Quote:
Grigorii Grebner and Anatolii Lunacharskii adapted Lunacharskii’s play (based on a story by Prosper Merimee) to the screen. Since it was yet another glaring example of the commercial “line” of the studio Mezhrabpom Rus’, “The Bear’s Wedding” was an odd effort indeed for the Commissar of Enlightenment to be associated with.

Konstantin Eggert both directed and starred as Count Shemet, cursed by his insane mother’s traumatic experience with a bear to have seizures during which he himself becomes a “bear” on the kill. Eggert’s direction of the movie is as odd as the plot. The whole film is unsettling. The titles are too long; there are interminable shots of irrelevant action; the cutting is uneven. The heroine is unsuitably comic, spasmodically jumping around, smearing ink on her face, knocking things over. For some reason the somber, doomed count falls in love with this girl and decides to marry her.

Yet, from the wedding scene to the end (the last third of the movie), it is almost as though there were a different director. Eggert suddenly gained control of the material. The wild celebration of the wedding becomes a sinister and completely appropriate metaphor for the madness in the household: madness both apparent (the mother) and hidden (the count).
The climax of this nightmare is the bride’s violent death in her wedding bed, a gruesome, sexually charged scene brilliantly executed by Eggert. There is a striking shot of her maimed body in the foreground as the “bear,” coming to his senses, realizes what he has done.

The moving closeups of his face as he flees the scene on his horse are also extremely effective. The victim’s sister eventually kills him, and the cursed castle is engulfed in flames.

1.65GB | 1h 10m | 768×554 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/4D12373ADBEED44/The.Bear’s.Wedding.1925.WEBRIP.576p.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

Language:Silent,Russian Intertitles
Subtitles:English

The post Konstantin Eggert & Vladimir Gardin – Medvezhya svadba AKA The Bear’s Wedding (1925) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A powerful and utterly brutal Soviet propaganda broadside levelled at the Catholic church.
Compelling in its prolific use of facial close-up shots.

Cast note:
Krest I Mauzer marks the first film appearance of; Nikolay Kutuzov, who would later appear in Tarkovskys Andrei Rublev (1966) and in the film Viy (1967) and Alexei Pirogov, who would go on to become a Bolshoi soloist (1931-48).

Synopsis:
The events of the film begin in the pre-revolutionary years in one of the southwestern towns of Russia. Following an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the towns highest official, the authorities enlist the support of the local Catholic church in taking revenge against the Jewish community that they hold responsible. Eager for advancement, Pastor Jerome seizes the opportunity to gain the favour of both his superiors and the official authorities and to resolve a problem of his own into the bargain. Unbeknown to Jerome, it is not only his co-conspirator who is aware of his evil deed.

Years pass and Soviet power comes to the town. For the time being, Priest Jerome, now promoted within the church and recruited by foreign intelligence, continues to preach sermons and shelter a group of spies led by curate Shur. One day he accidentally encounters the one who knows of his past crimes. She recognises him and threatens to expose his actions unless he publicly atones.

1.01GB | 1h 44m | 720×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/4D2FE147AFCFCCF/Krest.I.Mauzer.1925.WEBDL.XVID.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/A72AF1525F055EE/Krest.I.Mauzer.1925.WEBDL.XVID.srt
or
https://nitro.download/view/6216FA20A130DA8/Krest.I.Mauzer.1925.WEBDL.XVID.part1.rar
https://nitro.download/view/07EE2BF951C8A34/Krest.I.Mauzer.1925.WEBDL.XVID.part2.rar
https://nitro.download/view/A72AF1525F055EE/Krest.I.Mauzer.1925.WEBDL.XVID.srt

Language(s):Russian intertitles
Subtitles:English

The post Vladimir Gardin – Krest i mauzer aka Cross and Mauser (1925) first appeared on Cinema of the World.