State and Revolution: Film Under the Boot
Programmed by: Isaiah Terry
For all of recorded history, the push and pull between the state and its people has been a topic which art has found fascinating. Rather than focusing on such a broad subject, State and Revolution follows a grouping of films primarily arising out of Eastern Europe in the 70s and 80s. These films were a product of both state censorship and conflict and grapple with how it is to live underneath the heavy boot of the state. Bookended by the revolutionary optimism and fury of Eisenstein's October and the oppressive depression of Bela Tarr’s The Turin Horse, State and Revolution covers films ranging from nightmarish Slovak fairy tales to Polish serial killer historical dramas, proving that even under the harshest of circumstances film will always find a way to flourish.
October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1928)
Sergei Eisenstein · 95m · 16mm
Commissioned on the ten year anniversary of the October Revolution, October captures the revolutionary fervor and struggle that led to the creation of the Soviet Union. Through Sergei Eistenstein’s signature montage, the film represents the nation on the historical precipice of a past of exploitation and the dream of a better future. What better way to frame (face?) the coming times of trouble than through the deeply optimistic and human struggle by which it was precipitated.
Print Courtesy of Yale Film Archive.
Tuesday, March 25 7pm
Mirror (1975)
Andrei Tarkovsky · 106m · 35mm
Arguably Andrei Tarkovsky’s most formally challenging work, Mirror interweaves autobiographical scenes with the history of the nation which Tarkovsky loved so dearly, told through the recollections of childhood and life from a dying man. A departure from his typical slow style, Mirror captures the maelstrom of desire and nostalgia within the deeply complicated life in Russia.
Tuesday, April 1 7pm · Saturday, April 5 4pm
Blind Chance (1987)
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 123m · DCP
Before Run Lola Run there was Blind Chance. The question of how much one event can impact a life is used by Kieślowski to explore the political turmoil of 1980s Poland. Not merely an era of political openings (Glasnost), it was also a time of crackdowns and resistance that impacted every citizen. Kieślowski explores the contradictions within the lives of Soviet citizens in much the same way as he would go on to do in Dekalog.
Tuesday, April 8 7pm
Agony: The Life and Death of Rasputin (1981)
Elem Klimov · 152m · 35mm
Originally filmed in 1973-1974, Agony was shelved by the Soviet Government for nearly 10 years before finally being released internationally in 1981. It follows the bloody life of the notorious Russian Imperial advisor Rasputin. Intermixing real footage from the early 19th century with a sumptuous baroque style, Klimov’s unflinching filmmaking, which he would later employ in Come and See, is on full display.
Tuesday, April 15 7pm
Diary For My Lovers (1987)
Márta Mészáros · 141m · DCP
The second in Márta Mészáros’s trilogy of diaries, Diary for My Lovers is interested in what it means to be a filmmaker within the bureaucracy of the Soviet Union. Like many of the other films in this series, Mészáros tightly binds such experience with the political upheavals of the past. Art is political, but in Diary for My Lovers, the power of filmmaking to transform and create is inescapably tied to the systems of power within which they exist in.
Tuesday, April 22 7pm
The Bloody Lady (1980)
Viktor Kubal · 72m · DCP
Recently restored, The Bloody Lady follows the tragic gothic fairytale of Lady Elisabeth Báthory as she drains the blood of all the young men and women who have the misfortune to visit her castle. A gorgeous sample of 70s Czech animation from one of its masters, The Bloody Lady is a haunting dream that should not be missed!
Tuesday, April 29 7pm
The Devil (1972)
Andrzej Żuławski · 125m · DCP
Originally banned in Poland on its release, Andrzej Żuławski’s second film follows the descent of an aristocrat into a bloody serial killing spree set amidst the political turmoil of 17th century Poland. Featuring much of the same unsettling style of performance that would later define works such as Possession and On the Silver Globe, The Devil is a nightmare riddled with anxiety and bloodlust.
Tuesday, May 6 7pm
Hard to Be a God (2013)
Aleksei German · 177m · DCP
The final film of auteur Aleksei German might be the grimiest, smelliest, rankest sci-fi film ever created. A group of scientists are sent to a planet nearly identical to Earth — except, its technological progression is stunted by 1000 years. Based on a story written by the famed Strugatsky brothers also notably adapted by Tarksovky in Stalker) Hard to Be a God is as enthralling as it is repulsive, an experience like no other.
Tuesday, May 13 7pm
The Turin Horse (2011)
Béla Tarr · 155m · 35mm
A father and daughter live alone in a house as the world ends. Any of Tarr’s films could be described as depressing, meditative, uncomfortably intimate, but The Turin Horse is the dying gasp of a rotting world given life over the course of its three hours. If October is the optimism and hope for a revolutionary future, then The Turin Horse is its lurid conclusion asking, What was it all for? Is there even a future left to continue into?
