The greatest poet, a true audio-visual reference the great Dovzhenko, is always, in terms of media exposure and recognition, a step behind the other russian luminaries that the history books of cinema collect, be it the inescapable Eisenstein, Vertov, or perhaps even Pudovkin. But the truth is that this huge audio-visual author has nothing to envy to those conspicuous big names, and even more, although it sounds insolent, even more considering those gregarious immortal surnames of the seventh art, maybe those are who have something to envy to the great master. The Soviet lands taught the world the powerful intellectual weapon that could be the cinema, none like them to express their collective feeling, their pride of mass, their history, but in none of the three authors cited above, is the artistic sensibility of Dovzhenko, his exquisite treatment, the strength and audiovisual poetry he knew how to display, and always without neglecting the other imprints, which he shared with his fellow comrades. The director himself is involved in supervising the writing of the script for this film, where a piece of the history of the Russian empire is captured, some Ukrainian lands hide a fabulous treasure, an old man will take care of it, but as time goes by, his two grandchildren, of opposing personalities, should watch over the future.
In ancient territories of Ukrainian origin, the land houses a large and arcane treasure, are lands in which an aged old man (Nikolai Nademsky) lives and protects his country from strangers, where he meets a general, both join the troops, weapons in hand, to defend their nation from Viking invaders. During his long stay, the grandfather meets Okasana (P. Sklyar Otawa), and in turn has two grandchildren, Pavlo (Les Podorozhnij), the second, and Timoshka (Semyon Svashenko), the eldest. There is a great conflict, the invasions still hit the town, many men march to war, women and children cry those departures, while the grandfather tells Pavlo about the existence of the treasure, with Okasana as direct implicate, interacting with the strangers, falling in love with one; decades of struggle and death are narrated. Timoshka warns and deals with the invaders, resistances are organized, arduous battles are fought, sacrifices that both grandchildren witness, with Pavlo always expectant, but Timoshka is not relegated, he studies seriously about the subject. Decades pass, modernism arrives, cars and locomotives, the Cossacks continue to threaten, Bolsheviks also come into action. Modern days have arrived, machines, mass productions, workshops and companies dominate, finally the grandfather eats and drinks with some workers.
Anyone who has not seen a film by the giant Dovzhenko (who was initially a school teacher), can be surprised, pleasantly surprised, and if it is a prepared audience, the imprint that this immortal master will leave on the psyche will certainly be indelible, imperishable, is undoubtedly one of the greatest audiovisual artists of the silent era of cinema, curious considering that he began his career in the twilight of the solemn moment of the seventh art. Yes, Dovzhenko makes films like very few others, like almost nobody, it is necessary to have certain references of his to appreciate the author and his work, because this film does not take long to make clear its intentions, in the sequence that opens the film nature is poetically printed without further proem, slowed sequences are giving us an advance of that treatment, nature first, humans later, everything merges into a subtle and almost hieratic parade. In the film Dovzhenko also quickly changes the rhythm of the narrative, combines close-ups with mid, general shots, changes the speed of duration of those frames, the assembly will change the trend to a more frenetic pace, likewise in one of the first sequences we see that kind of dark demon leave an underground environment to face the grandfather, and that figure will then return to torment the old man, demon that is presented with a great use of the resource of the superposition of shots, magnifying its figure, the terror, the ambition that prints to the locals. In just over twenty minutes the director has already given us a preview of the wide range of his expressive and narrative possibilities, but again, this is just a prolegomena of what is to come. The enormous force of the film rests on two elements, on a singular binomial that constitutes the core of the film, which is also immediately portrayed, nature and the army, the field and weapons, dissimilar elements will soon be already intertwined. It is remarkable that the author sees poetry, introduces poetry with an overwhelming authority, that way we feel as if two independent stories were flowing together, in dissimilar braid, the epic story, the document where the log of the Russian history is recorded, but also the audiovisual story, the beauty, the audiovisual aesthetics, which in Dovzhenko's cinema, like almost no other author, seems to develop under its own rules. Great the master, amalgamates the realism with lyricism, the dry realism then flows at times span to span with poetry, two-edged duality, of apparent incompatibility, coexist and commune in the cinema of this titanic author, who manages to balance those apparently irreconcilable, antagonistic currents. The director will add more contrast, contrasts the modern with the old, the machines against the countryside, history itself bifurcates into our protagonists, expressing realism, but, as was said, also an irrepressible lyricism.
