Best Pictures #8: 1927-28 (1st) Academy Awards, My Picks for Unique & Artistic Picture and Outstanding Picture

by A.J.

1927-28 (1^st) Academy Awards
My Picks for Unique & Artistic Picture and Outstanding Picture

There would never be another Academy Awards like the first awards. The films eligible for nomination had to have been released in the Los Angeles area between August 1, 1927 and July 31, 1928 (the reasoning for this seemingly arbitrary time-period is lost to history). The winners were announced to the press in February of 1929, and the ceremony was held on May 16, 1929. Individuals could be nominated for a particular film or for their body of work in the qualifying year. For example, Janet Gaynor won the first Best Actress award for her performances in Sunrise, 7^th Heaven, and Street Angel. The award for Best Titles was given to Joe Farnham for his body of work; however, that category was omitted the following year because the birth of talkies had rendered title cards unnecessary. Winners received a statuette, which picked up its nickname “Oscar” sometime in the first decade of the awards. Runners-up and honorable mentions received plaques and certificates. The selection board of judges was made up of only 5 people, some of which were studio heads, including MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer. There were two categories for Best Director—comedic and dramatic and, most notably, there were two categories for Best Picture: Outstanding Picture (awarded to Wings) and Unique and Artistic Picture (awarded to Sunrise). Both Best Picture categories were considered equal, but when the Unique and Artistic Picture category was eliminated and only Outstanding Picture continued for the 2^nd Academy Awards (to be renamed Outstanding Production for the 3^rd Academy Awards), people came to think of the Outstanding Picture award Wings won as the top Best Picture award and the Unique and Artistic Picture award as a sort of specialty award. This might lead people to think of Sunrise as the more substantial, quality picture and Wings as the well-executed, big budget spectacle. There certainly is some merit to that perspective, but it also discredits both films of the sum total of their different qualities.

Among the nominees of both Best Picture categories we see the types of films that the Academy would often show favor in years to come: socially and politically relevant films (The Racket), historical epics (Wings), sentimental romantic dramas (7^th Heaven), art films and films about personal struggles and pains (The Crowd, Sunrise), and even odd, peculiar, but popular films (Chang). It is also clear that silent filmmaking was at its zenith. Film stories and techniques had reached an incredible level of sophistication since the birth of the medium just over 30 years before the first Oscars. In less than a year, it would all be over.

The Jazz Singer received a special Academy Award for its technical achievements. The Jazz Singer is thought of as the first sound film, but this is not entirely accurate. Only the musical numbers in The Jazz Singer have synchronized sound. The rest of the film plays like a regular silent film. The first synchronized words said on film by Al Jolson (“You ain’t heard nothing yet”) were said between songs and were recorded unintentionally. Sunrise has a complete synchronized soundtrack with music, sound effects, and even unsynchronized words shouted by a crowd. 7^th Heaven and Wings were rereleased with synch soundtracks, but no actors speaking. Silent film audiences would have been used to having sound accompany films. There would be music, and sometimes sound effects, either performed live or prerecorded, but what they had not experienced was actors speaking from the screen. It is clear that studios were hesitant for audiences to hear actors talk, but after those first few words spoken by Al Jolson there was no going back.

Many people today think of silent movies as antiques, quaint precursors to the modern films. I confess I had the same view for a long time. Silent movies are a huge blind spot in my movie watching experience. Even after watching these six films, I still have not seen many silent movies, but I realize now that silent film was a complete, sophisticated, and mature storytelling medium. The films of the late silent era had mastered this new medium of storytelling and were pushing boundaries both thematically and technically. More importantly I realize now that silent film is just another genre, like any other, with great movies, as well as mediocre and bad ones. A new and vast era of cinema has been opened for me to explore and I am very excited.

My Pick for Unique and Artistic Picture: Sunrise

The Crowd and Sunrise were considered experimental films at the time of the first Academy Awards not because of their technical approaches, but because of their subject matter. Showing characters face ordinary problems and live less than idyllic lives was considered unconventional storytelling. It is still unconventional today. These are films about ordinary, everyday people reaching for happiness, but who are surrounded by overwhelming obstacles. Both are considered masterpieces today, and rightly so, but were box office disappointments. I went back and forth many times on which one I think should have won for Best Unique and Artistic Picture, but after re-watching Sunrise, I had to side with the Academy. The Crowd delivers powerful emotional impact and pathos with its images, as does Sunrise, but the latter film also made me feel like I was watching movie magic. Not the magic of special effects and camera tricks, but the magic of living another life, of seeing and feeling hopes and dreams through images that are, for a time, as real as my eyes taking in these images and my heart feeling them. This is fiction that seems tangible. Those flickering images of two souls, the Man and his Wife, breaking and mending, create real emotions from illusion. That is real movie magic. That is what is in every frame of Sunrise.

My Pick for Outstanding Picture: Wings

I wasn’t expecting to agree with the Academy in both Best Picture categories, but of the three nominees for Outstanding Picture, Wings is the clear standout. Straight away from the opening scenes Wings has the definite style that signifies the work of a skilled filmmaker. William Wellman managed to combine mainstream Hollywood romanticism and sentimentality with creative technical flair. The characters and story run thin for such an epic movie, but overall I found Wings an exciting experience. The action scenes are as exciting as those of any film made since and the aerial sequences are thrilling even by today’s standards. Aside from its Best Picture win, Wings also won Best Engineering Effects (a category later changed to Special Effects). Wings set the standard for the big, elaborate productions that the Academy would tend to favor henceforth, for better or worse. Cinephiles and film buffs will likely come across Wings at some point, but I think that casual film fans would also be dazzled and entertained by this silent Best Picture winner.

