Two Classics- M and Alexander Nevsky
This week I saw two old film classics recommended earlier in the thread, M, a German film made in 1931 by Fritz Lang, and Alexander Nevsky, a Russian historical film made in 1938 by Sergei Eisenstein.
Of the two, I liked M better as film art. Interestingly, I got a restored version of M and although it was made in 1931, the visual and sound quality and the translation from German was MUCH better than the version of Alexander Nevsky I saw which was made in 1938. M is about a serial killer of young girls, very interestingly portrayed by Peter Lorre who would later become a world famous actor. The film has some very interesting scenes and analyzes the social issues of pedophilia and crime and punishment intelligently. The film chiefly focuses on the Berlin police's investigation of the crimes and the underworld's reaction to the aggressiveness of the police investigation, culminating in the development of a trail that leads to the criminal. In many respects and especially from the architectural and technological standpoints, I find it as interesting to watch an old movie like this as I do to visit an old Courthouse that was state of the art in that time frame, but is an old relic now.
Alexander Nevsky is interesting mostly from a historical perspective, but I did not find it to be great cinema on any level. It's a propaganda film made right before World War II. The acting is ordinary, and the translation from Russian was worse than horrible - sentences translated as "who be there?" and "what mean you?" throughout the film - I got the gist of it, but it was very far from perfect. The plot is very jingositic and nationalistic towards Russia, and anti-German. The Russian characters are all jovial and patriotic, while the German invaders are all shifty, duplicitous, ruthless child-killers who are depicted as arrogantly emboldened with a false perception of their military power, and in the end they are portrayed as shamed cowards. Of course the movie was made in the years just preceding the breakout of World War II when a lot of saber ratting was going on between the countries. Interestingly the movie was removed from circulation as part of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of non-aggression between Germany and Russia, and was then recirculated heavily in 1941 after Germany broke that pact and attacked Russia. It is ironic that the Germans in World War II suffered a similar fate in Russia as did the Teutonic Nights in 1242 at the hands of Prince Nevsky and his men.
The music in the movie is pompously pro-nationalistic military jingles. The entire movie is very black and white insofar as portraying Russian unity, Russian patriotism and German aggression and duplicity. It makes for a good political and historical discussion, but it just isn't good cinema, as I found M to be. I would add that the battle scenes in 1930's All Quiet On The Western Front are much more authentic than the fateful battle on the frozen lake in Alexander Nevsky.
This week I saw two old film classics recommended earlier in the thread, M, a German film made in 1931 by Fritz Lang, and Alexander Nevsky, a Russian historical film made in 1938 by Sergei Eisenstein.
Of the two, I liked M better as film art. Interestingly, I got a restored version of M and although it was made in 1931, the visual and sound quality and the translation from German was MUCH better than the version of Alexander Nevsky I saw which was made in 1938. M is about a serial killer of young girls, very interestingly portrayed by Peter Lorre who would later become a world famous actor. The film has some very interesting scenes and analyzes the social issues of pedophilia and crime and punishment intelligently. The film chiefly focuses on the Berlin police's investigation of the crimes and the underworld's reaction to the aggressiveness of the police investigation, culminating in the development of a trail that leads to the criminal. In many respects and especially from the architectural and technological standpoints, I find it as interesting to watch an old movie like this as I do to visit an old Courthouse that was state of the art in that time frame, but is an old relic now.
Alexander Nevsky is interesting mostly from a historical perspective, but I did not find it to be great cinema on any level. It's a propaganda film made right before World War II. The acting is ordinary, and the translation from Russian was worse than horrible - sentences translated as "who be there?" and "what mean you?" throughout the film - I got the gist of it, but it was very far from perfect. The plot is very jingositic and nationalistic towards Russia, and anti-German. The Russian characters are all jovial and patriotic, while the German invaders are all shifty, duplicitous, ruthless child-killers who are depicted as arrogantly emboldened with a false perception of their military power, and in the end they are portrayed as shamed cowards. Of course the movie was made in the years just preceding the breakout of World War II when a lot of saber ratting was going on between the countries. Interestingly the movie was removed from circulation as part of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of non-aggression between Germany and Russia, and was then recirculated heavily in 1941 after Germany broke that pact and attacked Russia. It is ironic that the Germans in World War II suffered a similar fate in Russia as did the Teutonic Nights in 1242 at the hands of Prince Nevsky and his men.
The music in the movie is pompously pro-nationalistic military jingles. The entire movie is very black and white insofar as portraying Russian unity, Russian patriotism and German aggression and duplicity. It makes for a good political and historical discussion, but it just isn't good cinema, as I found M to be. I would add that the battle scenes in 1930's All Quiet On The Western Front are much more authentic than the fateful battle on the frozen lake in Alexander Nevsky.
