Russian Cinema

I just finished watching the last silent Russian film on my Netflix queue, Storm Over Asia (1928) . Nearly all of the ones I've seen have to do with the Bolshevik Revolution, which makes them difficult to watch. I picked them because they are renowned for their cinematography and editing, mostly, because otherwise, they are just a lot of historically inaccurate Communist propaganda. They are all directed by one of two people: Sergei Eisenstein, who used alot of montage, juxtaposition, and shock cutting, and Vsevolod Pudovkin, who was an experimental surrealist. Pudovkin used surrealism to great effect in Storm over Asia, my favorite on this list, which also featured the most natural acting, in my opinion. Both directors used a lot of obvious symbolism. Most of the acting is in the exaggerated style of the Silent Era. I thought the only Western-style entertainment to be found on this list is Chess Fever, a satirical take on the Russian national obsession. These films are sensationalistic, manipulative, and contain an almost unremittingly bleak world view filled with harsh images of suffering. I am very glad to be finished with them!


Battleship Potemkin (1925) (Eisenstein)
Strike (1925) (Eisenstein)
Mother (1926) (Pudovkin)
Earth/End of St Petersburg/Chess Fever: Triple Feature (Pudovkin)
October (1927) (Eisenstein) and
Storm Over Asia (1928) (Pudovkin)