Débris de l'empire

The Russians are retreating before the German advance, and the dead are piled like cordwood. Desperate men take their boots and flee. Fyodor Nikitin is left for dead, but he has survived, and for ten years he remains where he is, the memoryless village idiot. One day his memory returns and he rides the rods into what he remembers as Petrograd. However, the Revolution has triumphed, and he gradually comes to embrace the new order of things. However, he is still looking for his wife, Lyudmila Semyonova. Thinking him long dead, she has a new husband, Valeri Solovtsov. His job is to lecture the workers on socialism, on the dignity of the individual, and when the two men first meet each other in the factory, he is hectoring the workers, busy eating lunch, on how their wives are deserving of respect. He does not treat Miss Semyonova with respect.

Fridrikh Ermler's late silent picture is full of Academician touches, with bouts of fast montages, and Lasky lighting. Nikitin gives a wild-eyed performance that befits his Rip Van Winkle/Enoch Arden character. Besides the story, it makes a point about cultural lag; we may have a worker's paradise in the factory, but until we are all comrades in the home, the work is not yet done.

Although I have been a silent movie fan since 1962 (when I was 10), it has only been since the turn of the 21st century and in particular the last 10 years that I have been able to witness the rediscovery and the restoration of many silent films once categorized as lost. Not only that but I am also becoming acquainted with movies as well as directors that I had never heard of before. Such is the case with FRAGMENT OF AN EMPIRE.

I once taught a course on Soviet era silent movies using Flicker Alley's 2011 LANDMARKS OF EARLY SOVIET FILM set which introduced me to movies I was familiar with but had never seen. This time around FA has provided me with a movie that I didn't know and a Soviet director, Fridrikh Ermler, who was completely new to me. FRAGMENT OF AN EMPIRE is a remarkable film that deserves to be seen by serious silent film enthusiasts.

On the surface the basic plot is a simple and familiar one. A World War I soldier is shell shocked and loses his memory for 10 years. When it returns he has to adjust not only to the missing 10 years (1917-27) but to the momentous changes that occurred during his amnesia. This includes the Russian Revolution which is where the film fits in with the Soviet propaganda of the day.

The soldier is the "fragment of an empire" who most now be reeducated and incorporated into Soviet society. At first this is very difficult for him but thanks to the marvels of the new Communist reforms, he adapts and becomes a model citizen and co-worker in a textile factory. He is eventually reunited with his wife who has since remarried to an abusive husband. Will she leave the husband and go with him? That's where the film ends.

Director Ermler conjures up a number of powerful images in the first part of the movie during the war scenes including one with a dog and a battlefield crucifix of Christ wearing a gas mask. He uses a number of cinematic techniques throughout including flashbacks and rapid montage editing to not only move the story along but make critical symbolic points about "out with old and in with the new".

No less than 9 different prints were viewed for this restoration with the two most important coming from The Netherlands and Switzerland. There are also 2 different soundtracks to choose from and a remarkable commentary which adds greatly to the viewing experience. Yet another quality collaborative effort from Eye Filmmuseum, The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and Flicker Alley...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.