Film concert Oblomok imperii / A Fragment of an Empire (2018 restoration) (Stephen Horne score)

A Fragment of an Empire. This shot was retrieved for the 2018 restoration.

Обломок империи / Imperiumin sirpale.
Director: Friedrich Ermler
Country: Soviet Union
Year: 1929
Duration: 1.49
Languages: intertitles in Russian / e-subtitles in Finnish
Category: 35 mm, Silent Films.
    Print source: Library of Congress.
    Film concert, composer: Stephen Horne, performed by Stephen Horne (piano, flute, accordeon) and Martin Pyne (drums, percussions).
    Introduced by Timo Malmi.
    Viewed at The Big Top, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival, 15 June 2019.

Mia Öhman / MSFF: "Friedrich Ermler is an surprisingly unknown film-maker in the West, even though he was highly regarded by his fellow colleagues Eisenstein, Chaplin and Pabst. Fragment of an Empire (Oblomok imperii) is Ermler’s last silent film, a final account of the 1920’s Soviet film aesthetics and an ending to the zeitgeist of an era. Back in the day the film received a triumphant reception throughout the Soviet Russia, and in Berlin the film was met with a standing ovation. At the festival we get to enjoy the 35 mm copy of the film accompanied with the film score composer Stephen Horne and percussionist Martin Pyne. The restauration of the film in the Netherlands was supervised by film historian Pjotr (Peter) Bagrov, who wrote in his essay about Ermler; ”More than anyone else in Soviet film, he spills the beans.” Therefore, one might argue, Fragment of an Empire depicts the reality of the times with precision and succeeds in an intellectual somersault – showing it through the feelings of the protagonist – something that was required in the abrupt shift from Tsarist rule to socialism."

"In the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the Russian sergeant Filiminov, played by the expressive actor Fjodor Nikitin. Filiminov lost his memory in the First World War and is completely oblivious of the October Revolution in 1917. His greatest pride and treasure is his medal, the Cross of St. George, an emblem from the institution which was abolished after the revolution. When Filimonov coincidentally sees his wife (played by Ljudmila Semjonova, known for Abram Room’s film Bed and Sofa / Tretja Meshtshanskaja, 1927) in a window of a train waiting at a station, memories begin to painfully unfold. After finally realising who he is, Filiminov heads home to Saint Petersburg. The city has now been renamed Leningrad and a bust of Lenin has been set up next to the old statues. Former houses have been replaced by massive building complexes. Filimonov goes to meet the head of a factory where he worked from 1910 to 1914. The factory manager and his wife share Filiminov’s longing for the good old days. Now there is no manager but instead a factory committee. A modern revolving door triggers off a clash between Filiminov’s mind set in the time of the tsar and the surrounding modern times, building up to outright screams of fright."

"The developed top visual techniques of the silent film era navigate the viewer through Nikitin’s tumultuous experience. In an explosive montage a stitching sewing machine needle turns into a machine gun, a rolling thread spool into a cannon barrel, and Filimonov travels deep into his memories fighting with an enemy he shares the same language with and finds himself crawling in the snow towards a gas masked Jesus hanging on the cross. The religious scene was directly influenced by Freud and the actor Nikitin was eventually churning in such deep emotional plight, unable to work, that the director threatened to shoot him. In the end, the film was completed but the rift between Nikitin and Ermler was unmendable." (Mia Öhman / MSFF)

AA: I blogged eight years ago about Pordenone's Canon Revisited screening of A Fragment of an Empire. On display then was a print from Österreichisches Filmmuseum.

We at KAVI in Helsinki have ourselves an interesting, high quality print of A Fragment of an Empire, a sonorized one with a soundtrack with the original avantgardistic score by Vladimir Deshevov.

I now saw for the first time the 2018 restoration by EYE Film Institute, Gosfilmofond and San Francisco Film Festival, restored by Peter Bagrov, Robert Byrne and Annike Kross, curated by Elif Rongen-Kaynacki. Missing shots and intertitles were retrieved from a Cinémathèque Suisse print, including the famous shot with the crucified Jesus wearing a gas mask (see image above).

A Fragment of an Empire is an incoherent text. With a more profound conviction than hardly anybody, Friedrich Ermler, wanted to promote the agenda of the Communist Party. At the same time his honesty as an artist was so great that he always failed to produce a work of convincing propaganda. Some of his key films are in fact terrifying in their implications, although they were produced in the heart of the Bolshevist system.

Socialist realism had not yet become the enforced dogma of the Soviet art world when A Fragment of an Empire was made, and the film is very far from that doctrine. In the beginning of his film career Ermler had distanced himself from the montage school, but in this film he indulges in extraordinary montage sequences and proves to be a master of the flash montage in the league of Griffith, Gance and Eisenstein. Key montage sequences include: – the recovery of the memory – the stranger in his home town – the memory of the war – startingfactory engines – the montage of the props – the alarm.

