Unfortunately Vsevolod Pudovkin, the director of "Mother(Mat)"(1926) and "The end of St.Petersberh"(1927) is now usually mentioned as a master of "Soviet montage school" outdated after the commercial and artistic triumph of full-talkie movies. We, living outside Russia and the other countries that were a part of USSR, know very limited information about films like "Suvorov".
This film is a clear manifestation of the famous director's skill and talent not limited by the technology of silent era.
It was made in the first period of WW 2,apparently for raising patriotic pathos in the nation ( and 5 months after its release the German army attacked USSR). But how it was made!
Top level actors' performance, accurately clear and tight composition(unlike recent Hollywood dull lengthy "blockbusters"), Anatoli Golovnya's shooting on risky high mountains, and the masterful control over all of those elements by Pudovkin (though credit title tells it's co-directed with Mikhail Doller ,I think that was only some kind of formal excuse for Soviet authorities disliking "formalism"of montage school). "Suvorov" convinced me again that Pudovkin was not only an interesting theorist of cinema, but also a master of film art.
It's very sad that such a brilliant film,like many films during WW 2 made in other countries than USA and France (which represent 2 "mainstreams"of academic film studies ) now attract little attention of foreign film fans.
This film is a clear manifestation of the famous director's skill and talent not limited by the technology of silent era.
It was made in the first period of WW 2,apparently for raising patriotic pathos in the nation ( and 5 months after its release the German army attacked USSR). But how it was made!
Top level actors' performance, accurately clear and tight composition(unlike recent Hollywood dull lengthy "blockbusters"), Anatoli Golovnya's shooting on risky high mountains, and the masterful control over all of those elements by Pudovkin (though credit title tells it's co-directed with Mikhail Doller ,I think that was only some kind of formal excuse for Soviet authorities disliking "formalism"of montage school). "Suvorov" convinced me again that Pudovkin was not only an interesting theorist of cinema, but also a master of film art.
It's very sad that such a brilliant film,like many films during WW 2 made in other countries than USA and France (which represent 2 "mainstreams"of academic film studies ) now attract little attention of foreign film fans.