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Directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin
Soviet Union

 

Mother (1926)                       The End of St. Petersburg (1927)

Storm over Asia (1928)

 

 

After serving alongside his fellow Russians in the first World War, Vsevolod Pudovkin was radically altered by a life-changing screening of D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance, inspiring the young man to shift away from his studies in chemistry in order to pursue the cinematic arts.

Pudovkin embarked on his narrative feature debut in 1926 with Mother, regarded by many as a masterpiece of the Russian silent era, and a showcase for Pudovkin’s emotive approach to editing. Pudovkin followed Mother’s tale of proletariat uprising with the Bolshevik-themed The End of St. Petersburg and the Mongolia-set Storm over Asia in 1927 and 1928 respectively, dazzling the world with a trio of masterful films centered around this tumultuous and revolutionary period in Russian history.

Combining Mother and The End of St. Petersburg with a brand-new remaster from Lobster Films of Storm over Asia, Flicker Alley is proud to offer The Bolshevik Trilogy - Three Films by Vsevolod Pudovkin in a 2-disc Blu-ray collection for cinephiles, and lovers of epic, innovative filmmaking alike.
 

Posters

Theatrical Release: October 11th, 1926 - November 10th, 1928

Reviews                                                                                                       More Reviews                                                                                       DVD Reviews

 

Review: Flicker Alley - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

Distribution Flicker Alley - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime 1:27:15.355 / 1:13:21.563 / 2:10:46.797       
Video

Mother:

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 42,977,037,495 bytes

Feature: 21,655,864,896 bytes

Video Bitrate: 29.883 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

The End of St. Petersburg:

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 42,977,037,495 bytes

Feature: 18,269,833,728 bytes

Video Bitrate: 30.01 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Video

Storm Over Asia:

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 38,841,161,427 bytes

Feature: 32,638,520,256 bytes

Video Bitrate: 29.92 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate Mother Blu-ray:

Bitrate End of St. Petersburg Blu-ray:

Bitrate Storm Over Asia Blu-ray:

Audio

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1378 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1378 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
Commentaries:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps

Subtitles English, None (none on Mother as it ahs English intertitles)
Features Release Information:
Studio:
Flicker Alley

 

Mother:

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 42,977,037,495 bytes

Feature: 21,655,864,896 bytes

Video Bitrate: 29.883 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

The End of St. Petersburg:

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 42,977,037,495 bytes

Feature: 18,269,833,728 bytes

Video Bitrate: 30.01 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Storm Over Asia:

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 38,841,161,427 bytes

Feature: 32,638,520,256 bytes

Video Bitrate: 29.92 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

• Chess Fever (1925) - Pudovkin’s directorial debut, this ingenious satire of the Moscow chess craze combines staged scenes with documentary footage, and features a number of cameos from the worlds of cinema and chess (20:00)
• A Revolution in Five Moves - A visual essay showcasing the five edits that inspired the Bolshevik revolution (9:18)
• Five Principles of Editing - A comparison of Pudovkin’s “Five Principles of Editing” (6:00)
• Amateur Images of St. Petersburg (1930) (1:33)
• Notebooks of a Tourist Presents: St. Petersburg (c.1920) (1:44)
• Audio Commentary: Storm over Asia (1928) - Featuring film historian and scholar, Jan-Christopher Horak.
• Audio Commentary: Mother (1926) - Featuring Russian film historian and curator Peter Bagrov.
• Souvenir Booklet - Featuring a new essay by film author and historian Amy Sargeant


Blu-ray Release Date:
March 10th, 2020
Transparent Blu-ray Case

Chapters 10 / 11 / 11

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Flicker Alley Blu-ray (March 2020): Flicker Alley have transferred three films by director Vsevolod Pudovkin; Mother (1926), The End of St. Petersburg (1927) and Storm over Asia (1928) in a two-dual-layered Blu-ray disc package called The Bolshevik Trilogy. He fought in the Russian army during World War I, was wounded, and spent three years in a German POW camp. We continue owe a the debt of gratitude to Flicker Alley as well as Lobster Films for restoring these silent era masterpieces. The image quality is mostly at the mercy of the surviving source material. The first Blu-ray has Mother looking quite damaged (see two captures at the bottom) but entirely watchable, and The End of St. Petersburg. That print is much better but still has, less-frequent, damage in the form of frame-specific marks, scratches and speckles. But the second film is crisper with occasional depth. It has some decently layered contrast. Both have high bitrates.

