Three Soviet Classics (Earth / The End of St. Petersburg / Chess Fever)
by Vsevolod Pudovkin
from Kino Video
Mother
by Vsevolod Pudovkin
from Image Entertainment
Russian director Vsevolod I. Pudovkin's "Mother" is the chronicle of an individual's transformation from political naivete to Marxist awareness set during the 1905 Russian Revolution. Pudovkin uses innovative montage techniques and camera angles to tell this bold story of national unrest through the eyes of a working class woman.
Bed and Sofa
by Abram Room
from Image Entertainment
Daring for its time (or any time), Bed and Sofa is the story of a love triangle between a woman and two men living together in a one-room basement apartment in 1927 Moscow. When Liuda becomes pregnant and no one knows which husband is the father, she must determine her own future. With an involving plot, comic invention, pathos, naturalistic performances, and highly-charged use of space and objects, director Abram Room illuminates the lives of the characters but without offering a simplistic resolution. Instead he successfully uses their personal stories to probe complex issues of lingering patriarchy and female self-sufficiency in the new Society. As a bonus, this DVD also includes Chess Fever, a witty and ingenious satire on the chess craze which swept Moscow at the time of the International Tournament there.
The End of Saint Petersburg / Deserter
by Vsevolod Pudovkin
from Image Entertainment
A giant of early Soviet revolutionary cinema, Vsevolod Pudovkin overwhelmed the film world with his masterpieces based in montage, the creation of a psychological whole from short pieces of thematically-related film. Intensely dramatic and personal, "The End of Saint Petersburg" (1927, 87 min.) follows a Russian peasant from life on a farm to union work in the big city, through the turmoil of World War I and into the Russian Revolution. In "Deserter" (1933, 106 min.), labor unrest among German workers leads one conflicted employee from a potential strike to an unforgettable journey to the U.S.S.R., where he becomes inspired to renew the cause of his fellow men. Digitally mastered from the finest elements available, these two cinematic milestones offer breathtaking examples of Pudovkin's editorial genius and fascinating multi-layered soundtracks.
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