Evgenii Bauer's "After Death" is a film that seems like a work typical to the artist and era with a few aesthetic embellishments that were absent in his later film, "The Dying Swan". Once again, Bauer is obsessed with death, a theme that lasted through his career (from what I understand). The characters belong to an upper part of society, where the day to day physical strife of the common worker is replaced by the afflictions of ample free time and the painful facial contortions of melancholy. With this combination of death and melodrama, only tragedy can result. A tragedy that I felt was undermined once again, by how shallow the characters and their relationships are presented. Andrei (the reclusive student) and his love Zoia (the performer) are more or less reduced to symbols for the ideas at work (much like the characters of "The Dying Swan"). Death, madness, and the love's brief window of opportunity are Bauer's main concerns.
SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT
Bauer shows much more visual prowess in this film than "The Dying Swan". Technically, the film is exceptionally made. Bauer is able to convey ideas effectively through camera work alone. For example, Andrei's seclusion in the beginning is shot with an unmoving frame, emphasizing the emotional stagnation of being alone. Later when he is introduced to the soirée attendees, the camera tracks him as he moves throughout the room. The dynamism of life is reintroduced to him, culminating with him meeting Zoia. I'd like to think of this scene as a very early precursor to Scorsese's famous Copa Cabana tracking shot. The aforementioned main ideas are shown just as skillfully. Bauer's somewhat romanticized version of death is shown through the staging of his actors, the low key lighting, and Zoia's translucent superimposition during dream sequences. The latter is especially effective. Zoia is radiant and has an otherworldly quality in Andrei's dark bedroom. Andrei's slip into madness is conveyed through the constant shifting in the film's tint towards the conclusion. Finally, one of my favorite moments in the film is a perfectly placed dissolve when Andrei first learns of Zoia's suicide. The film dissolve's away from Andrei's dark bedroom to the white, snowy park they last met in.
Although it is hard for me to appreciate the theatrical quality of the acting and wafer thin characters (a criticism directed more at the silent era in general), Bauer's direction is very easy to admire. He made a film that spoke the language of cinema in an era when there was yet to be a common language.
SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT
Bauer shows much more visual prowess in this film than "The Dying Swan". Technically, the film is exceptionally made. Bauer is able to convey ideas effectively through camera work alone. For example, Andrei's seclusion in the beginning is shot with an unmoving frame, emphasizing the emotional stagnation of being alone. Later when he is introduced to the soirée attendees, the camera tracks him as he moves throughout the room. The dynamism of life is reintroduced to him, culminating with him meeting Zoia. I'd like to think of this scene as a very early precursor to Scorsese's famous Copa Cabana tracking shot. The aforementioned main ideas are shown just as skillfully. Bauer's somewhat romanticized version of death is shown through the staging of his actors, the low key lighting, and Zoia's translucent superimposition during dream sequences. The latter is especially effective. Zoia is radiant and has an otherworldly quality in Andrei's dark bedroom. Andrei's slip into madness is conveyed through the constant shifting in the film's tint towards the conclusion. Finally, one of my favorite moments in the film is a perfectly placed dissolve when Andrei first learns of Zoia's suicide. The film dissolve's away from Andrei's dark bedroom to the white, snowy park they last met in.
Although it is hard for me to appreciate the theatrical quality of the acting and wafer thin characters (a criticism directed more at the silent era in general), Bauer's direction is very easy to admire. He made a film that spoke the language of cinema in an era when there was yet to be a common language.