LE BRASIER ARDENT (The Burning Crucible, Ivan Mosjoukine, F 1923, 1. & 10.3.) Mosjoukine's second and last directorial work, a "tour de force blend of surrealism, Freud and dada," (Jay Weissberg), is peppered with unusual gags and experiments, has a wild motley plot and eccentric set design. Mosjoukine plays a detective known as "Z" who is hired by the jealous husband of a married woman (played by his own wife Natalya Lisenko or Nathalie Lissenko) who has been visited by Z himself in her dreams after reading his memoirs. "One day at the Colisée cinema, I saw LE BRASIER ARDENT," Jean Renoir later recalled. "The audience was shouting and whistling, shocked by a spectacle so different from their usual fare. I was delighted. I decided to abandon my trade, ceramics, to try to make films."
PIKOVAYA DAMA (Queen of Spades / Pique Dame, Yakov Protazanov, Russia 1916, 2.3.) was based on the eponymous short story by Alexandr Pushkin and was one of the great successes of the collaboration between Mosjoukine and Protazonov. Mosjoukine is resplendent in this character study and offers a performance of blazing, yet reserved, intensity. He plays Hermann, an officer of the Russian Army, who hears the story of an elderly countess who knows the secret of three winning cards. Obsessed with trying to find out the secret, he accosts her and draws a pistol - she dies of fright. Later, her ghost appears to Hermann and he is driven to madness.
OTETS SERGYI (Father Sergius, Yakov Protazanov, Russia 1918, 3.3.) In this adaptation of a short story by Leo Tolstoy, the dashing young officer Prince Kasatsky (Mosjoukine) falls in love with the young countess Korotkova. Not long before they are due to be married, she tells him she is the tsar's mistress. Deeply hurt and disappointed, he gives up all worldly pleasures and goes to live in a monastery where he becomes known as Father Sergius. There too he faces temptation and is tormented by his own demons, as he tries to resist. In one of his best dramatic roles, Mosjoukine transforms from a young man to an old monk. OTETS SERGIY could be made because of the February Revolution, which lifted the ban on portraying religion on screen, but this literary adaptation which featured a star in the main role was clearly marked by pre-revolutionary spirit.
L'ANGOISSANTE AVENTURE (Yakov Protazanov, F 1920, 4.3.) was made during the Ermolieff troupe's long trip from Russia to France, with scenes being shot in Constantinople, Marseille and Paris. The light and playful film, which was based on a screenplay by Mosjoukine, is about a young aristocrat who is disinherited by his father when he leaves his family to live with a dancer. In this story full of visual wit, Mosjoukine displays the charm and wild energy of a young boy. The film was given a happy ending that almost comes as a surprise, in order to please the taste of the French public. "Mosjoukine was by turns merry, charming, tender, sarcastic, pathetic, dramatic, horror-struck, brutal, despairing. A superb rainbow of emotion!” wrote the journalist Jean Arroy in 1927.
L'ENFANT DU CARNAVAL (Ivan Mosjoukine, F 1921, 9.3.) A foundling is left in front of the home of a rich aristocratic bachelor during the Nice carnival. The marquis adopts the child but soon finds that he cannot cope, so he employs a nanny who turns out to be the child’s real mother. Just as the two have fallen in love and there is a happy ending in sight, the woman's husband - long thought dead - turns up. In this film, Mosjoukine employed his unique mix of lively humor and reserved seriousness. Ten years after its success, Mosjoukine and the director Alexandre Volkoff made a sound remake that was a flop.
KEAN (DÉSORDRE ET GÉNIE) (Alexandre Volkoff, F 1923, 6.3.) The most expensive and prestigious film made by the Albatross production company was about the famous 19th-century stage actor Edmond Kean, whose life was marked by disorder and genius, as indicated by the title. Mosjoukine portrayed Kean as a tortured romantic genius lost in the space between stage and reality. The film became known for a tavern scene with spectacularly fast montage, where everything seems to turn around the drinking and dancing Kean, and a 15-minute death scene that Mosjoukine played with plenty of nuance.
FEU MATHIAS PASCAL (The Late Mathias Pascal, Marcel L'Herbier, F 1925, 7.3.) "Inspired by Pirandello, directed by Marcel L'Herbier, assisted by Cavalcanti to whom we owe the film's sets, and interpreted by the actor Mosjukin, author of several exceptional films…, we don't know what to admire most," wrote Henri Langlois. This eccentric Pirandello adaptation alternates comedy and tragedy, reality and fantasy to tell the story of the young dreamer Mathias Pascal (Mosjoukine) who feels trapped by his wife and stepmother and his existence as a small town assistant librarian. He escapes to Monte Carlo where he wins a huge fortune. Upon his return, he discovers his own obituary and makes the most of this mistake to begin a new life in Rome. He falls in love with the daughter of his landlord who holds spiritual sittings and is exploited by a gang of criminals that is after his money. The clumsy friend is played by Michel Simon in one of his first roles. (al)
Ivan Mosjoukine Superstar
When it comes to Ivan Mosjoukine (1889–1939) the use of the superlative is appropriate. He was an actor, screenplay writer and director, but above all he was one of the great stars of the silent movie era. Key features were his penetrating gaze, his immense screen presence and incredible versatility that enabled him to go from one mood to the next in no time at all. His very physical acting made him a virile hero, but one that also had boyish charm and could develop a soft sensibility. Whatever the material, he always found the appropriate expression, and was a master of grand gestures, as well as fine, subtle facial expressions. Mosjoukine (also written Mozzhukhin, Mosjukin), who was born in Tsarist Russia, studied law as his father wanted for two years before joining an acting troupe. He launched his screen career in 1911 and soon became a predominant figure in Russian cinema, as brilliant in comedy as he was in serious works. In 1915, he signed a contract with the producer Joseph Yermoliev (or Ermolieff) who guaranteed him 10 long features per year. He was able to choose his screenplays and directors himself, and his collaboration with Yakov Protazanov was particularly fruitful. In the 20 films that they made together, Mosjoukine often played a romantic hero eaten up by his demonic passions. After the 1917 Revolution, Yermoliev moved his studio to Yalta in Crimea, and in 1920 the whole troupe emigrated to Paris. The newly-founded “Ermolieff Cinema”, which became Albatross Films in 1922, moved into the former Pathé studios in the Paris suburb of Montreuil-sous-Bois. France’s film industry, which was still recovering from the upheavals of the First World War in the early 1920s, profited greatly from the Russian emigrants' creative, and also financial, potential. Mosjoukine soon became a superstar in France too. He not only wrote and co-wrote screenplays, but also directed two films which both captivate with their meditative wit and pleasure in experimenting. Abel Gance originally wanted him to give him the main part in his monumental Napoleon, but Mosjoukine refused on the grounds that the role could only be played by a Frenchman. Hollywood also took an interest in Mosjoukine and, at the height of his success in 1926, he went to the US with a lucrative five-year deal with Universal in his pocket. However, his guest performance was a disaster. The only film in which he played (Edward Sloman's "Surrender") was a flop with critics and public alike. Back in Europe, Mosjoukine made films with the Russian exiles in Berlin but was never again able to tap into his former success. Sound brought a final end to his career. With his heavy Russian accent, the roles available to him were limited and his screen presence was not the same in talkies. Mosjoukine died of tuberculosis in 1939, in poverty and aged only 50, having starred in over 100 films.
We will show a selection of seven films mostly from his French phase, including the two that he directed himself, and two Russian films from the 1910s. Eunice Martins will accompany all the films on the piano.