History bifurcates but at the same time merges, because the dividing line of one time and another vanishes in the figure of the grandfather, with him, time disappears, onirism and fantasy reach those heights, the old man becomes timeless guardian, the centuries pass, people die, people are born, but the ancient sentinel remains undaunted, hermetic to time. As indicated above, in the Russian film the assembly stands out, a key element of the film, the master thread that controls the rhythm of the film, which dynamizes the sequences, adding urgency, tension, frenzy, even despair, and then normalizing; a master class of assembly, which controls the times of the film, the rhythm of the film, the cadence of the emotions, of the moments, a montage that makes us enter or leave a moment with a different emotion. Notable moments of that change of pace, of that frantic editing, we have many during the film, just to name one, there is a public shooting, all the tension and dignity of the soldier are portrayed; or the disturbing sequence of Pavlo with the weapon in the temple, all, the jury, with aberrant fruition demand the sacrifice of the young man. Both moments are enhanced with frames, with high-angle shoots and low-angle shoots, a large glossary of audiovisual resources we find, images quickly concatenated, with pre-eminence of many close-ups, intensity touch, of course, in this montage. The filmmaker creates pleasant frames, such as Oksana's sequence in the field, with a beautiful natural mirror of water behind, a calm stream that reflects everything, that sublimates the image. This is exemplary of a Dovzhenko virtue, in the midst of a supposed austerity of elements from which to generate beauty, the director is capable of extracting lyricism, of discovering it in many cases, of generating it even in others. Of tiny details, of simplicity, like a playful bubble, it is from where extracts something different, something sublime, or likewise of great scenarios, like enormous fields of plants, or that mirror of water that is the stream; he extracts poetry in many cases from where it seems unable to be found. In his wide spectrum of resources and possibilities, we observe powerful low-angle shoots, images of the industry, of buildings, of constructions in process, of high structures, the camera moves upwards, it is development, machines, steam engines, standardized production, battle tanks, caterpillars, men marching in mass, in rows, modernism embodied with images, then even the neon lights, the moment of the present has arrived. Another characteristic of Dovzhenko's nascent cinema is that it dispenses with excessive texts, something very remarkable, in the years of silent cinema, where the spoken word does not exist, the filmmaker allows the audiovisual to govern, to be the greatest expressive and narrative resource, the image speaks like almost no other filmmaker in Dovzhenko, who lets it flow, there is no room for words, a total filmmaker, at a time when the sound was not yet complete in the cinema. In him, unlike his contemporary comrades, Eisenstein, Vertov, Pudovkin, the mass is humanized, individuality is recognized, there are faces, and there exists, with its lens, poetry, but the insolence of forgetting the irrecusable power of duty is never committed, sacred obligation to the homeland, Timoshka must liquidate the woman who loves him, because she would represent missing his obligation to the mother country, to his nation.
The film is a beautiful ode to Ukraine, to the land, to the men who inhabit it, its story is told with realism, a realism whose integrity is never threatened or diminished by the impetuous flow of the poetic power of the director; it is the history of his land, portrayed with truth, with realism, but finding a place in that realism to introduce lyrical details. Coexists well in the film, in a way not seen until the time -and perhaps later either-, poetry, nationalism, a poetic and proud exaltation of the nation, of Ukraine, in epic document, the history of centuries summarized with feeling, from the Viking invasions to the proletarian struggles, Bolsheviks, the men defending and forging with pride the history of the Russian empire, general feeling in the great filmmakers of that time. It is time to discuss a sequence of extreme wealth, that sequence of grandpa explaining to Pavlo the origin of the treasure, the audiovisual climax of the film, overwhelming talent, the moment of that complete sequence superimposed; never, never seen such an extensive sequence of that resource, of the superpositions of shots, complete minutes, complete centuries of battles, narrated in sequences of images in an irrepressible torrent of overlayed frames, images, sequences. Not even in Expressionism -which was the school that had one of its technical foundations in this resource-, much less in other currents, that level of visual exuberance was reached with this resource. Dovzhenko delights us with a complete episode of the story that is narrated in an unusual and forceful way, something unprecedented in the greatest films in the history of cinema, for something even Eisenstein himself was moved from the theater after its viewing, dedicating memorable lauds. We see in that extensive sequence, the history, symbolically defeated one by one the men, war with the invaders, what the conventional narrative does not allow, the magic