Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

I46 CELLULOID audiences, but to people in other parts of Russia. In Earth we see this characteristic brought out in the old man listening at the grave of Peter for word of what heaven and hell are like, and in the particular stress laid on dancing — the drunken dance of Thomas, the wonderful death-dance of Vassily, and the final frenzied dance of Thomas when he refuses to part with his lands. Moreover, throughout the film we can perceive Dovjenko's peculiar understanding of local types, mentalities and superstitions, a quality that is not to be found in the work of other Soviet directors, but which is linked up with Rene Clair's appreciation of human weaknesses, Chaplin's sensitivity to pathos, Griffith's feeling for intimate sentiments, and Seastrom's tendency towards poetical lyricism. Projecting through the beauty of the theme, the new spirit of Russian youth is thrown into relief against the traditions of the older generation. In the Soviet Union to-day, it is the young rising generation which is being systematically schooled into a new form of life as laid down by Lenin. The elders are being left to finish their days in comparative peace so long as they outwardly conform to Soviet doctrines, but the young men and women are being rigorously trained to their tractors and collective farms. This new attitude is expressed throughout Earth, in the gaiety and enthusiasm of Vassily and his friends, in their delight for the tractor and in their ruthless devotion to the interests of the communal farm. Set against this, we have the older generation typified by Vassily's father, at first dubious of his son's keenness for the new methods, but converted to the new way of thinking