In the movie there are both aspects of naivism, heavy-handedness and caricature, and sophistication, complexity and subtle psychology.

I seldom visit the Sodankylä film concerts because I usually already know the films and their music solutions. Thus I was surprised unlike other regulars by the audience reaction – the enthusiastic applause and the sing-along to L'Internationale. I was puzzled and did not know what to think about it, and nobody could explain it to me except that it is a Sodankylä tradition. The audience seemed to be applauding the Bolshevist message of the picture. I could understand the applause to the intertitle about the difference between capitalist competition and socialist contest [kilvoittelu], the socialist contest involving help to the weakest, not leaving anybody behind, taking everybody further. Also the satirical anti-patriarchal and feminist message remains topical.

A brilliant restoration and a memorable event with an exciting score by Stephen Horne.

IMPERIUMIN JÄTTEET
Ohjaaja: Friedrich Ermler
Maa: Neuvostoliitto
Vuosi: 1929
Kesto: 1.49
Kielet: välitekstit venäjäksi / tekstitys suomeksi
Alkup. nimi: Oblomok imperii
Kategoria: 35 mm, Mykkäelokuvat

Friedrich Ermlerin maine ei ole liiemmälti kantautunut länteen, vaikka häntä arvostivat sellaiset tekijät kuin Eisenstein, Chaplin ja Pabst. Imperiumin jätteet (Oblomok imperii) on Ermlerin viimeinen mykkäelokuva, 1920-luvun neuvostoliittolaisen elokuvaestetiikan ja samalla aikakauden henkisen murroksen tilinpäätös, ja se kiersi aikanaan ”riemusaatossa pitkin Neuvosto-Venäjää ja länttä: Berliinissä yleisö osoitti seisten suosiotaan”. Nyt esitettävän 35 mm:n filmikopion säestävät musiikin tehnyt Stephen Horne ja rumputaiteilija Martin Pyne. Elokuvan restaurointia Hollannissa on ollut valvomassa elokuvahistorioitsija Pjotr (Peter) Bagrov, joka kirjoitti esseessään Ermleristä, että tämä ”enemmän kuin kukaan muu neuvostoelokuvassa, puhuu jatkuvasti sivu suunsa”. Niinpä myös Imperiumin jätteet näyttää aikansa todellisuuden täsmällisesti ja onnistuu esittämään päähenkilön tunnelmien kautta sen henkisen kuperkeikan, joka oli välttämätön liike siirryttäessä äkkirysäyksellä keisarivallasta sosialismiin.

Ilmaisuvoimainen Fjodor Nikitin on ensimmäisen maailmansodan aikaan muistinsa menettänyt puolivihannes Filimonov, jolta vuoden 1917 Lokakuun vallankumous on mennyt ohi. Hänen aarteensa on Pyhän Yrjön risti, joita ei ole jaettu enää kymmeneen vuoteen. Kun Filimonov näkee sattumalta vaimonsa (Ljudmila Semjonova, tuttu Abram Roomin elokuvasta Sänky ja sohva / Tretja Meshtshanskaja, 1927) asemalla seisovan junan ikkunassa, muistot alkavat kiertyä tuskallisesti auki. Tajuttuaan lopulta kuka hän on, Filimonov lähtee kotiin Pietariin. Kaupungista on tullut Leningrad, ja vanhojen patsaiden vierelle on pystytetty Lenin. Entisten talojen tilalla on massiivisia rakennuskomplekseja. Filimonov menee tapaamaan sen tehtaan johtajaa, jossa hän työskenteli vuosina 1910–1914. Johtaja vaimoineen jakaa Filimonovin murheen siitä, että mikään ei ole kuin ennen. Nyt ei ole johtajaa, on tehdasneuvosto. Uuden ajan pyöröovesta alkaa ympäröivän nykyajan ja Filimonovin keisariaikaan jääneen tajunnan yhteentörmäys, joka kiihtyy suoranaisiksi kauhun huudoiksi.

Huippuunsa kehittynyt mykkäkauden kuvakerronta kuljettaa katsojan läpi Nikitinin kokeman myllerryksen. Räjähtävässä montaasissa ompelukoneen nakuttava neula muuttuu konekivääriksi, kierivä lankarulla tykin piipuksi, ja Filimonov matkaa muistoihinsa sotimaan samaa kieltä puhuvan vihollisen kanssa ja ryömimään lumessa kohti kaasunaamarissaan ristillä roikkuvaa Jeesusta… Freudin vaikutus kohtaukseen oli suora, ja näyttelijä Nikitin velloi lopulta työhön kykenemättömänä sellaisissa tunnetiloissa, että ohjaaja uhkasi ampua hänet. Elokuva saatiin valmiiksi, mutta Nikitinin ja Ermlerin välirikko oli lopullinen. (MÖ)