Sumerki zhenskoy dushi

This film tells a fairly simple story of a young noblewoman who helps the poor, only to be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous man. When she tells her newlywed husband her dark secret, it affects both of their lives forever. It was a rather haunting film, and the earliest of Bauer's work that survives. It's not quite as refined as what Griffith was doing at the time, but the lighting and camera angles are occasionally quite interesting. The acting shows the influence of contemporary theater work, but it's more subdued than some other efforts from this time. Overall it's pretty intriguing, and it tells the story in a very economical and precise way.

Russia's Yevgeni Bauer has been called "The greatest film director you never heard of." Spending years in theater as a producer and set designer, he became involved in movies in the 1910's. His directorial debut, August 1913's "Twilight of a Women's Soul," is a stunning testimony of Bauer's justification of earning the right to be labeled the "first true artist in the history of cinema." "Twilight" is a story of a woman who gets raped and then kills the rapist. Later, she meets a prince who appears to be a very caring person-that is until she relates to him the rape episode shortly after they marry. He's distraught and fails to sympathize with her.

Bauer sets this domestic drama with psychological implications, a trademark of his. Two sequences reflects Bauer's mastery of his unique set designs in his rookie effort: the bedroom scene where our heroine is sleeping and the soon-to-be-rapist passes her a note. The room is amassed in gauze, symbolizing the dream state she's in. The second scene is where she's become a famous stage actress, and the prince, after two years of searching, finds her to ask for his forgiveness. The room is filled with adoring flowers from her fans, showcasing her new-found confidence in her conversation with him.

Bauer would go on to direct 70 films between 1913 and 1917, with only 26 surviving. He would die of pneumonia that year, ending an incredible run of aesthically-charged films. But his influence in Russian cinema would be immense afterwards.

This early Yevgeni Bauer feature is good in itself, but more than that it shows the potential that he would soon realize in the compelling melodramas he was to film in the mid-1910s. In itself, "Twilight of a Woman's Soul" is just a little better than average compared with the dramas being made elsewhere at the time, but there are flashes of the mood and the techniques that soon afterward made Bauer one of the most creative and interesting (if also under-appreciated) film-makers of his time.

Bauer's technique is even more restrained here that it is in his later features, with very sparing (but effective) use of camera movement and other such techniques, with the movie relying more on the lighting, sets, and actors to create its effect.

The story centers on a lonely young aristocratic woman whose search for a purpose in her life is sadly exploited by one of the men whom she tries to help. The rest of the movie focuses on the ways that this one incident affects her life, and the lives of others, in the years that follow. It's the kind of plot that Bauer, in his later features, would examine deeply, and he would learn how to involve the viewer's emotions almost to the breaking point.

This feature never becomes as chilling, as gripping, or as heart-rending as his best movies do. But it is a solid drama, and a drama that also has plenty to say. Bauer soon learned to make his points even more memorably, but this is also worth seeing, especially for anyone who appreciates his unusual and imaginative style.

This Russian film is really a mixed bag--being both very old fashioned AND very modern at the same time! The film is old is style because it uses a lot of over-the-top emotionality and melodrama and I'm sure many modern audiences would either not watch it at all or laugh at it--but that is true of most of these types of films from the 1910s. Plus, while it deals with very adult themes, the film is so obtuse in addressing the rape and murder that it's pretty easy to conceive of people in the audience having no idea what's happening! It's like they wanted to deal with important topics but they were such taboos to mention that they shouldn't have bothered. But, despite all this baggage, the film also tells a complete story that can hold your attention (something many older films from this era can't do today) and has good production values for the period. An interesting historical curio, but not exactly a memorable film.

Very few directors strike gold with their first effort. The subtle nuances, finding what the camera is capable of, dealing with actors, scripts, and so forth, can make for a hell of a time finding yourself. Yevgeni Bauer is no different. And if you watch his works backwards, as I did, you find out that the man is human after all. On a career built on working with lighting, shadows, tracking, and the morbid netherworld, Bauer's first effort, "Sumerki Zhenskoi Dushi," does see him hint at these elements but he is a bit away from anything close to the genius of his later works.

Believe it or not, this is a simple love story about a prince, a high society girl, and the secret that threatens to end their marriage. At times it seems nearly Shakespearean. The two leads, Vera Chernova and A. Ugrjumov, certainly don't damage the picture in any way and V. Demert as the villainous Maksim plays his bit quite well. But the story line is surprisingly bland, drawing little emotion from we the viewer and exceptionally unclimactic.

It does draw slight interest just to see what Bauer does with the camera angles and the way he plays with the lighting but all in all it is just a bump in the road to the director's full grasp of what he will go on to be capable of.

The nutshell: only recommended for hardcore Bauer fans to see how the man began his career. Students of cinema should proceed immediately to "Posle Smerti" to wow over. I'm only giving it the rating I have because it has Bauer's name...6/10.