(image courtesy of DVD Beaver)

The Red Tent (1971) dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
Starring: Peter Finch, Sean Connery, Claudia Cardinale, Hardy Kruger

***1/2

One of the grandest adventure/survival films is one you’ve probably never heard of - “The Red Tent” - an oddball fusion of Italians and Soviet filmmakers with an all-star international cast and crew. It tells the true story of a failed Italian expedition to the North Pole via airship in 1928. The great Soviet filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov directs his first and last English language film with complete authenticity. Other than the completely realistic arctic disaster story the film is a powerful story of ambition, greed, international politics, heroism and cowardice.

Kalatozov begins the story with perhaps the longest pre-credit sequence in film history. Before we even get to the snow there’s a 13 mins dream sequence from inside the head of General Nobile (Peter Finch) who fatefully led many of his crew to their deaths during the expedition. One by one the participants in the story appear in his subconscious in a makeshift psychological trial. It’s a manifestation of Nobile’s inner guilt and responsibility for the tragic events. Though it’s fascinating from a psychological perspective, as a cinematic device it’s awkward and confusing at the beginning and barely comes together at the end.

But it’s important to get past this first scene, because the film only gets better and more rewarding. The claustrophobia of the surreal dream sequence is released dramatically once Kalatozov gets outside into the open air where he works best. Intimacy is not Kalatozov’s forte. He needs big crowds, big machines, big scope to make his films. Italian General Nobile (Peter Finch) is in charge of leading an expedition to the North Pole. It was an age of nationalism and competition for international discoveries and achievements. Amundsen and Peary had already been to the North Pole, which Nobile has conspicuously missed out on. So Nobile’s mission serves not only to stake a claim for his country but personal pride as well.

Kalatozov stages a wonderful farewell scene – not as grand as the farewell in “The Cranes are Flying” but majestic nonetheless. The addition to Ennio Morricone’s swooning score pushes Kalatozov’s epic style to even greater heights. The airship falters from the extreme cold and crashes to the ground miles from their target. The crash is horrific and directed with complete realism. With the crew stranded in the frigid and unaccommodating arctic it becomes a desperate fight for survival – finding food, shelter, salvaging the radio all become tasks of importance.

The film cuts back and forth between the airship, the Italian basecamp where the news of the expedition has made the incident an internationally covered press story as well as a Russian expedition that hears their distress signal. Not only is it a fight for survival but a race to rescue them.

The stunning visuals anchor this exciting flick. The on-location filmmaking in the desolate tundra is impossible to fake and so, I can only imagine how grueling the shoot must have been. The expansive helicopter shots of the endless ice and snow isolate the characters and pit against their environment, like Lean did in “Lawrence of Arabia”. Kalatozov’s increases the spectacle and scope when he introduces the Russian subplot. In fact, my favourite scene is when the amateur radio operator is tuning into the distress signal from the lost crew. The boy sits on top of his roof with the radio while the other townsfolk watching from below control the antenna with a kite. It’s a classic Kalatozov moment when he frames up the entire town from the roof whose attention is drawn to the one boy on top of the house. The image of the boy on the roof which shows how mass communication can bring people from different cultures together for a common goal is also an allegory to the collaboration of filmmakers from different cultures to tell this story.

Kalatozov’s collaboration with the international talent is a fitting swan song for the Soviet master (see also “I am Cuba” and “The Cranes are Flying”). For a man who plied his trade as a virtual unknown behind the Iron Curtain, his grand emergence into the ‘Western’ world of filmmaking was also his final bow. “The Red Tent” was Kalatozov’s final film. His died several years later. Enjoy.

Buy it here: The Red Tent

I am Cuba (1964) dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
Starring: Raul Garcia, Sergio Corrieri, Luz Maria Collazo, Jose Gallardo

****

Milestone Films has released, for me, the best DVD for 2007 - one of my favourite films of all time, “I Am Cuba” . It’s a lost masterpiece – a collaboration of Soviet and Cuban filmmakers dramatizing the Cuban Revolution. With some of the most astonishing visuals ever put to screen then or since, it’s mandatory viewing for all lovers of visual cinema.

“I am Cuba” was filmed over two years as a co-production between Mosfilm (USSR) and ICAIC (Cuba), by acclaimed director Mikhail Kalatozov (“The Cranes Are Flying”), his cinematographer Sergey Urusevsky and a Cuban cast. This unique collaboration of Slavic methods and Cuban values resulted in a visionary film about the passion of the workers who rise up against the oppression of American Imperialism and reclaim their dignity as the salt of the earth.

The story is told in four distinct vignettes during the Batista-ruled period just prior to the Revolution. The first is the story of a demure Cuban prostitute who picks up her men in a nightclub catering to deep-pocketed American businessmen. The second story shows the depressed lifestyle of a poor Cuban sugarcane farmer who loses his land to a wealthy and unscrupulous landowner. The third depicts a young revolutionary who rises up and leads the students in a violent demonstration against the corrupt Batista-police. The final story shows the battle in the mountains where Castro was hiding and first started his military coup. A humble farmer, who rejects guns and violence is forced into battle when his son is killed by a bomb.

The stories are connected by one or two characters that appear in several of the vignettes, but for the most part they are autonomous stories linked by a common theme of passion and love for land and country. The film uses the power of the image and editing to contrast the decadence of the Batista-era society with the squalor of the Cuban people. The star of the film is the Kalatozov’s camera, which is freed from all constraints of mainstream cinema. As Martin Scorsese explains in his introduction to the DVD, with the endless time, money and creative freedom Kalatozov and his brilliant cinematographer Sergey Urusevsky essentially rewrote their own rules of cinema. Each scene is build around a series of long takes that move the camera forward, backward, up walls, into swimming pools, and through the air. But the film isn’t about fancy camera movement, Kalatozov’s eye finds more awe-inspiring frames in one film that most filmmakers would be lucky to find in a career.

Unfortunately, despite its greatness, the film has never received the historical acclaim or stamp of approval as, say, “Rashomon”, “Breathless” or “Fellini’s 8/12”. There is a reason. The story behind the making of “I Am Cuba” is as intriguing as the film –documented in a wonderful self-contained feature film, “The Siberian Mammoth” which accompanies the gorgeous cigar-box-themed box set. When the film was released in Cuba and the Soviet Union in 1964 for cultural and political reasons both countries hated the film. Therefore the film was shelved and never seen again until it was rediscovered after the end of the Cold War. Other than a couple screenings in Cuba and the Soviet Union, the film had never been seen by anyone. Since its re-discovery in 1995, the film has gradually been exposed to audiences – via the first Milestone DVD/VHS release, various Cinematheque programs, and film school courses as an example of propaganda cinema. Slowly the influence of “I Am Cuba” can be seen in today’s films – watch for its inspiration in “Boogie Nights, “Thin Red Line” and “Children of Men”.

Mikhail Kalatozov went on to direct one more feature after “I Am Cuba” – “The Red Tent (1971)” – a fabulous adventure film with Sean Connery and Peter Finch. Sadly he died in 1973 at a time when he was at his artistic peak. His name is never referenced in discussion of the great auteur directors of world cinema. But he is a true master of cinema and is as relevant as Godard, Fellini, or Kurosawa. Please watch this film as well as his others.

Read my review of Mikhail Kalatozov’s “The Cranes Are Flying".

Buy it here: I Am Cuba: The Ultimate Edition