by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Gaumont's Sunset was originally released in tandem with the same company's Poems in Pictures. Neither was a story film; instead, both could be adequately described as tone poems. In Sunset, the cameraman merely aimed his camera at the setting sun, then let nature take its course. To add to the drama of the situation, the film was color-tinted by hand, frame by frame (which meant that every print had to be tinted individually in the same fashion). Contemporary reviewers were pleased by Sunset, though they suggested that films of this nature would never be totally effective until somebody came along to perfect the color-film process.
