Vsevolod Pudovkin

Vsevolod Pudovkin (Всеволод Пудовкин)
Vsevolod Pudovkin
Born	Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (1893-02-16)16 February 1893 Penza, Russian Empire
Died	Riga, Soviet Union
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, actor
Years active	1919–1953

Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (Russian: Все́волод Илларио́нович Пудо́вкин) (16 February 1893 – 30 June 1953) was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage. Pudovkin's masterpieces are often contrasted with those of his contemporary Sergei Eisenstein, but whereas Eisenstein utilized montage to glorify the power of the masses, Pudovkin preferred to concentrate on the courage and resilience of individuals.

Biography

A student of engineering at Moscow University, Pudovkin saw active duty during World War I, being captured by the Germans. After the war, he abandoned his professional activity and joined the world of cinema, first as a screenwriter, actor and art director, and then as an assistant director to Lev Kuleshov.

After a few tries with advertising cinema, he directed in 1926 that which will be considered one of the masterpieces of silent movies: Mother, where he developed several montage theories that would make him famous.

His first feature was followed by The End of St. Petersburg (1927), and Storm Over Asia (also known as The Heir of Genghis Khan), titles which compose a trilogy at the service of the bolshevik revolutionary policy.

In 1928, with the advent of sound film, Pudovkin, Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov signed the Manifest of Sound, in which the possibilities of sound are debated, and always understood as a complement to image. This idea would be brought to bear in his next pictures: A Simple Case (1932) and The Deserter (1933), works that do not match the quality of earlier work.

With an interruption due to health concerns, Pudovkin returned to the movies in 1938, with a cycle of historic pieces that are not as successful as earlier works: Victory (1938); Minin and Pozharsky (1939) and Suvorov (1941).

With the end of World War II, under Party criticism, he returned to his earlier subjects. In 1951, Pudovkin was awarded the Stalin Prize. His last work was The Return of Vasili Bortnikov (1953).

Filmography

Year	Original Title	English Title	Notes
1920	В дни борьбы	Days of Struggle	actor
1921	Серп и молот	Sickle and Hammer	actor; screenwriter; assistant director
	Голод… голод… голод…	Hunger... Hunger... Hunger...	screenwriter; assistant director
1923	Слесарь и канцлер	Locksmith and Chancellor	screenwriter
1924	Необычайные приключения мистера Веста в стране большевиков	The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks	actor; art director
1925	Луч смерти	The Death Ray	actor; screenwriter; assistant director; art director
	Шахматная горячка	Chess Fever	director (with Nikolai Shpikovsky)
1926	Механика головного мозга	Mechanics of the Brain	director; screenwriter
	Мать	Mother	director; actor
1927	Конец Санкт-Петербурга	The End of St. Petersburg	director; actor
1928	Потомок Чингиз-Хана	Storm Over Asia	director
1929	Новый Вавилон	The New Babylon	actor
	Живой труп	The Living Corpse	actor
	Веселая канарейка	The Gay Canary	actor
1932	Простой случай	A Simple Case	director (with Mikhail Doller)
1933	Дезертир	The Deserter	director
1938	Победа	Victory	director (with Mikhail Doller)
1939	Минин и Пожарский	Minin and Pozharsky	director (with Mikhail Doller)
1941	Суворов	Suvorov	director (with Mikhail Doller)
	Пир в Жирмунке	Feast in Zhirmunka	director (with Mikhail Doller)
1942	Убийцы выходят на дорогу	The Murderers are Coming	director (with Yuri Tarich); screenwriter
1943	Во имя Родины	In the Name of the Fatherland	director (with Dmitri Vasilyev); screenwriter; actor
	Юный Фриц	The Young Fritz	actor
1944	Иван Грозный	Ivan the Terrible	actor
1947	Адмирал Нахимов	Admiral Nakhimov	director; actor
1948	Три встречи	Three Encounters	director (segment)
1950	Жуковский	Zhukovsky	director
1952	Возвращение Василия Бортникова	The Return of Vasili Bortnikov	director (with Dmitri Vasilyev)

Published works

• Film Technique and Film Acting Grove Press. 1958.

References

• Mother DVD extras, Las Orígenes del Cine, Suevia Films Spain.

External links

• Vsevolod Pudovkin at the Internet Movie Database
• Vsevolod Pudovkin on Find A Grave
• The silent revolutionary: Jonathan Jones on the work of Vsevolod Pudovkin, at Guardian Unlimited