OBLOMOK IMPERII

Born in Latvia in 1898, ErmIer took part in the revolution at the age of nineteen. He then attended the Leningrad Institute of Scenic Arts. In 1924, he founded KEM ("Kinoeksperimental'naja masterskaja"), a workshop that proposed realistic techniques as opposed to FEKS and, in general, to the formalism theorized by the avantgarde movements. His first film, Vstrecnij (Counterplan, 1932), is one of the first examples of the application of the aesthetic principles of socialist realism in the field of cinema. In 1929 he made Oblomok imperii, a comedy of great interest that is one of the most outstanding works of Soviet revolutionary film. Using obvious references to psychoanalysis, the film tells the story of Filimonov, a man who regains the memory that he had lost ten years before. He remembers the war and its moments of fraternization. He goes back to Pietrograd, which has become Leningrad. He finds his old master and his wife, who had married a brutal official. In trying to recover his own past, Filimonov discovers the revolution.

"Here we are dealing with a work of exceptional quality in which the important element is the psychological depth of the protagonist. The images of the projectors that search into the great snowy stretches and into the night of the memory are beautiful. The montages for the description of modern life in the new Soviet Union are rapid. Although the last reel is a bit weak, the satirical criticism of contemporary life at the beginning of the first fiveyear plan is good." (Georges Sadoul)

Director: Friedrich Marcovic Ermler.
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Katerina Vinogradskaja, Friedrich Ermler.
Director of photography: Evgeni Snejer, G. Bustuev.
Art director: Evgeni Enej.
Music: V. Deserov.
Cast: Fëdor Nikitin (Filiminov), L. Seménova (Natasa), L. Solovcov (secondo marito di Natasa), Jakob Gudkin (il presidente del comitato di fabbrica), V. Viskosvkij (l'ex padrone della fabbrica), Sergej Gerasimov, V. Mjaskinova.
Production company: Sovkino.

CONSERVAZIONE E RESTAURO / CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION

Copia conservata al Nederlands Filmmuseum.
La copia è stata stampata da un negativo tratto da un positivo nitrato degli anni '30.