this decade a German auteur has made the best film of the year (best two here). There are also now 15 archiveable films in 1927 which is a nice jump from 1926. It would dip again in 1929 but for the most part this is a big part of an upward trend that would reach its peak in the 1950’s and largely stay there until today. It’s also pretty amazing that 1927 gives us the archiveable debut film from the likes of Hitchcock, Borzage, Pabst, Lubistch and von Sternberg. That is quite an incoming class of auteurs. Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford their first brief appearances in the archives in 1927.
1927 gives us the archiveable debut film from the likes of Hitchcock, Borzage, Pabst, Lubistch and von Sternberg– this here is from von Sternberg’s Underworld
best performance male: There are two standouts here. He’s been close before but I’m finally going to recognize the great “man of 1000 faces” Lon Chaney for his work in Browning’s The Unknown. George O’Brien deserves a slot as well for his part in Sunrise.
best performance female: Janet Gaynor is competing against herself here- as she gives the two best performances of the year—one in Sunrise and the other in 7th Heaven.
Janet Gaynor is competing against herself here- as she gives the two best performances of the year—one in Sunrise and the other in 7th Heaven
top 10
- Sunrise
- Metropolis
- October
- 7th Heaven
- The Unknown
- The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
- Underworld
- Wings
- The Love of Jeanne Ney
- The Kid Brother
again- best known for his editing and rightly so- Eisenstein (October here) could absolutely design a frame as well– gorgeous foreground background work
Archives, Directors, and Grades
| College– Keaton, Horne | R |
| It – Badger | R |
| Metropolis- Lang | MP |
| October- Eisenstein | |
| 7th Heaven- Borzage | HR |
| Sunrise- Murnau | MP |
| The Jazz Singer- Crosland | R |
| The Kid Brother- Wilde | R |
| The King of Kings- DeMille | R |
| The Lodger- Hitchcock | R |
| The Love of Jeanne Ney- Pabst | R |
| The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg- Lubitsch | HR |
| The Unknown- Browning | HR |
| Underworld- von Sternberg | HR |
| Wings- Wellman | HR |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-See- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
@Graham- makes sense- thanks for the clean up.
@Azman- this page is older. I’m actually about to update it.
@Azman, I do not want to accuse you of a liar, but I have seen that in many publications you declare Joan of arc the best movie of the 20s
Yes I do believe Joan is the best of the 1920s.
I was quoting Drake.
Look at the top of the article. Drake says:” Sunrise is my #1 film of the 1920’s.”.(I forgot the quotation marks).
I was merely asking Drake if he believes Joan is better or Sunrise(since the 2 pages I was taking about have different #1s) and I was asking which page is more recent.
He states 2 different things so I was wondering which one was more recent and what drake believes now.
My top 2 of the 1920s(joan followed by sunrise) is the same as Drakes.
What about your top 2 of the 20s aldo?
Wait a minute, didn’t Sunrise win the oscar?
Also, apparently the comments were not kept, were deleted
@Aldo– well they sort of split it with Wings- they had “best picture production” and Sunrise won “Best Unique and Artistic Production”– it (and my comment) is confusing– so I’ll change it. And yes- I’m going to keep the comments if they are relevant- but sometimes they are directly related to the old page and no longer make sense in the context
I find a lot of technological innovations in film are tied to artistic innovation – the moving camera, technicolour, and animation for example. The birth of sound film is a strange exception. The Jazz Singer isn’t exactly artistic transcendent, and the only way on-set sound recording has improved since then is in becoming clearer. Post-production sound effects and design aside, has on-set sound recording ever been used in a strikingly artistic way?
And to add onto that, have there been any other technological innovations in cinema that haven’t open many creative avenues yet continued being used?
Where did you find October screenshots?
@RujK- I do not recall unfortunately, sorry.