of the dream, of the oneiric, all the immeasurable power of that sequence, prints, exemplary and incomparably, nobody had worked in the way that this poet does. It's extraordinary, the whole force of expressionism flows in that unforgettable sequence, the nightmarish gloom, the dark dementia, the deranging darkness, the audiovisual techniques have a free track in those precious minutes, the superpositions of frames, which in other authors is a positive resort in dribs-and-drabs used, in Dovzhenko is simply endless frenzy of delirium. Onirism and symbolism converge in this powerful sequence, a concomitance that can only reach that level of excellence in Dovzhenko, history and onirism merge, disparate couples find a point of balance and union in the filmmaker poet, who directs with boldness certainly, a sequence of overlayed images with so much ambition, with so much fluency and mastery was not captured before. Time would tell us that the film was a sublime farewell to silent films, the top, the peak, seemed an epitome of much of the film resources of all currents in epiphanic moment, 1928, year in which the great revolution came to the cinema, the sound came up with
The Jazz Singer, everything changed forever, and Dovzhenko began his particular Trilogy of War with the present work, continuing with
Arsenal (1929), and ending with
Earth (1930). To take into account, is his fourth feature film, although some consider it the first for being the first work so recognized and so valuable, the hidden treasure was not only in the history portrayed, but in the film itself shot, which is the heritage of art, heritage of humanity, all the power of the director was already there. We have thus a tremendously versatile work, almost impossible to classify in its variety, with solid performances, the old man and his grandchildren, their tribulations reinforced by the close-ups, film that is closed with that final sequence, the old man, interacting before with Vikings and antediluvianos beings, faces the locomotive, symbol par excellence of the modernity; the fire monster calls it, after which we see him accepting food and hospitality of some workers, with his gesture, there remains a little the question of whether the grandfather has ceded in his impetus. One of the greatest poets of the cinema began his great contribution to the seventh art, the immortal Trilogy of War, the beautiful ode of Ukraine began with this film, war and beauty flowing together, poetry and history; I do not think that it is unreasonable to notice later echoes in someone who is close in sensitivity, changing the historical context, Tarkovsky and his beautiful
Ivan's Childhood (1962). Extraordinary film, audiovisual delicacy, major author.
The greatest poet, a true audio-visual reference the great Dovzhenko, is always, in terms of media exposure and recognition, a step behind the other russian luminaries that the history books of cinema collect, be it the inescapable Eisenstein, Vertov, or perhaps even Pudovkin. But the truth is that this huge audio-visual author has nothing to envy to those conspicuous big names, and even more, although it sounds insolent, even more considering those gregarious immortal surnames of the seventh art, maybe those are who have something to envy to the great master. The Soviet lands taught the world the powerful intellectual weapon that could be the cinema, none like them to express their collective feeling, their pride of mass, their history, but in none of the three authors cited above, is the artistic sensibility of Dovzhenko, his exquisite treatment, the strength and audiovisual poetry he knew how to display, and always without neglecting the other imprints, which he shared with his fellow comrades. The director himself is involved in supervising the writing of the script for this film, where a piece of the history of the Russian empire is captured, some Ukrainian lands hide a fabulous treasure, an old man will take care of it, but as time goes by, his two grandchildren, of opposing personalities, should watch over the future.
In ancient territories of Ukrainian origin, the land houses a large and arcane treasure, are lands in which an aged old man (Nikolai Nademsky) lives and protects his country from strangers, where he meets a general, both join the troops, weapons in hand, to defend their nation from Viking invaders. During his long stay, the grandfather meets Okasana (P. Sklyar Otawa), and in turn has two grandchildren, Pavlo (Les Podorozhnij), the second, and Timoshka (Semyon Svashenko), the eldest. There is a great conflict, the invasions still hit the town, many men march to war, women and children cry those departures, while the grandfather tells Pavlo about the existence of the treasure, with Okasana as direct implicate, interacting with the strangers, falling in love with one; decades of struggle and death are narrated. Timoshka warns and deals with the invaders, resistances are organized, arduous battles are fought, sacrifices that both grandchildren witness, with Pavlo always expectant, but Timoshka is not relegated, he studies seriously about the subject. Decades pass, modernism arrives, cars and locomotives, the Cossacks continue to threaten, Bolsheviks also come into action. Modern days have arrived, machines, mass productions, workshops and companies dominate, finally the grandfather eats and drinks with some workers.
