Russia Offers New Production

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 544, 22 December 1928, Page 23

Russia Offers New Production

Terrible Realism in Soviet Picture “MOTHER” SHOWN IN LONDON “T POTEMKIN,” the striking Soviet production, having been banned in England, Russia ' has offered “Mother," another amassing picture on entirely new .lines. It tvas screened recently before the English Film Society. HIE occasion was the first on which any Soviet film of uncompromisingly political hue has been shown before an English audience. Even “Potemkin,” which re-creates an actual incident of the year 1905 in something of the manner in which the English films “Mons” and “The Somme” re-created war history, was banned by the censor and by the London County Council, though it has been shown publicly in every other principal country. Propaganda Apart from many frankly propaganda and educational films, during the last four years many dramatic pictures have been made, too, dyed with the economic and political views of those concerned in their production, but primarily—to Russian audiences at least—straightforward stories about the man and woman in the street. Stories of class conflict, of the movements and emotions of crowds these are, adapted to satisfy the daydreams of a typical member of the working class in Russia, just as the numerous American films concerning young heroes of the “go-getter” type, and heroines like Mary Pickford in “My Best Girl,” who marry their employer’s son, are adapted to suit the day-dreams of the same sort of audience in the United States, says the “Film Weekly.” The Russian School “Mother,” which was produced in 1526, and directed by V. I. Pudovkin (whose first full-length picture it is), admirably illustrates alike the virtues and peculiarities of the new Russian school of films. The story is of the simplest: A working-class mother is tricked by the military into betraying the hidingplace of arms which her son and his associates should have used in the rising planned to end a factory lockout. Though she typifies the whole of her class, though interest is centred chiefly in her actions and reactions, it is the mass that she typifies which really plays the heroic role. The picture culminates in a rising of the people and in their sanguinary defeat by armed troops. The mother, prompted by human rather than political feeling, seizes the red flag of rebellion as it falls from the dead hand of the last of the workers . . . until she, too, falls. Terrible Realism Sombre, terrifying and gruesomely realistic the whole film is. The method by which the story unfolds is startling and certainly effective. As the drama intensifies, so the pace at which the pictures on the screen succeed each other, alternate with each other, contrives to strike the sight just as, in an orchestral symphony, sound strikes the ear. Short glimpses of faces, feet, whole scenes flash by, then a longer moment Which catches a significant figure, a symbolical action. A telegraphic style, in fact, an excited and rapid rhythm is deliberately employed to give not an exact picture of all that happened, but a series of vivid impressions which tell more. Pictorial composition of a deliberate and ingenious kind; an original and very flowing technique; and uncompromisingly sincere acting where the player definitely becomes the individual he represents—these alone make “Mother” a unique experience. Baranovskaia, as the mother, gives an intense and unforgettable performance, during which one watches her timid, broken spirit slowly take fire because the injustice of the world conflicts with her passionate maternal love. This little shabby creature becomes great, a sj/mbol of courage and devotion.

Equally remarkable is the grouping of players to suggest the mood of a scene—a knot of workmen outside factory gates has an ominous and desperate air—soldiers and officials are seen very rigid, imposing, like automatons.

Comedian Finds Talkies Amusing “Talking pictures are on the high success in Australia,” says George Wallace, popular Fuller’s comedian, and shrewd judge of public taste, who arrived in Auckland early this week. While in Sydney he heard and saw Al Jolson, the famous American solo comedian, playing a talking part in “The Jazz Singer.” “The illusion is practically perfect,” he remarked; “the sound appears to come from the lips of the actor, and his work is as easy to follow as it is on the stage.”

(NEW DEVELOPMENT IN COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY A new step forward has been made in the development of colour photography. The new process Is the subject of a company registered recently under the title of "Colour Photographs" By this new method a scene is photographed through one lens on to a pack of three sensitised films, each of which is sensitive to only one colour. The pack is subsequently separated, and each negative printed on to a film positive tinted with the relevant colour. The positives are then brought together into one picture.

Fred Niblo Begins Esperanto Picture \ FRENCH paper announces that the first talking picture in Esperanto will be begun shortly by Fred Niblo, the noted director. His new venture is the outcome of an opinion expressed by prominent American producers that the universal language will make possible universal “talkies.” According to Eeporanto enthusiasts, it will not be necessary for the public to understand the language. The Esperanto talking sequence will merely facilitate translation into the language desired.