Added: Jun 28, 2009
From: NELSONCHANNEL
Duration: 10:33
Directors: Aleksandrov & EisensteinWriters: Grigori Aleksandrov & Sergei EisensteinPhotographed by Eduard Tisse.Runtime: 20 minCountry: FranceColor: Black and WhiteSound Mix: MonoCompany: Sequana FilmsAvant garde short by Sergei Eisenstein from 1930.Superb innovative montage of drama, music & romance.Story: Eisenstein's first sound film, shot in Paris, "built around an old Russian love song sung by the wife of the man who commissioned the film. The song is paralleled by an intercutting of shots of nature, beginning with a storm at dusk, dissolving into a moody rain at night, and jubilantly bursting through the next morning's daybreak in the resplendent sunlight. The black grand piano the singer played now is a white one ... her sadness is now joy, and no longer is she in that closed-in chateau, but out in the open, in a field rapturous with grain swaying heavily in the wind as the song ends." Written and directed by Sergei Eisenstein and G.V. Alexandrov. Produced by the Vicomte de Noailles. Some accounts claim that Eisenstein only attached his name to this sound short simply because he needed the money. It is, however, closer to the truth to say that this was a collaboration, although the exact extent of the collaboration between him and Grigori Alexandrov remains undetermined. The film itself is a short, experimental, slightly poetic montage of city and abstract images. Eisenstein's contribution seems to have been the soundtrack which demonstrates his theory of "contrapuntal use of sounds" or the attempt to find a common denominator between sound and image. The sound for Romance Sentimentale is drawn directly on the film's optical track and is the first instance of the use of this technique. This was not intended as a materialist film statement; it was rather an experiment towards an integrated film language. While the film's images are cursory, it retains historical importance as an experimental film predecessor and as the first sound film made by Soviets, even if not in the Soviet Union. - Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide.http://www.jose-nelson.comhttp://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=12963769
Channel: Film
Tags: sergei eisenstein sovjet union avant garde short sunlight jose romance nature piano experimental nelson amor amour amore love
Rating: 5.0' max='5' min='1' numRaters='9' rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#overall ( ratings) Views: 1240 Comments: 3
GW828 Says:
Aug 9, 2009 - Classically beautiful!Thank you. G.
jurek46pink Says:
Aug 9, 2009 - "Zhalobno stonet veter osennyj !..."One of the most wonderful Russian romances:Mournfully Autumnal wind is wailing...A must for me to reach for it, too - in some other classical interpretation.Great THANKS !!!