Cinema Quarterly (1934 - 1935)

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character of the battle and the psychological character of a small group of soldiers who, because of their thoughts and emotions, represent the masses. Chapeyev is a more personally passionate film than any made before. Tenderness and love and humour, a really delicious humour, are as integral elements of the story as its courage and heroism; they are the form through which life is expressed as opposed to certain and oncoming death. The theme depends entirely upon character. There is nothing symbolic about the six or eight leading characters, soldiers, peasants and a woman talking backchat, singing, loving and fighting to the death. There is nothing conventionally heroic about the hero, Chapeyev, cursing, throwing chairs about, puzzled; at first politically illiterate. Some peasants ask him whether he is a Communist or a Bolshevik; he scratches his head, not knowing what they mean, and answers, " I'm an internationalist." Even the White officer is human; he loves Chopin, he is never grotesque, he is an enemy to respect. Chapeyev is undoubtedly as much the actors' as it is the directors' picture; and that is a new development in the history of Soviet films. Babotchkin's portrayal of Chapeyev is an amazing piece of work, a beautiful performance. He has through intensive research wormed his way into the commander's skin. Without such a performance Chapeyev would be nothing, for the main subject is how Chapeyev and his men think and feel and accordingly act in a number of historical events. Theirs is an optimistic tragedy. The style of the picture is synthetic. The synthesis of the great early films tempered with the more personal elements which were first manifested in 1932 in Ermler's and Utkevitche's Counterplan. It is much quieter in rhythm than the early pictures; it has few tricks either of photography or montage. There is a certain amount of symbolism all through the film, introduced through several wellknown folk songs; for example, towards the end Chapeyev sings the eighteenth-century song of the Decemberists, "Ermerk," which tells the tale of the conqueror of Siberia, who is drowned as he tries to swim the river. It suggests and anticipates Chapeyev's own fate. But on the whole the subject is more revolutionary than the form, or rather, the treatment of the subject is more important than the technique employed when estimating the value of Chapeyev in the historical development of the Soviet cinema. THE COVER ILLUSTRATION is from the new Ufa film Abel mil der Muttdharmonika, directed by Max Pfeiffer and featuring Karl Ludwig Schreiber. 152