Anyone who has not seen a film by the giant Dovzhenko (who was initially a school teacher), can be surprised, pleasantly surprised, and if it is a prepared audience, the imprint that this immortal master will leave on the psyche will certainly be indelible, imperishable, is undoubtedly one of the greatest audiovisual artists of the silent era of cinema, curious considering that he began his career in the twilight of the solemn moment of the seventh art. Yes, Dovzhenko makes films like very few others, like almost nobody, it is necessary to have certain references of his to appreciate the author and his work, because this film does not take long to make clear its intentions, in the sequence that opens the film nature is poetically printed without further proem, slowed sequences are giving us an advance of that treatment, nature first, humans later, everything merges into a subtle and almost hieratic parade. In the film Dovzhenko also quickly changes the rhythm of the narrative, combines close-ups with mid, general shots, changes the speed of duration of those frames, the assembly will change the trend to a more frenetic pace, likewise in one of the first sequences we see that kind of dark demon leave an underground environment to face the grandfather, and that figure will then return to torment the old man, demon that is presented with a great use of the resource of the superposition of shots, magnifying its figure, the terror, the ambition that prints to the locals. In just over twenty minutes the director has already given us a preview of the wide range of his expressive and narrative possibilities, but again, this is just a prolegomena of what is to come. The enormous force of the film rests on two elements, on a singular binomial that constitutes the core of the film, which is also immediately portrayed, nature and the army, the field and weapons, dissimilar elements will soon be already intertwined. It is remarkable that the author sees poetry, introduces poetry with an overwhelming authority, that way we feel as if two independent stories were flowing together, in dissimilar braid, the epic story, the document where the log of the Russian history is recorded, but also the audiovisual story, the beauty, the audiovisual aesthetics, which in Dovzhenko's cinema, like almost no other author, seems to develop under its own rules. Great the master, amalgamates the realism with lyricism, the dry realism then flows at times span to span with poetry, two-edged duality, of apparent incompatibility, coexist and commune in the cinema of this titanic author, who manages to balance those apparently irreconcilable, antagonistic currents. The director will add more contrast, contrasts the modern with the old, the machines against the countryside, history itself bifurcates into our protagonists, expressing realism, but, as was said, also an irrepressible lyricism.
History bifurcates but at the same time merges, because the dividing line of one time and another vanishes in the figure of the grandfather, with him, time disappears, onirism and fantasy reach those heights, the old man becomes timeless guardian, the centuries pass, people die, people are born, but the ancient sentinel remains undaunted, hermetic to time. As indicated above, in the Russian film the assembly stands out, a key element of the film, the master thread that controls the rhythm of the film, which dynamizes the sequences, adding urgency, tension, frenzy, even despair, and then normalizing; a master class of assembly, which controls the times of the film, the rhythm of the film, the cadence of the emotions, of the moments, a montage that makes us enter or leave a moment with a different emotion. Notable moments of that change of pace, of that frantic editing, we have many during the film, just to name one, there is a public shooting, all the tension and dignity of the soldier are portrayed; or the disturbing sequence of Pavlo with the weapon in the temple, all, the jury, with aberrant fruition demand the sacrifice of the young man. Both moments are enhanced with frames, with high-angle shoots and low-angle shoots, a large glossary of audiovisual resources we find, images quickly concatenated, with pre-eminence of many close-ups, intensity touch, of course, in this montage. The filmmaker creates pleasant frames, such as Oksana's sequence in the field, with a beautiful natural mirror of water behind, a calm stream that reflects everything, that sublimates the image. This is exemplary of a Dovzhenko virtue, in the midst of a supposed austerity of elements from which to generate beauty, the director is capable of extracting lyricism, of discovering it in many cases, of generating it even in others. Of tiny details, of simplicity, like a playful bubble, it is from where extracts something different, something sublime, or likewise of great scenarios, like enormous fields of plants, or that mirror of water that is the stream; he extracts poetry in many cases from where it seems unable to be found. In his wide spectrum of resources and possibilities, we observe powerful low-angle shoots, images of the industry, of buildings, of constructions in process, of high structures, the camera moves upwards, it is development, machines, steam engines, standardized production, battle tanks, caterpillars, men marching in mass, in rows, modernism embodied with images, then even the neon lights, the moment of the present has arrived. Another characteristic of Dovzhenko's nascent cinema is that it dispenses with excessive texts, something very remarkable, in the years of silent cinema, where the spoken word does not exist, the filmmaker allows the audiovisual to govern, to be the greatest expressive and narrative resource, the image speaks like almost no other filmmaker in Dovzhenko, who lets it flow, there is no room for words, a total filmmaker, at a time when the sound was not yet complete in the cinema. In him, unlike his contemporary comrades, Eisenstein, Vertov, Pudovkin, the mass is humanized, individuality is recognized, there are faces, and there exists, with its lens, poetry, but the insolence of forgetting the irrecusable power of duty is never committed, sacred obligation to the homeland, Timoshka must liquidate the woman who loves him, because she would represent missing his obligation to the mother country, to his nation.
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