MovieChat Forums > Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) Discussion > 4 minute tracking shot

4 minute tracking shot

posted 13 years ago by chris-bean
7 replies | jump to latest

Just watched this film and thought it was remarkable. In practically every way.
However, so many articles on the web refer to a 4 minute tracking shot, yet none of them mention where or when this shot takes place in the film.
I remember some great tracking shots (in the marshes at the beginning and getting off the tram in the city for the first time for example) but I didn't notice one as long as four minutes.
At what part of the film is the 4 minute tracking shot that everyone is willing to reference but not describe?

[–] d.doherty 13 years ago

There is no 4 minute tracking shot. Perhaps you're mixing it up with the trolley sequence, but even that is not 4 minutes in length.

"This bar of likker is now a bar of justice!"

[–] chris-bean 13 years ago

I didn't think there was. But, it says on Wikipedia:
"The film contains the longest continuous tracking shot ever made up to that point: over four minutes in one take."
And a load of bloggers, reviewers online etc who claim to have seen the film all make reference to it. They're obviously just repeating the misinformation that they saw on Wikipedia. Didn't think a 4 minute tracking shot would have snuck past me.
Cheers.

[–] d.doherty 13 years ago

Yes, and isn't this a valuable lesson.

One, that Wikipedia is rife with misinformation, and, two,that many bloggers are pretending to a knowledge that they do not possess and even worse, pretending to have seen films that they haven't.

"This bar of likker is now a bar of justice!"

[–] clivy 13 years ago

I looked at the outakes which were included in the DVD extras. They included a long shot of the city woman walking at night from her lodgings to outside the man and woman's house. This shot was cut into segments in the American version of the film, to show reactions of other characters. Perhaps this is the tracking shot that Wikipedia means. Another possibility is included in the outtakes: a shot of the trolley passing through the countryside into the city (actually travelling through the different sets for the film).

[–] HombreOfAnotherEra 12 years ago

the tracking shot doesn't exist i think?

[–] mastertech08 12 years ago

The longest tracking shot I've ever seen was Orson Welles film Touch of Evil which takes place right at the beginning. This may or may not be it, but I think it's the longest shot in a movie ever. Saw it on TCM once.

[–] xoferbean 12 years ago

It's about 2 and a half minutes - it's my favorite shot but nowhere near the longest in a movie ever. I think Russian Ark probably has the longest. There's a 17 minute shot in Hunger (though that's not a tracking shot). The beginning of Altman's The Player has one at around 8 minutes.