Best Pictures #4: 1927-28 (1st) Academy Awards, Unique & Artistic Picture* Nominee, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

by A.J.

1927-28 (1^st) Academy Awards Unique & Artistic Picture* Nominee

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

I can think of few other silent movies as deservedly lauded and revered, as F.W. Murnau’s silent classic, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. It received the award for Best Unique and Artistic Picture, and ended up being the only film to ever receive that award because the category was eliminated the following year. Like The Crowd, the story of Sunrise is simple: A husband and wife living a simple life in the country are pulled apart when the man is seduced by another woman, but brought back together as he tries desperately to earn his wife’s forgiveness, trust, and love. The setting, as we’re told in the opening titles, is “of every place and no place.” The characters do not even have names; they are the Man (George O’Brien), his Wife (Janet Gaynor), and the Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston). These simplicities belie the technical mastery of the language of the moving image to tell a story, convey ideas and themes, and affect audiences.

Murnau did not like the use of intertitles (title cards and dialogue cards) so they are used sparingly, and after a certain point in the film they are not used at all and the story is told purely though images. These images, including the performances of the actors, don’t just show us the plot, they express the inner emotions of the characters. After his romantic encounter with the glamourous Woman from the City, the Man decides to kill his wife. However, his slow, lumbering walk conveys the conflict and guilt he feels. He walks as though the burden of his decision is literally weighing down on his shoulders. He lumbers like Frankenstein’s monster would in James Whale’s 1931 film. Murnau actually had lead weights put in George O’Brien’s shoes to make his steps slow and heavy. We are relieved, naturally, when he does not hurt his Wife, but each of them are devastated by what almost happened.

Sunrise, also like The Crowd, has two distinct halves each with a dramatic shift in tone. The first half of Sunrise feels somber and potentially tragic. The second half, after the Man and Wife reconcile on an excursion to the city across the lake, is romantic and optimistic. In these scenes in the city, we see the Man and Wife from the front whereas in the first half of the film the camera was always at their backs. The Man no longer walks like a golem. They smile and laugh as they walk through the City, holding each other’s arms as though they are the only two people in the world.

Sunrise was the first film F.W. Murnau made after being brought to America by producer William Fox. It was the first film released by Fox with a Movietone soundtrack. It had music, sound effects, and even some unsynchronized words in a crowd scene which audiences would have heard coming from the film itself. However, there were no characters speaking—true “talkies” would come along very soon. Despite the presence of a complete soundtrack, it still uses images first and foremost to convey story and emotion.

The entire film is rich with technical creativity and impressive shots that all enhance the story. The special effects in Sunrise were all done “in-camera,” meaning that they were created using the camera and not added in later. Superimposed images, miniatures, and matte paintings are all done with such precision and inventive flair that they remain impressive today. In one of the most famous scenes in Sunrise we see the backs of the Man and the Woman from the City as they sit together, and visions of the City, bright and carnival-like, appear before them. In another scene, we see the Man, visibly troubled by his decision to get rid of his wife, but wrapped in the ghostly arms of the Woman from the City; her image is first superimposed above him, then appears all around him. Early in the film the camera glides smoothly alongside the Man as he walks through marshy, uneven ground. Murnau and his cinematographers achieved this effect by putting dolly tracks on the ceiling of the set, rather than the ground, so that the camera could easily pass over the uneven terrain. At a time when many films were still a series of static shots of people in rooms, Murnau’s camera seems to fly.

In the modern era, there are many films in which the spectacle of special effects distracts from the story and characters and becomes the focus of the film. The old-school (the first school, actually) in-camera special effects used in Sunrise may seem quaint today, but they are quite technically sophisticated. Using such inventive and impressive special effects to truly enhance the story is a trait which I think will always be rare, but will always be the sign of a quality film and master filmmaker. I think any modern moviegoer would enjoy and appreciate what they see in Sunrise and, fortunately, it is readily available on DVD and Blu-ray. This is a simple story, but not a simple movie. Its dreamlike feel, subtly wondrous effects, and nameless characters turn this story into a fable—something that exists out of time and remains as magical and powerful as ever.

Nominee: Fox

Producer: William Fox

Director: F.W. Murnau

Screenplay: Carl Mayer, from an original theme by Herman Sudermann

Cast: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston

Release Date: September 23^rd, 1927

Total Nominations: 4, including Unique & Artistic Picture

Wins: Unique & Artistic Picture, Actress-Janet Gaynor, Cinematography-Charles Rosher and Karl Struss

Other Nominations: Art Direction-Rochus Gliese

*The 1st Academy Awards had two categories for Best Picture: Unique & Artistic Picture and Outstanding Picture. The Outstanding Picture category is widely considered to be the forerunner to Best Picture since the Unique & Artistic Picture category was discontinued. Since at the time each category was thought of as equally the top award I have included the Unique & Artistic Picture nominees as Best Picture nominees.