Change Your Image
diacad
Reviews
Le train (1973)
"far fetched"
I would like to echo one reviewer that the "story may seem a little far fetched". The leading man, portrayed sympathetically, abandons his pregnant wife and daughter without any very clearly developed reason other than inconvenience. Sexual activity occurs under extremely stressful and public conditions in a boxcar. This unlikely behavior does not ring true. My wife, a psychiatrist, agrees with my estimate, and feels these scenes may have been injected for obvious reasons to put over the film (or book if in the original story). Another element that strains credibility is at the end, where the main characters, stoic through so much, are inexplicably unable to conceal their mutual recognition in front of the police inspector, thus implying their doom.
Niemandsland (1931)
A simple human statement against war
"Niemansland" (No Man's Land) is one of several early talkies produced in the last years of Weimar Germany that the Nazis targetted for total elimination. As with "Kongress Tanzt", and "Dreigroschenoper", not all copies were destroyed. Long thought lost, a print of Niemansland surfaced in the United States and was restored by film archivist Maurice Zouary in 1969. It has now been distributed on VHS by Inkwell Images, Inc.
This film makes a simple human statement against war through brief parallel personal histories of five men, who encounter each other at the nexus of life and death. The culminating scenes are those at the battlefront in World War One. The sympathetic portrayal of a Russian Jew, and the depiction of a rather cosmopolitan and resourceful black man, especially infuriated the brownshirts, perhaps as much as the basic message that war was (and is) the supreme enemy of all.
"Niemansland" must be appreciated as an artifact of its time (1931). The silent era lends much to the acting and pacing, where exaggerated gestures and, frankly, stereotypes of various kinds, bridge the gaps due to the lack of sound. Perhaps this is understandable, since the film is multilingual (the first such of very few in film history), although English is predominant. There is an obvious influence of the silent Eisenstein and his gospel of montage. The musical score by the famous communist composer Hanns Eisler (who first fled Hitler to Hollywood, then fled Joe McCarthy to East Germany, there composing the GDR national anthem) is a fine finishing touch, and actually has been available on LPs and CDs for many years. And Ernst Busch, who was the streetsinger in "Dreigroschenoper" (Three Penny Opera), made the same year, plays the German soldier. Although the German Left was involved in the film's production, the message is pure and simple; there is not a trace of dogmatic sectarianism.
"Niemansland" would make good viewing today for those who are troubled (or should be) by the possibility of yet another war.
Jakob der Lügner (1974)
The Real McCoy
One of the legacies of the late GDR (East Germany) is a treasure-trove of cultural productions, much of which has been inaccessible to us. An exception is the 1974 DEFA (GDR successor to pre-1945 Ufa Film Studio) production "Jacob the Liar", which enjoyed a brief exposure in the US in the late '70s, even being nominated for an Academy Award. If you missed it, this is your chance to have it, beautifully transferred to DVD (also another justification for splurging on a DVD player, if you haven't already). Although it can be viewed without, the subtitles (your choice of language)are well-worded and legible.
"Jacob" centers on a man inadvertently finding himself a focus of hope among the doomed in a Polish ghetto. Circumstances have him reluctantly pretending to possess a forbidden radio, which leads to dramatic (and comedic) situations, and even raises moral questions and insights about truth and responsibility in such an adverse context. Billed as a tragic comedy, the acting and pacing of the story are equal to the serious nature of the subject.
Director Frank Beyer's "Jacob" should not be confused with the 1999 Hollywood remake starring the talented (but often glib and facetious) Robin Williams. This Columbia distribution is a sort of roadrunner-cartoon version trying to be profound. It has the frantic pacing and excessive gratuitous violence evidently presumed necessary to put it over. If you must have a Holocaust-era drama that can bear watching more than once, get the real McCoy.
Volga - Volga (1938)
Another Look At A Lighthearted Soviet Classic
"Volga-Volga", directed by Alexandrov (Eisenstein's cameraman in "Ten Days" and other Soviet classics), is perhaps the best of a series by him that provides a Russian echo of Busby Berkeley's work in the US. Like Berkeley, Alexandrov has been attacked by some at present who see only the escapist side of this type of musical fantasy/comedy. But "Volga-Volga" also barbs "bureaucratic commissars" as did "Golddiggers of 1933" skewer "stuffy aristocrats".
Wonderful music and vaudeville-style entertainment, with Lyubov Orlova heading a talented cast, insured that "Volga-Volga" is perhaps the film most beloved by ordinary Russians ever made in the Soviet Union; it certainly was during the '30s and '40s. That Stalin presented a personal gift copy to Roosevelt during the war probably elicited the approbation "Stalin's Favorite Film". It was clear that he was proud of it, and we were allies. Today one would have to be a pretty unregenerate cold warrior or slavophobe to be offended by "Volga-Volga".
The plot: like with Berkeley, not so important. It involves a running competition (including a boat race down the Volga river) between a folk music band and a more formal village orchestra. There is singing, dancing, romance. And a happy ending.
Now you can judge for yourself. A crystal-clear VHS copy of this (and other Alexandrov '30s musicals) is distributed by Polart with easy-to-read yellow subtitles (I wish all foreign films were so graced).