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THE CINEMA AS A GRAPHIC ART
A heavy, ringing gallop
Over the quivering roadway.
And, haloed by the pallid moon,
With one arm stretched on high,
After him speeds the Brazen Horseman,
On a ringingly galloping horse.
And all that night the unhappy maniac,
No matter where he turned his steps,
Heard behind him the Brazen Horseman
With heavy clatter galloping.
Our first task is to elucidate the conception, the theme of the scenai fragment we have selected.
The theme of the poem " The Brazen Horseman " can be defined as esse tially one of individual revolt, which in its isolated attempt to rise against t autocracy is foredoomed to failure. The figure of Peter the Great, the " idol a brazen horse ", stylistically treated in a pose of classic immobility, is reveal! as a symbol of the " State power " of the period of Nicholas the First,1 whii ruthlessly smashed any attempt on the part of personality and individuality > oppose the ' legalised order ' of the feudal-police monarchy.
In our attempts to reach a clear understanding of one of the two opposijj forces of the poem — the ' idol ', — we shall find a poem by Adam Mitskievitc, " The Road to Russia ", of great interest for its characterisation of Peter the Gre;,
In this poem Mitskievitch speaks of Peter's passion for conquest, of t; " Brazen, knout-autocratic Tsar," whose " horse reared refractorily, seeking t; frontiers of distant lands ". Mitskievitch provides us with a very clear pictorl comparison which is of great help in elucidating the principle on which we shoul base our representational treatment of the " idol on a brazen horse ".
The tsar shook loose the reins, the horse flew off,
Champing at the bit. . . .
Now it fell. . . .
But still the cliff was inviolable.
And the Brazen Horseman, furious and scowling,
Still set his horse jumping at random.
Thus, by winter cold imprisoned.
The cataract hangs over the abyss.1
But in these dead expanses
Only the Western wind breathes,
The sun of freedom shines on all,
And the cataract of tyranny crashes down.3
Thus the essentially dynamic figure of the " Brazen Horseman " is presentd in monumental immobility, in static violence, like a " cataract hanging over 1 abyss ". The monument of Peter is an embodiment of the ruthless, oppressi : tyranny of feudalism, which has already completed its historical task, and nc acts only as a stagnant and frozen force.
The individual force opposing him, the representative of a new, though sti indeterminate element, is the maniac Eugene. His picture is unfolded in til: dynamics of his behaviour, on which all the development of the subject is concentrated.
1 The period both of Pushkin and his character Eugene. — N.
2 Here and in the following quotations the italics are the present author's. — N.
3 A. Mitskievitch, " The Road to Russia ", Monument of Peter the Great. — N.
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