Mother

Rating:
Summary: The Mother of the Revolution
Review: Mother is a very interesting Soviet silent film. The story is set during the unsuccessful revolt of 1905, the same revolt depicted in Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. The mother of the story is caught in the middle of a family conflict, as her son is involved with a group of workers organizing a strike, while her brutish husband is in a group attempting to put the strike down. In the course of the story the mother comes to understand why her son is involved with the revolution. She moves from servile respect for the authorities to sympathy with her son and his aims. She joins the revolution and makes her stand, becoming a symbol of what was to come in 1917.

Like other Soviet films from this period Mother is something of a propaganda piece. Heroic workers are juxtaposed with fat, gloating capitalists, sinister police and cruel judges. But the story is still exciting and brilliantly told. The editing is Russian style, fast and breathless and occasionally a little confusing. Images flash by so quickly that it can be hard to take it all in. However at times the combination of images is outstanding, as for instance when scenes of a group of revolutionaries on the march are combined with scenes of an ice bound river breaking up and becoming a flood. The suggestion is made with cinematic images that the revolution is as inevitable as the flow of the river and will eventually overpower any resistance.

The title role is wonderfully played by Vera Baranovskaya. Her face is marvellously expressive and shows how her character changes emotionally throughout the course of the film. The son played by Nikolai Batalov acts rather like a socialist realist painting, all smiling heroism. His character lacks the depth of the mother. Ultimately it is she who is the heroine in a quiet and determined way. Her bravery, in the end, is terribly moving.

The print used for the Image DVD is very good. It is clear, bright and shows very little damage. The soundtrack is more of a problem. It was added to the film in 1968 and has quite a lot of background noise. Moreover it has sound effects, which is a pity, as the film would originally have been shown with only a music score. The title cards are presented in the original Russian and translated with subtitles. Sometimes these subtitles overlap the Russian text and can be a little hard to read. Also it is rather disconcerting when a great long chunk of Russian text is translated with one word of English. The DVD may have some minor faults, but it is still, without doubt, worth buying, as Mother is a very fine film, a film not as famous as Potemkin, but in many ways equally as good.

Rating:
Summary: Pudovkin's classic film of early Soviet cinema
Review: Obviously there must have been other Russian silent film directors besides Sergei Eisenstein, but coming by copies of their work has not been easy. Now we have this silent 1926 classic from Vsevolod Pudovkin that tells the story of the abortive 1905 revolt through the eyes of one Russian "Mother," eloquently played by Vera Baranovskaya. Niovna-Vlasova is caught in the middle when her husband (Aleksandr Chistyakov) and son (Nikolai Batalov) are on opposite sides during a worker's strike, although the father has been coerced into opposing the strike. "Mother" features Ivan Koval-Samborsky as the Young Strike Organizer and Anna Zemtsova as the Girl Revolutionary.

Pudovkin dramatizes the injustices of Czarist life, focusing on the problems of this single family. As Niovna sees what is happening around her she comes to take a dramatic stand against the police and the Cossak troops during a fatal demonstration. Pudovkin is certainly as creative in his use of montage as Eisenstein and "Mother" would be an excellent film to screen before the classic "Battleship Potemkin." Certainly Pudovkin details the brutal conditions that set up the Russian Revolution. This might be propaganda, but it has the ring of truth to it, something Eisenstein's cinematic masterpiece cannot claim as well. There are no extras on this DVD, but this is an important piece of cinema history that can stand by itself.

Rating:
Summary: Pudovkins greatest?
Review: Pudovkins approach to montage was slightly different than Eisensteins. Pudovkin treated each shot as bricks in a wall, where Eisenstein would emphasise on the collision effect in each cut. This is hailed as Pudovkins masterpiece and it's a beautiful film, with strong performances and highly dramatic scenes; the climax is as impressive as they get... The ultimate motage film must be Eisensteins Potemkin, but "Mother" is also a very good choice. The tranfer is really as good as you can except, but the disc has no extras.

Rating:
Summary: Eisenstein did not direct this film.
Review: This film was actually directed by another Russian, Vsevolod Pudovkin, a contemporary of Eisenstein. It is his second film, based on a story by Maxim Gorky.