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Very few directors strike gold with their first effort. The subtle nuances, finding what the camera is capable of, dealing with actors, scripts, and so forth, can make for a hell of a time finding yourself. Yevgeni Bauer is no different. And if you watch his works backwards, as I did, you find out that the man is human after all. On a career built on working with lighting, shadows, tracking, and the morbid netherworld, Bauer's first effort, "Sumerki Zhenskoi Dushi," does see him hint at these elements but he is a bit away from anything close to the genius of his later works.Believe it or not, this is a simple love story about a prince, a high society girl, and the secret that threatens to end their marriage. At times it seems nearly Shakespearean. The two leads, Vera Chernova and A. Ugrjumov, certainly don't damage the picture in any way and V. Demert as the villainous Maksim plays his bit quite well. But the story line is surprisingly bland, drawing little emotion from we the viewer and exceptionally unclimactic.It does draw slight interest just to see what Bauer does with the camera angles and the way he plays with the lighting but all in all it is just a bump in the road to the director's full grasp of what he will go on to be capable of.The nutshell: only recommended for hardcore Bauer fans to see how the man began his career. Students of cinema should proceed immediately to "Posle Smerti" to wow over. I'm only giving it the rating I have because it has Bauer's name...6/10.
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