Last night I watched one of the various Chris Marker documentaries that have been recently released on DVD in North America. This one, The Last Bolshevik (1992), discusses the filmmaking career of Alexander Ivanovich Medvedkin, who was born in 1900 and died in 1989. These dates are important within the contect of the documentary because Marker situates Medvedkin’s life within the greater historical backdrop of Russian and Soviet history. Medvedkin, after all, participated in the Russian Civil War of 1920-22, and he would make his films alongside such other Soviet filmmakers as Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov and Roman Karmen. Even the death of Stalin in 1953 would allow Medvedkin to attempt once more to incorporate more artistic freedom in his later cinematic work, however scant that work would prove to be.
In any case, the documentary uses Medvedkin’s example to explore the interplay between political repression and artistic liberty. If I remember correctly, Marker states that all of Medvedkin’s famous films from the 1930’s were either immediately banned before release to the public, or banned after just one showing. Even his most famous film, Happiness, was banned after a single showing.
The theme of political repression and how an artist chooses to deal with it reminded me of certain characters in William T. Vollmann’s Europe Central, especially the character of Dmitri Shostakovich, whose dilemna is very similar to that of Medvekin in this documentary. Moreover, the actual Soviet documentarian Roman Karmen makes several appearances in The Last Bolshevik, always shooting on the front lines of every battlefield, be it in Spain or Germany or Russia.
The historical Soviet footage that Marker edited into this documentary is very impressive to watch. Marker evinces quite a fetish for Leftist history, and Soviet history in particular reappears in several of his other films that I have seen so far. In discussing Medvedkin’s life and career, he did a great job situating them within that larger backdrop that is the Soviet Union.
I just read TIME’s latest article on the Palm Pre, the first major contender to Apple’s iPhone, and I must say that some of the features the Pre possesses make me want to give the Pre a try in the near future. I love the iPhone 3G that I just bought a couple of weeks ago (I can be pretty slow to progress quickly due to financial constraints), but one of its major setbacks seems to be that it cannot switch between applications unless you simply want to listen to music while working on something else. The Pre, however, can access many applications at once. Moreover, I like the idea of the iPhone’s virtual keyboard, but I am worthless typing on it. The Pre has a sliding keyboard as do many less intelligent mobile phones already on the market. In any case I wish I had known two weeks ago that Apple was going to unveil and quickly release yet another version of the iPhone (the 3G S), in which case I would have simply waited to buy this new version. But at least the free upgrade to the current iPhone will be released next week via iTunes.
I just finished watching this documentary on the Vietnam War that was released in 1968 at the height of American involvement in Indochina. I first heard it about a few months ago while leafing through the latest edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. The movie focuses on interviews and historical footage that discuss the history of the conflict up to that point in time. I knew many things about the history of the War before I watched this doc, but I can safely say that I know much more about it now. Moreover, the historical footage, which can often be quite disturbing, says more than words ever can.
