Page 138 - Inside the Film Factory New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema

THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE: YAKOV PROTAZANOV AND SOVIET CINEMA 119
the campaign against religion, but is only intermittently funny and does not
demonstrate Protazanov’s capabilities as well as some of his earlier work.
What distinguishes these ‘neutral’ movies from the ‘bad’ ones (The Tailor from
Torzhok, The Three Millions Trial, The Man from the Restaurant and The White
Eagle)? To the disinterested observer, Ranks and People’s portrayal of pre-
Revolutionary life differs little from that of The Man from the Restaurant, and yet
the former picture received only half-hearted criticism for its ‘soft’ portrayal of hard
times. The mystery deepens when The Feast of St Jorgen is compared to The
Three Millions Trial. The films are quite similar–satires set abroad featuring the
type of thief-hero popular in folklore. Yet The Trial was much maligned while The
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Feast was termed ‘valuable and well-made’. How can this difference in critical
reception be explained?
It is possible to answer this question by referring to the chaos of the times: much
was happening that was ambiguous, confusing and contradictory. But, even as the
Cultural Revolution was playing itself out, carrying numerous directors, scenarists
and critics into the maelstrom, the outlines of the second phase of post-
Revolutionary culture were discernible. This new culture was based on the tenets of
Socialist Realism, fulfilling at least in part the programme espoused by the
proletarian radicals (simplicity, realism and optimism). But a component that
increased in importance and was not part of the ‘proletarian’ platform in the 1920s
was its traditionalism. This manifested itself in the arts by the call for a ‘return to
the classics’, and by generally trying to re-establish Soviet ties to the Russian past.
Protazanov’s films fit these criteria quite well, laying the foundation for an eventual
re-evaluation of his work.
In his person and through his art, Protazanov carried on the bourgeois tradition
of Russian cinema. With varying success, Protazanov infused his Soviet films with
a ‘Westernised’ version of Russian style. Exploring the differences in reception
between Protazanov’s films like The Three Millions Trial and The Feast of St
Jorgen sheds some light on the Cultural Revolution’s impact on cinema, but more
revealing to the larger issues under consideration here are the differences between
the movies that were well-received critically and those that were attacked.
All Protazanov’s pictures are realistic. Story development was not an area of
particular strength, but his plots are always easy to follow, with enough action to
engage the viewer. He excelled in characterisation and casting, a key in
understanding the popularity of his films with a public already in love with Western
stars like Fairbanks and Pickford. Soviet audiences, not surprisingly, responded
best to the movies that were lively and amusing: His Call, The Forty-First, Don
Diego and Pelageya, The Tailor from Torzhok and The Three Millions Trial. As
we have seen, critics liked the first three, but not the last two, claiming with
considerable disingenuity that these judgements had to do with relative social and
political impact. Protazanov was always willing to tell an ideologically acceptable
story if it were entertaining; from watching these films, it is clear that what counted
for him was the characters, not their ideology (or lack of it).