On the second Blu-ray, Flicker Alley have transferred Storm over Asia. Like the first two films, the image quality varies but is certainly very watchable with many outdoor sequences.

On their Blu-ray, Flicker Alley use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel tracks (24-bit) for all three films. On Mother (1926) there is a piano score by Antonio Coppola. The End of St. Petersburg features an orchestral score composed by Vladimir Yurovsky and Storm over Asia is accompanied by an impassioned score by composer Timothy Brock, performed by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra. Flicker Alley offer optional English subtitles for the latter two films, Mother has English intertitles with English subtitles being unnecessary. The Blu-ray disc are Region FREE.

The Flicker Alley Blu-ray offers plenty of bonus material. There is a detail audio commentary on Mother (1926) featuring Russian film historian and curator Dr. Peter Bagrov who was recently appointed curator in charge of the Eastman Museum's Moving Image Department. He describes that the version we have on the Blu-ray is not the original version, but, most likely the American released version. He tells us that it has only two shots that are missing. On Storm over Asia there is an audio commentary by film historian and scholar, Jan-Christopher Horak director of the UCLA Film and Television Archive, editor of Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919--1945, and he is also author of Dream Merchants: Making and Selling Films in Hollywood's Golden Age. He is likewise excellent and an expert in detailing many specifics about the production history and era. Also included is a 10-miniute visual essay showcasing the five edits that inspired the Bolshevik revolution entitled A Revolution in Five Moves. We also get a comparison of Pudovkin’s “Five Principles of Editing”running 6-minutes. There are short clips of Amateur Images of St. Petersburg and Notebooks of a Tourist Presents: St. Petersburg (c.1920). Chess Fever (1925) - Pudovkin’s directorial debut, this ingenious satire of the Moscow chess craze combines staged scenes with documentary footage, and features a number of cameos from the worlds of cinema and chess . It runs exactly 20-minutes and the short is described on IMDb as "With an international chess tournament in progress, a young man becomes completely obsessed with the game. His fiancée has no interest in it, and becomes frustrated and depressed by his neglect of her, but wherever she goes she finds that she cannot escape chess. On the brink of giving up, she meets the world champion, Capablanca himself, with interesting results.". The package contains a souvenir booklet featuring a new essay by film author and historian Amy Sargeant.

Wow... step back in time almost 100-years. We can see and interpret Vsevolod Pudovkin's constructive montage expression utilizing such effects as close-ups of human faces and rapid editing. So wonderful for silent-era fans, Russian cinema aficionados, as well as inquisitive film students and world cinephiles to own this extensive Flicker Alley Blu-ray package. These are masterpeices. Just amazing. Very strongly recommended!

Gary Tooze

 


Menus / Extras

 

Blu-ray 2


CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

Mother (1926) – A father and son find themselves on opposite sides of the Russian Revolution of 1905, leaving the mother torn between them. But when her husband is killed and her son is wrongfully imprisoned in a labor camp, the mother (played by Pudovkin’s wife, Anna Nikolaevna Zemtsova) is spurred into action, joining the revolutionaries in an effort to take on the Tsar's Army. Based on the novel by Maxim Gorky, Pudovkin’s debut narrative feature is both a riveting tale of revolution and a showcase for the young filmmaker’s cutting-edge techniques. This edition is presented with English intertitles, and features a piano score by Antonio Coppola.

 

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

 

 


The End of St. Petersburg (1927) – Created to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, the film tells the story of how the Bolshevik party came to power, but through the lens of a peasant boy’s journey from slave laborer to political revolutionary. Pudovkin employed a mix of classical and montage editing styles in order to produce a feeling of tension in the audience. The result is both a deeply emotional and stylized work of epic filmmaking. This edition is presented with original Russian intertitles with English subtitles, and features an orchestral score composed by Vladimir Yurovsky.

 

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

 

 


Storm over Asia (1928) – Set in a fictional British-occupied Mongolia, Storm Over Asia follows a young Mongolian fur trapper (Valeri Inkizhinov) who skirts a death sentence by falsely claiming to be a descendent of the great warrior Genghis Khan. Filmed largely on location in Mongolia, Storm Over Asia incorporates an authentic documentary feel into a stirring melodrama, distinguishing the film as a major accomplishment of Russian cinema. Scanned from 35mm preservation elements in a new 2K remaster by Lobster Films, this edition is presented with original Russian intertitles with English subtitles, and accompanied by an impassioned score by composer Timothy Brock, performed by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra.

 

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

 

 

More Prevalent Damage Samples

 

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Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

Distribution Flicker Alley - Region FREE - Blu-ray


 


 

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