Introduced by David Shepard Sunrise represents the silent film at the height of its artistic sophistication and the sound film in its infancy. Released in late September 1927, just days before The Jazz Singer, it was one of many silent films of 1927-28 to which a synchronized musical score was added. The first American film of F. W. Murnau was conceived by Murnau and written by Carl Mayer while they were still in Germany. Murnau took a trite if classic situation-the marriage of a peasant couple invaded by a big-city seductress-and put it in the realm of fable, stripping it of melodrama and elevating it to poetry. The fluidity of Murnau's "invisible" tracking shots is legend, but it is the film's ability to move freely through double exposures, expressive lighting, and distorted sets that allows us access to symbolism, psychology, and a genuine involvement with the characters.