Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Mother - 1926



Country: Soviet Union
Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin
Writers: Maxim Gorky (novel), Nathan Zarkhi
Stars: Vera Baranovskaya, Nikolai Batalov and Aleksandr Chistyakov
The Film Version Of Gorki's Great Story Of The 1905 Revolution. Released right after "Battleship Potemkin", "Mother" shows a woman forced to choose between siding with her labor-organizing son or her corrupt husband. The movie makes double sure that we get to see the living conditions in Russia in 1905, but it also uses ice as a metaphor. There are a few scenes where we see ice breaking up on the ocean; it basically shows that the old order is slowly but surely coming apart. I have to admit that this is the only Vsevolod Pudovkin movie that I've ever seen, but it's certainly a good one, if only as a historical reference. A noticeable difference between Eisenstein and Pudovkin was that Eisenstein was into typage (meaning that he liked to choose any random person who looked right for the role), while Pudovkin was very fixated on whom he wanted. (imdb).

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