Three Songs About Lenin (“Tri pesni o Lenine”)
Directed by Dziga Vertov
1934/USSR
Mezhrabpomfilm
Second viewing
[box] We loved him as we love our steppes/No, even more!/We’d gladly give up our tents and steppes,/And sacrifice our lives/If we could only bring him back. –from the Second Song[/box]
This is a documentary, or rather a tribute, prepared on the tenth anniversary of Lenin’s death. The film is structured around three anonymous songs from the eastern USSR. The first “song” celebrates the lifting of the veil for women. Most of the images are from Central Asia and show women first oppressed and then in new roles. The second “song” shows the great Soviet people mourning the death of their leader. The third “song” glorifies Soviet labor and the electrification of the USSR.
If you want to find out what the cult of personality is, this would be a good place to start! The praise heaped on Lenin is more like that usually reserved for a god than a father of his country. There are some interesting images here but overall it was disappointing. Vertov’s The Man with the Movie Camera is one of my favorite films but clearly by this time he was hamstrung by the dictates of socialist realism.
With this I have completed my viewing of 1934 films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIdeEgY4LTo
Short excerpt
