October 13 – November 12
The year 2017 marks a century since the 1917 October Revolution, an event that not only shook the world politically but also empowered revolutionary art and artists and spawned a synthesis within the arts urging sociopolitical change. Large-scale, state-sponsored experimental filmmaking — at a time when commercial imperatives were already dominant — was one of the results of this revolutionary rising. Made for Soviet audiences, many of these films were nonetheless exhibited internationally. This series, revisiting a few of these landmarks, recognizes their pioneering aesthetic. According to Lenin, “Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important.” With special thanks to Alla Verlotsky, the series is a copresentation of the National Gallery of Art and the American Film Institute Silver Theatre.
poster art, Fragment of an Empire (Fridrikh Ermler, 1929)
courtesy Amkino Corporation / Photofest
- The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty
- October 13 at 2:30
East Building Auditorium - Esfir Shub was a gifted editor who compiled archival nonfiction footage to advance political aims. Working with home movies, newsreels, prerevolutionary features, and other documents, she realized the worth of preserving moving images. The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty — assembled for the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution — is a landmark of new and found footage featuring Czar Nicholas II and his circle, contextualized through intertitles and editing. (Esfir Shub, 1927, subtitles, 88 minutes)
- Ciné-Concert: Man with a Movie Camera
- October 14 at 4:00
East Building Auditorium
Alloy Orchestra in performance - Evoking the mood of cinema vérité with his experiments in documentary montage, Dziga Vertov captured an ethos of Soviet art and life that went beyond filmmaking. Man with a Movie Camera is a paean to the modern city, a tribute to the Soviet worker, a treatise on camera technique, a model of constructivism, and a film about the experience of cinema itself. Its aesthetic complexities — famously criticized as “camera hooliganism” by Sergei Eisenstein — are palpable in this new digital restoration. (Dziga Vertov, 1929, subtitles, 65 minutes)
- Ciné-Concert: Mother
- October 21 at 4:30
East Building Auditorium
Andrew Simpson, pianist
Introduction by Peter Rollberg - Pudovkin’s best-known work was inspired by Maxim Gorky’s iconic 1906 novel The Mother (also the source material for Brecht’s Die Mutter) about a woman (Vera Baranovskaya) who fails to comprehend why her son would risk his life as an activist for the revolution. Set during the 1905 conflict, Mother’s aesthetic led Pudovkin to formulate his famous editing theories — the expressive juxtaposition of shots became the foundation for subsequent film construction. (Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1926, subtitles, 90 minutes)
- Ciné-Concert: Old and New (The General Line)
- November 4 at 2:30
East Building Auditorium
Andrew Simpson, pianist - In Old and New, Eisenstein evokes Russia’s changeover from individual to cooperative agriculture, with a utopian nod toward the mechanized and industrialized farms of the future. A female dairy farmer called Marfa Lapkina abides by socialist principles, leading a band of local peasants in the struggle toward collectivization. Originally titled The General Line, the film features playful and eccentric touches deemed aberrant at the time, and shortly after release, all prints were shelved. (Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov, 1929, subtitles, 125 minutes)
- Ciné-Concert: Fragment of an Empire followed by Earth
- November 12 at 4:00
East Building Auditorium
Andrew Simpson, pianist - Latvian-born Fridrikh Ermler tells a tale of contemporary Russia through the personality of Filimonov, a noncommissioned officer in the imperial army. Losing his memory during World War I, Filimonov recovers and tries to salvage his old life but finds out\ that everything has changed — his employer, his wife, even his hometown. As time goes by, Filimonov embraces the new and even becomes a spokesperson for Soviet progress. (Fridrikh Ermler, 1929, subtitles, 72 minutes)
Nature and home are at the forefront in Earth, as Dovzhenko records the farms of his native Ukraine in protracted shots of pastoral simplicity. A village is trying to carry out collectivization. As the erstwhile landowners resist, the story turns dark, but the spirit of the workers remains unshaken. (Alexander Dovzhenko, 1930, subtitles, 83 minutes)
Film Programs
The National Gallery of Art’s film program provides many opportunities throughout the year to view classic and contemporary cinema from around the world.
View the current schedule here.