The End of St. Petersburg

The End of St. Petersburg
*****/5
by Pudovkin

Whenever I see a Russian or Eastern European film, I sort of want to give up on filmmaking. How could I possibly hope to come close to what these people were doing? They work entirely in emotions, utilizing and changing connotations as they take the audience through a vast common experience.

I loved this film so much that a couple weeks after seeing it in class, I rented it to show to Stu. In home viewing, it fell so much shorter of the experience I had in the theatre. After seeing it in class, the word most people used to describe it was “overwhelming.” At home, it was just so much...smaller.

The End of St. Petersburg was made in celebration of the Russian Revolution. As with most Russian films of the time, it was intended as semi-educational propaganda for the illiterate farmers on the outreaches of the Russian countryside who had little idea a revolution had even taken place.

The photography is completely beautiful and inventive. Statues of czars around the soon-to-fall city of St. Petersburg are photographed almost as characters, using not only their faces, but their connotations. A statue of Czar Nicholas edited against a money-grubbing factory stock holder makes the comparison clear. The statues turn their faces away from the starving peasants wandering the empty town squares looking for work. Clouds sweep in fast motion over vast countrysides, indicating turmoil and change. If you ever get the chance to see this movie on a large screen, do it.

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