Ferrua, Pietro

The New Babylon (Novy Vavilon)

A Film by Grigori KOZINTSEV and Leonid TRAUBERG

MARX, Karl (1818-1883)Paris Commune (1871)Communication. FilmsFERRUA, Pietro (Piero) Michele Stefano (1930 - ....)Communication. Movies Online

U.S.S.R, 1929
B & W, Silent
with English-language captions.

Film buffs will enjoy seeing in this pearl of a movie two famous filmmakers working as actors (Sergei GERASSIMOV directed Tolstoy and Vsevolod PUDOVKIN directed The Mother). Moreover, in the authorized version of this film, the music score is composed by Dimitri Shostakovich. Besides being a masterpiece of the latter part of the silent era (in the U.S.A., sound was introduced in 1927), it is a work of love by some young talents all collaborating for the first and last time. The Babylon of the title is not a reference to the ancient town and civilization but to a new emporium located in Paris at the time of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
The film consists of short scenes that alternate constantly (a typical editing characteristic of the Russian Avant-Garde of those times), depicting the pleasures and leisure of the idle class contrasted with the stressed and miserable life of the working class or the underprivileged.
The film is directly related neither to anarchism nor to a Marxist discourse. It is a passionate defense of the Paris Commune of 1871, which was the first social revolution in history; it is part of France’s glorious past and pertains more to the world proletariat than to a specific political party or movement. In a way, though, it is more of a federalist, decentralized, autonomous, self-managed, socialistic experiment, inspired by the ideals of Proudhon and of the First International Workingmen Association, founded in London just a few years earlier.
When we think of the Commune, we conjure up names such as Gustave Courbet (painter), Elisée Reclus (geographer), Jules Vallès (journalist) and Louise Michel (feminist militant). Another name that comes to mind is Marx, who wrote a short but sharp essay on these events from an almost libertarian point of view since he had to admit that perhaps a State was not needed after a revolution. The question remains valid and unresolved.
The acting in the film is perhaps too theatrical for today’s taste. But we need to evaluate it the silent-era context, in which gesticulation, grimaces and tight camera shots of the face were used to show (or hide) emotions that had to convey what oral expression would transmit in later films.
The American public was lucky enough to see this film when it was released. Filmgoers in Western Europe had to wait 30 years until it was shown at the famous Brussels Exhibition of 1958. But Europeans’ viewing pleasure was spoiled when it was learned that the version proposed was not agreed upon by the Russian authors. Other versions of the film appeared in the late 70s and early 80s. Trauberg sent letters of protest to film societies around the world. The 1958 version may have had music by Shostakovich, but it certainly had much more by Beethoven and Chopin or other composers. However, whichever version will be provided to us by the distributor, it should allow us to admire a carefully crafted film that explores the naturalistic style and is not yet a
product of what will become the didactic style of socialist realism.
Pietro Ferrua