A good movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it seemed to have a decent reputation and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that, because of some personal stuff, I had actually a rather hard time to focus on this movie. However, the fact that it was really random probably didn’t help either. Seriously, they would keep jumping from one thing to another without much cohesion and, to be honest, the end-result was rather jarring. For some reason, they also thought it would be clever to play some scenes in reverse but I have to admit that the effect was not bad though. Anyway, eventually, it was probably the most abstract Soviet documentary I have seen so far. The fact it was made 100 years ago and that the quality of the copy I have seen was pretty poor made the whole thing even more abstract than it already was. Of course, since it was a Soviet production, it was obviously some propaganda but, in spite of all the horrors that happened there at the time, I have to admit that, at least to me, there was something quite appealing about this ideology so it  didn’t bother me. This movie actually stood out from the genre as it was much less grim than what you usually get. Indeed, the tone was much lighter and even quite joyful (the Chinese magician was definitely an highlight for me). I think it also had to do with the fact that it was shot in the mid-20’s, the Russian revolution only took place less than a decade before and, at the time, they were all motivated and still quite positive about what they were trying to achieve. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

7/10