Novyy Vavilon (1929)

Directors:

Grigori Kozintsev
Leonid Trauberg

Writers:

Grigori Kozintsev (writer)
Leonid Trauberg (writer)

Release Date:

30 November 1929 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

1870s | Commune | Franco Prussian War | Historical | Revolution

Cast

David Gutman	...	Owner of the shop 'New Babylon'
Yelena Kuzmina	...	Louise Poirier
Andrei Kostrichkin	...	Head shop-assistant
Sofiya Magarill	...	An actress
A. Arnold	...	Deputy
Sergei Gerasimov	...	Lutro, journalist
Yevgeni Chervyakov	...	Soldier of the National Guard
Pyotr Sobolevsky	...	Jean, a soldier
Yanina Zhejmo	...	Therese
Oleg Zhakov	...	Soldier og the National Guard
Vsevolod Pudovkin	...	Shop-assistant
Lyudmila Semyonova	...	Can-can dancer
A. Glushkova	...	A washerwoman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Emil Gal	...	Bourgeois
S. Gusev	...	Old Poirier
Tamara Makarova	...	Can-can dancer
Aleksandr Orlov	...	King Menelay in the play
Natalya Rashevskaya	...	A washerwoman
R. Rubinshtein	...	Singer in the play
Anna Zarzhitskaya	...	A young girl on the barricade
Boris Azarov	...	Soldier (uncredited)

Directed by
Grigori Kozintsev
Leonid Trauberg

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Grigori Kozintsev		writer
Leonid Trauberg		writer

Original Music by
Dmitri Shostakovich

Cinematography by
Andrei Moskvin

Art Direction by
Yevgeni Yenej

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sergei Bartenev	....	assistant director
Sergei Gerasimov	....	assistant director
Nadezhda Kosheverova	....	assistant director
S. Shklyarevsky	....	assistant director
M. Yegorov	....	assistant director

Production Companies

• Sovkino

Distributors

• Amkino Corporation
• Bach Films (2005) (France) (DVD)
• Eccentric Press, The (1999) (UK) (VHS)
• Eccentric Press, The (2005) (UK) (DVD)
• Moskwood Media (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) (1971) (Germany) (TV)
• absolut MEDIEN (2007) (Germany) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Shturm neba
The New Babylon

Runtime:

120 min | 93 min (2004th restored Version)

Country:

Soviet Union

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario)

Company:

Sovkino

Movie Connections:

Featured in FEKS (2003)

Vive la Commune

Shown during the Wellington movie festival 2001 with the original music played by a synphonic orchestra. A rare opportunity and a good surprise.

One may argue that the movie is a dead piece of communist propaganda. Others may see it as a certain vision (Marxist indeed) of a historical event that still haunts French political life more than a century later.

In fact the movie could have been American, the distinction between good and evil is so clear and the treatment of a deep subject rather superficial.

The inspiration from Zola is evident in the course of the story as is the music by Shostakowich punctuated with themes borrowed from French revolutionary songs and Offenbach operas. They were then known to all good Soviet citizens... Only one song is apparently and surprisingly missing, The International.

Nevermind this mystery (I can't see here a mistake) the whole show is really entertaining.