Wednesday, December 17, 1997

Revolyutsioner / The Revolutionary (1989 Gosfilmofond restoration)


Yevgeny Bauer: Революционер / Revolyutsioner / The Revolutionary (RU 1917) with Zoya Barantsevich.

/ / RU / 1917 / Bauer, Jevgeni / / drama
    Революционер / Revoljutsioner.
    PC: A. Hanzhonkov & Co. D: Jevgeni Bauer. SC: Ivan Perestiani. DP: Boris Zavelev. CAST: Ivan Perestiani (Grandfather – the Revolutionary), Vladimir Strizhevski (Son), Zoja Barantsevitsh (Daughter). Silent b&w, premiered 3 April 1917.
     Gosfilmofond 1989 restoration from an incomplete, defective original, with the first reel of four missing /18 fps/ 35’.
    Finnish translation spoken by Riitta Tyventö.
    Viewed at SEA, Helsinki, Cinema Orion, Tuesday 16 December 1997.

** A drama turned quickly after the March 1917 overthrow of the Romanov dynasty. Several of these liberal revolutionary films were shown in Finland, but this one was now seen for the first time in Helsinki, although similar Hanzhonkov and Drankov films were released at the time.

It is a series of liberal-patriotic vignettes, transfigured by the masterful photography of Boris Zavelev (well-known from After Death, Zvenigora, etc.). There are traces of nitrate decomposition from the original. It is odd to face the slogan ”The proletariat has no fatherland” in a film like this. It is the son who utters this defiant sentence, only to reconcile with his father in the final scene, where they join the army train to the front.

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