BED AND SOFA
*****
USSR
This gentle, evocative precedent for Jean Vigo's ethereal L'Atalante
tells of a construction worker who goes away on business, leaving behind his wife,
who falls for the
army buddy he had taken in to live with them.
It's a fluid, understated, beautifully observed account of a ménage-a-trois,
equally remarkable for documenting contemporary everyday life in Russia as
well as capturing an eccentric but completely believable intimacy between
its three central characters. Controversial in its day for tackling topics
such as abortion and adultery, as well as pointedly lacking the patriotic
spirit. One of the Great films, it's practically forgotten today for no good reason.
dir: Abram Room
wr: Abram Room, Viktor Shklovsky
cast: Nikolai Batalov, Lyudmila Semyonova, Vladimir Fogel,
Leonid Yurenyov, Yelena Sokolova
BERLIN, SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY
****
Germany
A lovely, evocation of a day in the city of Berlin, from
the practically barren streets at dawn to the raging nightclubs at
midnight. Parts of it - like the attempted drowning - are clearly staged,
but most don't appear to be. Beautifully photographed, brilliantly edited,
it aspires to be more than a document and seeks to capture the atmosphere,
the essence of the city. It succeeds in the latter, but its documentary
value shouldn't be underestimated either.
dir/ed: Walter Ruttman
wr: Karl Freund, Carl Meyer, Walter Ruttman
ph: Robert Baberske, Karl Freund, Reimar Kuntze, László
Schäffer
m: Edmund Meissel
THE CAT AND THE CANARY
****
USA
The family of a deceased eccentric millionaire gathers in his mansion for
the reading of the will.
An early spoof of haunted house films, skillfully shot and still quite
entertaining, with effective horror scenes.
dir: Paul Leni
ph: Gilbert Warrenton
ad: Charles D. Hall
cast: Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Tully Marshall,
Forrest Stanley, Flora Finch, Gertrude Astor, Arthur Carewe
COLLEGE
***˝
THE END OF ST. PETERSBURG
****
USSR
A peasant arrives in St. Petersburg in 1914 seeking work.
Impeccably crafted propaganda with a profusion of exclamation points,
fluidly alternating between personal and epic contexts. In a single,
representative sequence, it cross-cuts between a battlefield and the stock market
- so that the greedy brokers appear to be cheering at the soldiers' deaths
- simultaneously covering the futility of war, the corruption of the rich
and the oppression of the poor.
dir: Vsevolod Pudovkin
ph: Anatoli Golovnya
ed: Alexander Dovzhenko
cast: Vera Baranovskaya, Ivan Chuvelyov, Aleksandr
Chistyakov
THE FALL OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY
**˝
USSR
Of obvious historical interest, but little-to-none in terms of artistic
or entertainment value. Archival footage of Russia between 1913 and 1917
is assembled in chronological order. There is little potential for
propaganda in the images presented, so the intertitles have to work extra
hard to make the message explicit. The editing is rather pedestrian,
particularly in light of the revolutionary montage techniques employed in
Soviet cinema of this period.
dir: Esther Shub
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THE GENERAL
*****
USA
Decades before CGI, Buster Keaton assembled some of cinema's most
startling action sequences and strung them together with his inspired
deadpan lunacy into a lean, exhilarating 79 minutes.
dir: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
ph: Bert Hains, Dev Jennings
ed: Buster Keaton, Sherman Kell
cast: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim
Farley, Frederick Vroom, Joe Keaton, Charles Smith, Frank Barnes
THE GIRL WITH THE HAT BOX
***˝
USSR
A country hat-maker's corrupt city employers rent a room under her name in
order to cheat the housing commitee, but she decides to marry a homeless
student so that he can use the room.
One of those Soviet productions distinguished in retrospect by the fact
that they contain no propaganda whatsoever. This one even comes close to
being gently critical of the more bureaucratic aspects of the
establishment. Charming in parts, it basically anticipates just about
every romantic comedy ever made, so it may not have always been as predictable as it
seems today.
dir: Boris Barnet
cast: Anna Sten, Ivan Koval-Samborsky, Serafima Birman, Pavel Pol,
Vladimir Mikhajlov, Vladimir Fogel
AN ITALIAN STRAW HAT
****˝
THE JAZZ SINGER
***
LONG PANTS
***˝
USA
A breezy, charming Harry Langdon vehicle, where he falls in love with a
femme fatale and mistakenly comes to believe she loves him back. The jokes
don’t come as fast and loose as they do in his other collaboration with
Frank Capra. But there are a couple of stretches here, such as a seduction
ritual Langdon attempts on his bike, that feel like poetry, and they are
all the more evocative for appearing unintentional.
dir: Frank Capra
cast: Harry Langdon,
Priscilla Bonner, Alma Bennett, Gladys Brockwell, Alan Roscoe THE LOVE OF JEANNE NEY
*****
Germany
A French diplomat is killed in Russia and his daughter is forced to move
back to Paris, where she is followed by the Bolshevik lover who murdered
her father and a despicable man who betrayed him.
One of the earliest cases of a director realising he has no real
substance to work with and consequently fighting to compensate through an
abundance of style. The overwrought, unfocused plot is swallowed up by the
restless, often handheld, always imaginative camerawork. There's elements
here that call for comparisons to both Murnau and Hitchcock and reinforce
the picture's status as a forgotten masterpiece.
dir: G. W. Pabst
ph: Robert Lach, Fritz Arno Wagner
cast: Edith Jehanne, Uno Henning, Fritz Rasp, Brigitte
Helm, Adolf E. Licho
NAPOLEON
****˝
OCTOBER: 10 DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD
****
SUNRISE
****˝
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