Vsevolod Pudovkin
| Vsevolod Pudovkin (Всеволод Пудовкин) |
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|---|---|
| Born | Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin February 16, 1893 Penza, Russian Empire (now Russia) |
| Died | June 20, 1953 (aged 60) Riga, Soviet Union (now Latvia) |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter, actor |
| Years active | 1919 - 1953 |
Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (Russian: Все́волод Илларио́нович Пудо́вкин) (16 February 1893 – 20 June 1953) was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage. Pudovkin's masterpieces are often contrasted with those of his contemporary Sergei Eisenstein, but whereas Eisenstein utilized montage to glorify the power of the masses, Pudovkin preferred to concentrate on the courage and resilience of individuals.
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[edit] Biography
A student of engineering at Moscow University, Pudovkin saw active duty during World War I, being captured by the Germans. After the war, he abandoned his professional activity and joined the world of cinema, first as a screenwriter, actor and art director, and then as an assistant director to Lev Kuleshov.
After a few tries with advertising cinema, he directed in 1926 that which will be considered one of the masterpieces of silent movies: Mother, where he developed several montage theories that would make him famous.
His first feature was followed by The End of St. Petersburg (1927), and Storm Over Asia (also known as The Heir of Genghis Khan), titles which compose a trilogy at the service of the bolshevik revolutionary policy.
In 1928, with the advent of sound film, Pudovkin, Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov signed the Manifest of Sound, in which the possibilities of sound are debated, and always understood as a complement to image. This idea would be brought to bear in his next pictures: A Simple Case (1932) and The Deserter (1933), works that do not match the quality of earlier work.
With an interruption due to health concerns, Pudovkin returned to the movies in 1938, with a cycle of historic pieces that are not as successful as earlier works: Victory (1938); Minin and Pozharsky (1939) and Suvorov (1941).
With the end of World War II, under Party criticism, he returned to his earlier subjects. In 1951, Pudovkin was awarded the Stalin Prize. His last work was The Return of Vasili Bortnikov (1953).
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Original Title | English Title | Notes |
| 1920 | В дни борьбы | Days of Struggle | actor |
| 1921 | Серп и молот | Sickle and Hammer | actor; screenwriter; assistant director |
| Голод… голод… голод… | Hunger... Hunger... Hunger... | screenwriter; assistant director | |
| 1923 | Слесарь и канцлер | Locksmith and Chancellor | screenwriter |
| 1924 | Необычайные приключения мистера Веста в стране большевиков | The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks | actor; art director |
| 1925 | Луч смерти | The Death Ray | actor; screenwriter; assistant director; art director |
| Шахматная горячка | Chess Fever | director (with Nikolai Shpikovsky) | |
| 1926 | Механика головного мозга | Mechanics of the Brain | director; screenwriter |
| Мать | Mother | director; actor | |
| 1927 | Конец Санкт-Петербурга | The End of St. Petersburg | director; actor |
| 1928 | Потомок Чингиз-Хана | Storm Over Asia | director |
| 1929 | Новый Вавилон | The New Babylon | actor |
| Живой труп | The Living Corpse | actor | |
| Веселая канарейка | The Gay Canary | actor | |
| 1932 | Простой случай | A Simple Case | director (with Mikhail Doller) |
| 1933 | Дезертир | The Deserter | director |
| 1938 | Победа | Victory | director (with Mikhail Doller) |
| 1939 | Минин и Пожарский | Minin and Pozharsky | director (with Mikhail Doller) |
| 1941 | Суворов | Suvorov | director (with Mikhail Doller) |
| Пир в Жирмунке | Feast in Zhirmunka | director (with Mikhail Doller) | |
| 1942 | Убийцы выходят на дорогу | The Murderers are Coming | director (with Yuri Tarich); screenwriter |
| 1943 | Во имя Родины | In the Name of the Fatherland | director (with Dmitri Vasilyev); screenwriter; actor |
| Юный Фриц | The Young Fritz | actor | |
| 1944 | Иван Грозный | Ivan the Terrible | director; actor |
| 1947 | Адмирал Нахимов | Admiral Nakhimov | director; actor |
| 1948 | Три встречи | Three Encounters | director (segment) |
| 1950 | Жуковский | Zhukovsky | director |
| 1952 | Возвращение Василия Бортникова | The Return of Vasili Bortnikov | director (with Dmitri Vasilyev) |
[edit] Published works
- Film Technique and Film Acting Grove Press. 1958.
[edit] References
- Mother DVD extras, Las Orígenes del Cine, Suevia Films Spain.
[edit] External links
- Vsevolod Pudovkin at the Internet Movie Database
- The silent revolutionary: Jonathan Jones on the work of Vsevolod Pudovkin, at Guardian Unlimited
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