Friday, October 02, 2009

Ditja bolshogo goroda

Child of the Big City / Suurkaupungin lapsi. RU 1914. PC: Hanzhonkov. D+SC+AD: Jevgeni Bauer. DP: Boris Zavelev. CAST: Elena Smirnova (Manetshka / Mary), Mihail Salarov (Viktor Kravtsov), Emma Bauer (dancer). /18 fps/ 43 min. Print: Gosfilmofond, reconstructed with Russian / English intertitles in 1988 by Juri Tsivian, Mylinkova. E-subtitles in Finnish by Tuulia Lehtonen. Viewed in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 1 Oct 2009. - Revisited the cruel tragedy by Bauer, of the transformation of the modest Manetshka to the vamp Mary, "with a rare, perhaps innate skill in bringing Victor to ruin". He commits suicide, and in the last image Mary steps over his corpse: "They say an encounter with a corpse brings luck. To Maxim's!" - Unique style with long takes, long shots, deep focus. - Visual quality of print often beautiful, occasionally with high contrast and occasionally with frameline situations. - Inspired music selection and performance by Mauri Saarikoski (violin) and Marko Puro (piano).

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