The Extraordinary Adventures Of Mr. West In The Land Of The Bolsheviks (1924) by Lev Kuleshov
Sunday, June 2, 1985, 7:30 pm
The Early Soviet Cinema: Kuleshov’s Workshop
The Extraordinary Adventures Of Mr. West In The Land Of The Bolsheviks (1924) by Lev Kuleshov, script by Pudovkin and Asayav — the first success of Kuleshov’s famed Workshop, which was influenced by Meyerhold’s theories. A major theorist and teacher (Eisenstein, Pudovkin, etc.), Kuleshov pioneered an anti-Stanislavskian, anti-psychological acting style. Mr. West is a satiric comedy about the trip of an American dignitary to the Soviet Union
Salt For Svanetia (1930) by Mikhail Kalatozov — a powerful early documentary by one of Kuleshov’s disciples. Reporting on the primitive life in the remote region of Svanetia, Salt… incorporates Eisensteinian compositions with a biting clarity resembling the later Surrealist Land Without Bread (Buñuel).
Co-programmed by Robert Gardner.