ALEXANDER
NEVSKY
(1938,
B/W) Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Eisenstein's
patriotic epic about the 13th century legendary hero was designed to instill
into the Soviet people a sense of their own history so that they would be
better prepared for the inevitable struggle against fascism.
 
BALLAD
OF A SOLDIER
(1960, B/W) Director: Grigori
Chukrai
This
is a simple but extraordinary
story about the waste and stupidity
of war.
BATTLESHIP
POTEMKIN
(1925, B/W) Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein's most important
film, both for its own sake and
for the influence it had on the
development of the
cinema. It is a film about revolution, and it is a revolutionary film in
its techniques.
  
CHAPAYEV
(1934, B/W)
Director: George & Sergei Vasiliev
This
'optimistic tragedy' is set during
the 1919 Civil War in Turkestan.
CHESS
FEVER
(1926, B/W)
Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin
This
humorous featurette shows the extraordinary
lengths to which a chess addict
will go to further his love of
the game.
THE
CRANES ARE FLYING
(1957, Black-and white) Director:
Mikhael Kalatozov
This prize-winning film explores
relaationships against the bitter
background of war.
DON
QUIXOTE
(1957, B/W)
Director: Grigori Kozintsev
In
this famous Russian version of
the novel by Cervantes, Alonzo
Quixote, a noble Spaniard who has
read so many books of chivalry
and adventure, decides to become
a knight errant himself. Nikolai
Cherkassov, who played Ivan the
Terrible and Alexander Nevsky for
Eisenstein, turns in another memorable
performance.
EARTH
(1930,
B/W) Director: Alexander Dovzhenko
Alexander
Dovzhenko's great poetic drama of man's relation to nature.
 
END
OF ST. PETERSBURG
(1927,
B/W) Director:
Vsevolod Pudovkin
Vsevolod
Pudovkin's film of a peasant boy
who comes to St. Petersburg in
search of work,is told against
the background of the historical
events which culminated in the
attack on the Winter Palace.
IVAN
THE TERRIBLE
(1944, B/W) Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Eisenstein's majestic and passionate
portrayal of Russia's legendary
autocrat
 
KING
LEAR
(1971, B/W)
Director: Grigori Kozintsev
This King
Lear is a total re-interpretation
of the great tragedy by Shakespeare;
seen not as an individual or private
tragedy, but rather in the larger
and social context - a search for
contemporary motives; a picture
of civilisation heading towards
its doom; a discourse on power
in a society that is based on injustice
and inequality.
HAMLET
(1963,
B/W) Director: Grigori Kozintsev
Considered one of the best film versions
of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and by some critics the best, this 1963 Russian
masterpiece by director Grigori Kozintsev is a haunting black and white
depiction of Hamlet's anguish and his revenge of his father's murder by
his politically aspiring uncle.
LADY
WITH THE LITTLE DOG
(1968, colour)
Director: Yosif Heifitz
This
adaptation of Chekhov's story is
a masterpiece of atmospheric and
poetic suggestion.
MOTHER
(1926, B/W)
Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin
Pudovkin's
first major film, based on the
novel by Maxim Gorky. As an evocation
of life in pre-Revolutionary Russia,
this film has never been equalled.
NEW
BABYLON
(1929, B/W)
Director: Grigori Kozinstev
This
early film of Grigoei Kozintsev
was made to commemorate the 60th
anniversary of the Paris Commune.
The film defies all classification
- it comes almost from the pages
of Victor Hugo with a touch of
D W Griffith - a dance macabre
of the Second Empire and the Commune
of Paris.
OCTOBER
(1927, B/W)
Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Eisenstein's
film on the Russian Revolution
- 'the 10 days that shook the world'.
As historical reconstruction is
it exciting; as treated by a genius
of the cinema, it is a masterpiece.
STORM
OVER ASIA
(1928,
B/W) Director:Vsevolod
Pudovkin
Vsevolod
Pudovkin's famous silent film has been re-edited with synchronised dialogue,
effects and music added, under the supervision of Pudovkin himself. The
story tells of a humble Mongol trapper who becomes the leader of his people.
STRIKE
(1924, B/W)
Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Another
major work by Sergei Eisenstein.
Dilys Powell wrote of this film:
'Strike is an enormous work, complex,
blinding, terrible, suffocating,
moving in its old world of top-hatted
tyrants and suffering proletariat
with a rocket's speed'.
 
TIME
IN THE SUN
(1930/40, B/W) Director:
Sergei Eisenstein
Marie
Seaton's magnificent attempt to provide a 'director's cut' of Sergei Eisenstein's
butchered film Que Viva Mexico!. It is thanks to her that we are able to see
some of Eisenstein's visually most exciting and original material
WE
ARE FROM KRONDSTADT
(1936,
B/W) Director: Yefim Dzigan
By
1919 the young Soviet State was beseiged by enemies on all sides and the
Revolution was fighting for its life. Sailors from Kronstadt left their
ships to defend the town against whiteguard regiments. This film is a re-creation
of that episode.
|
