A Mãe

Released right after "Battleship Potemkin", "Mother" shows a woman forced to choose between siding with her labor-organizing son or her corrupt husband. The movie makes double sure that we get to see the living conditions in Russia in 1905, but it also uses ice as a metaphor. There are a few scenes where we see ice breaking up on the ocean; it basically shows that the old order is slowly but surely coming apart. I have to admit that this is the only Vsevolod Pudovkin movie that I've ever seen, but it's certainly a good one, if only as a historical reference. A noticeable difference between Eisenstein and Pudovkin was that Eisenstein was into typage (meaning that he liked to choose any random person who looked right for the role), while Pudovkin was very fixated on whom he wanted.

This is one of the classic Soviet silent films. The story is about a family torn apart by a worker's strike. At first, the mother wants to protect her family from the troublemakers, but eventually she realizes that her son is right and the workers should strike. The plot is similar to other Soviet films of the era but does focus more on the individual than some of Eisenstein's films. The mother and son do represent the collective but they are also strong characters on their own.

The best part of the film is the editing. It is always sharp and quick. When there is action, the edits are fast and give the viewer a sense of chaos. The Soviets were masters of montage and this film is a prime example. The acting is also better than in most silent films. It is clear that the actors come from the serious stage and not Vaudeville. The cinematography is somewhat average, though, and the film feels a little flat at times. It is not perfect, but it is worth seeing for all and essential viewing for those interested in Russian film or montage.

Vsevolod Pudovkin makes a thunderous debut with this adaptation of the Gorky novel of the same name that takes place immediately before the revolution of 1905. Steeped in the traditions of Soviet montage, Pudovkin's film explores the consequences of a mother's desire to protect her revolutionary son with a style that is both strident and unrelenting, but which avoids Hollywood-style sentmentality while never losing sight of the tale's human perspective.

The top three directors of Soviet Era during the Silent Era were Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Dovzhenko, and Vesevolod Pudovkin. While Eisenstein is still readily available in quality home video offerings, the same could not be said of the other two until this Blu-Ray release of 3 classic Pudovkin titles. All three were previously issued on DVD by Kino back around the turn of the century and this is an upgraded version of those releases. While MOTHER and THE END OF SAINT PETERSBURG are virtually the same, STORM OVER ASIA has improved sonic and picture quality thanks to a digital restoration.

MOTHER (1926) was Pudovkin's first feature film and it follows the fate of a poor Russian woman who is married to a drunken, brutal husband and whose son hopes for a better life. The setting is 1905, the date of the aborted first Russian uprising and it pits father against son. Both work at the same factory but take different sides in the conflict. Finally the mother becomes involved in the conflict with tragic results. Pudovkin's use of faces and especially his montage editing (inspired by D. W. Griffith's INTOLERANCE) create a powerful drama with the proper pro-Soviet viewpoint.

THE END OF SAINT PETERSBURG (1927), which was made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, is more abstract in style following the example of Sergei Eisenstein in his films STRIKE and BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN. It focuses on two Russian peasants who go to St Petersburg in search of work only to wind up fighting in World War I before getting caught up in the Revolution. While the imagery, especially those of trench warfare is astonishing, the story is very persuasive Soviet propaganda. The trademark use of montage editing is really utilized in the film's finale.

The crown jewel of the set as far as I am concerned is STORM OVER ASIA (1928) which should have kept its original title of THE HEIR TO GENGHIS KHAN. This story of a young Mongolian nomad who is believed to be descended from Genghis Khan is far less a polemic than a character study not only of him but of the Mongolian people. The film records an authentic Buddhist ceremony that still has the power to astound and enthrall over 90 years later. We follow the main character from nomad to Soviet fighter to a potential pawn of the British Empire as a puppet king. The so-called "storm" doesn't occur until the very end.

As mentioned earlier, all three of these titles were released by Kino before going out of print and leaving only poor public domain copies available to the public until now. This new Blu-Ray edition by Flicker Alley is an upgrade of the old Kino editions with ASIA looking the best. Both MOTHER and ST PETERSBURG are still in pretty rough shape print wise but all three have good music soundtracks with Timothy Brock's ethnic flavored score for ASIA being the standout. Bonuses include a 16 page booklet, audio commentary, features on montage editing, and Pudovkin's short comedy CHESS FEVER...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Structures shaping into motion, motions reshaping into structure, against each other, so that the whole thing is like a snowstorm rolling down a hill; gathering itself to itself. Which is to say the people to the people, in an effort at once to reshape and portray the reshaped world.

Look here. The first third ends with a murder, so the entire part is about wild kinetic energy building to it; disenchanted workers plotting a strike – the metaphor for revolution, as so often in these films – factory cronies plotting to break them, pitting rugged father against idealist son. Meanwhile the factory owners, disinterested, arrogant, oversee the bloody drama from their lofty window.

The second third ends with injustice, and so the entire second part is about the mockery of justice; a colonel promising the hapless mother her son – the instigator of events - will be okay if she surrenders a hidden stash of guns, then arresting him, followed by a mock trial where each of the judges presiding is a parody of human values.

The final part is about revolution, so the entire thing is about the preparations of the final stand. Again the revolutionary metaphor, so poignant in these films; a prison filled entirely with workers, farmers, the oppressed with a dream languishing somewhere. And so, everything becomes imbued with meaning; the prison walls as walls at large, the doors slammed open with conflict, the bridge where passage is presaged by a rite of violence.

The strikers scattered by mounted police into a mob, it's the mother who picks up the banner of revolution. Down by the bridge, floating ice is shattered on the concrete pillars; ice dissolves, floating away, but the bridge stands.

And so the suffering and sacrifice of the nameless heroes is transformed into structures that will stand the test of time; bridges, factories, where the banner of revolution unfurls at the top, enduring symbols of a thriving industry, a healthy, self-sufficient nation. We may think what we want about the equation in terms of politics, but how it's equated through cinema?

It comes with the natural ease that only a filmmaking tradition so deeply centered in its worldview could afford; the individual is transmuted, engulfed into a collective structure - the Soviet god in place of a god - , in a way that reveals the individual struggle to have been redolent with purpose all along. It's a spiritual vision, make no mistake; about communion with the life-destroying, life-renewing source; about harmony of structure from the chaos of forms.