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For September 2002, we have
chosen...
 Alexander
Nevsky
 While
walking down the grandest avenue in St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospect,
many visitors wonder "Who was Nevsky?". This movie, a
masterpiece of Soviet pre-war propaganda, will explain in vivid
detail the special place that St. Alexander Nevsky holds in Russian
legends. A real historical figure, he threw back the Germans at
a crucial point in 13th Century Russian history. Sergei
Eisenstein created this movie as a piece of anti-German (and more
subtly anti-Catholic) propaganda in 1938 as a way of redeeming himself
in the eyes of the government censors in order to stir up feelings
against the potential enemy of the Soviet Union. When the Molotov-Ribbentrop
pact was signed the week before the start of World War II (which
made Germany and the USSR temporary allies in the division of Eastern
Europe) the movie was immediately withdrawn from distribution, but
two years later (when the Germans invaded) the movie once again
was shown to remind the population what happened 700 years before.
Although Eisenstein is better known for Battleship
Potemkin this is a superior movie in many ways, using less
montage and more live action. The "Battle on Ice" scene
is perhaps the best clash ever filmed (better even than the helicopter
attack in Apocalypse Now, and recreated most recently in
Planet of the Apes).
This is also the finest example of the convergence
of music and film. Sergei Prokofiev wrote the score for Alexander
Nevsky. This particular version of the film contains a new
recording by the great Yuri Termikonov of the St. Petersburg Philharmonia
and an extensive re-working of the score in certain parts. As
an operatic work it is Prokofiev's masterpiece.
Hopefully there will be a DVD of this version
available in the future, but for now this is the best way to see
Eisenstein's greatest film, and one of the best films of all times.
Many of the events of Alexander Nevsky were filmed on location
in Novgorod and Pskov. Novgorod is a pleasant day trip from St.
Petersburg, and as part of your journey of Discovering Russia
we can take you there.
If you are interested in this videotape,
please click
here
Previous Video of the Month:
The
Face of Russia Deluxe Box Set
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