Masters of the Soviet cinema : crippled creative biographies

279 Pages·2014·5.261 MB·English

by  Marshall, Herbert

MASTERS OF THE
SOVIET CINEMA
Crippled Creative Biographies
Herbert Marshall
ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
CINEMA
*
ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
CINEMA
Volume 18
MASTERS OF THE SOVIET CINEMA
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MASTERS OF THE SOVIET CINEMA
Crippled Creative Biographies
HERBERT MARSHALL
O Routledge
g Taylor & Francis Group(
LONDON AND NEW YORKI
First published in 1983
This edition first published in 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, 0X14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routlcdge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1983 Herbert Marshall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now-
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-415-83865-8 (Set)
elSBN: 978-1-315-85201-0 (Set)
ISBN: 978-0-415-72664-1 (Volume 18)
elSBN: 978-1-315-85577-6 (Volume 18)
Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this book but
points out that some imperfections from the original may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would
welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
Masters o f the
Soviet Cinema
Crippled Creative
Biographies
Herbert Marshall
UJ-JJ
Routlcdge & Kegan Paul
London, Boston, Melbourne and Henley
First published in 1983
by Routledge & Kegan Paul pic
39 Store Street, London WC1E 7DD,
9 Park Street, Boston, Mass. 02108, USA,
464 St Kilda Road, Melbourne,
Victoria 3004, Australia, and
Broadway House, Newtown Road,
Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 1EN
Set in 10/12pt Baskerville by
Input Typesetting Ltd, London
and printed in Great Britain by
St Edmundsbury Press
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Copyright © Herbert Marshall 1983
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the
publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Marshall, Herbert, 1906-
Masters of the Soviet cinema.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Moving-picture producers and directors—Soviet
Union—Biography. 2. Moving-pictures plays—History and
criticism. 3. Moving-pictures—Soviet Union. 1. Title.
PN1993.5.R9M338 1983 791.43' 023' 0922 [B] 83-3347
ISBN 0-7100-9287-3
Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
Vsevolod Pudovkin 10
Dziga Vertov 61
Alexander Dovzhenko 98
Sergei Eisenstein 187
Notes 233
Index 247
Plates
between pages 120 and 121
1 Portrait of Vsevolod Pudovkin by E. Bicber, Berlin 1929
2 In his film Mother, Pudovkin played the part of a White Guard
officer arresting ‘Mother’s’ son Pavel (left, played by Fogel.
Next to him is Savitsky)
3 ‘The End of the Demonstration,’ from Mother by Vsevolod
Pudovkin
4 ‘Heading the demonstration with the Red Banner’. The mother,
played by Baranovskaya of the Moscow Art Theatre, in
Pudovkin’s film Mother
5 Caricature of Vsevolod Pudovkin, Soviet film director, by Isaac
Schmidt. Schmidt was a fellow student with the author in
Eisenstein’s group at the All-Union State Institute of
Cinematography {the VGIK), in Moscow
6 Caricature of Herbert Marshall by Isaac Schmidt, at his
German exhibition in 1973
7 Caricature of Herbert Marshall by Isaac Schmidt, Moscow
1962
8 Vsevolod Pudovkin and Herbert Marshall meeting after twelve
years, at the World Peace Conference in Paris, 1949
9 Savitsky, the Party Secretary of the Institute of
Cinematography, and former Red Cavalry Commander
10 Savitsky as a strike-breaker in Pudovkin’s film Mother
11 Lenin’s body lying in state, from The Three Songs of Lenin by
Dziga Vertov-
12 Lenin’s bench without Lenin, in summer, from The Three Songs
of Lenin by Dziga Vertov
13 Lenin’s bench without Lenin, in winter, from The Three Songs of
Lenin by Dziga Vertov
14 Lenin sitting on his favourite bench in his country house (dacha),
from The Three Songs of Lenin by Dziga Vertov
Piales vii
15 Lenin on a rostrum in Red Square (behind him is inscribed,
"Here will be erectcd a monument to victorious labour’ -
eventually it became the Lenin Mausoleum)
16 A squad of Red Army men marching with a banner which
reads, ‘We’re going to see the cinema film The Three »Songs of
Lenin (1934)
17 Stalin as a Guard of Honour at the bier of Lenin during his
Lying in State, from The Three Songs of Lenin by Dziga Vertov
18 Portrait of Dziga Vertov, c. 1920
19 Dziga Vertov, 'The Man with the Movie Camera’
20 Caricature of Dziga Vertov by P. S. Galadjcv, c. 1920
21 Caricature of Dziga Vertov, 1929. This caricature is a clear
expression of the negative mood of Vertov, even the way he
holds the camera, as compared with the two illustrations of
earlier years
22 Alexander Dovzhenko (left) with Nikita Khrushchev (center)
in Red Army uniforms on the Western Ukrainian Front during
the war (1943)
23 Caricature of Sergei Yutkevich, Soviet film director, author of
the term ‘crippled creative biographies’
24 Alexander Dovzhenko, self-portrait, profile, in the 1930s
25 Alexander Dovzhenko, caricature by Isaac Schmidt, in the
1950s
26 Alexander Dovzhenko, caricature by himself, 1924
27 Sculpture on the grave of Alexander Dovzhenko in
Novodevich’c Cemetery, Moscow
28 Caricature of Sergei Eisenstcin by Isaac Schmidt
29 Caricature of Sergei Eisenstein by Boris Livanov, People’s
Artist of the Soviet Union and Artistic Director of the Moscow
Art Theatre. It is inscribed, ‘To Herbert Marshall, in memory
of our friendly meetings in Moscow, London, 1930-62. (signed)
Boris Livanov. Moscow, 28 November 1962'
30 Eisenstein meets Paul Robeson with Herbert Marshall at the
Belorussian Railway Station, Moscow, 22 December 1934
31 Caricature of Grisha Alexandrov by Isaac Schmidt
32 Bronze sculpture, portrait of Sergei Eisenstein, by Fredda
Brilliant, acquired by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR for
the Eisenstcin Museum
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the National Film Archive
Stills Library for permission to reproduce Plates 3, 4, 11-20, 22