Michel Strogoff is one of the most famous products of the
Russian ex-patriot community in French cinema and it is surprisingly hard to
find making tonight’s screening a must-see or rather a Moz-see.
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| The Tartars |
It is a film of scale and splendour which is lifted above
the norm by extended sequences in Pathecolor – stencilled highlights over the
dancers’ dresses in the ballroom sequence in the Tsar’s palace and then another
truly stunning sequence as the Tartar forces mass at camp for the brutal
entertainment of Allah’s judgement… it’s as if you are there; you can almost
smell the burning flesh…
Director Viktor Tourjansky filmed across Europe from the
palaces of France, the snows of Norway and down to Latvia where 6000
extras helped create the battles scenes and the Tartar camp. He took full
advantage of the budgetary freedom allowed by the new affiliation of Cine-France-Film with the German-led West production company. The result was one of the few films of the
period that really could truly match Hollywood scale.
Another was being filmed at the same time in the
Billancourt studios and once Tourjansky had completed his effort he helped with
Gance’s filming of Napoleon’s Toulon
battle.
Their massed cavalry charge their horses across battle
fields blurred by the speed of advance as quick cuts are made to pick up the
human aspects of the slaughter; as with Napoleon
this is not a film you can take likely, it’s at you from start to finish propelled by the unique intensity of
its lead.
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| Ivan Mosjoukine |
Jules Verne’s original story sounds true to his form: a time-limited
chase featuring one man’s attempt to deliver a message from his Tsar to Irkutsk
a city cut off by the Tartar advance. The telegraphs have all been cut and
Michel must travel incognito using trains and boats across the plains making
friends and beating enemies along the way. The story turns on an unlikely (but just
possible) physiological event but the Russian’s present this moment as
high drama and the improbable becomes powerfully cinematic.
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| Surrounded by the Tartars |
The story had an unique appeal for many of the crew who
had seen their mother country overrun by a group with an incomprehensible agenda
– to them at least. The fact that the Tartars had not enjoyed any kind of
substantial military success against the Tsars for centuries is almost beside
the point… the story needed an internal threat to show the benevolence of the
Tsarist regime; a culture of honour and natural comradeship founded on respect
for the Nation and its God-given monarch (I don’t recall Alexander II being
especially benevolent…).
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| Acho Chakatouny |
But let’s not let politics get in the way of a rollicking adventure
especially one so rich in characters: the traitor Ivan Ogareff (Acho
Chakatouny) is given to villainous excess it’s true but is also a very human
hate-figure - Chakatouny plays his hero as a man wronged by his state who has
the abilities but not the loyalty of
a hero.
 |
| Nathalie Kovanko |
Love-interest Nadia Fedor (Nathalie Kovanko) is no mere
adornment and it is only through her help that Michel has any chance of
prevailing; she’s smart, quick to action and as determined as the men.
Strogoff’s mother Maria (of course…) is similarly empowered and Jeanne Brindeau
plays her with nobility and intelligence: what a pairing she and her son make –
unyielding and bound by a love as strong as national pride.
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| Jeanne Brindeau |
Marie-Louise Vois is also super as Zaugara the Tartar
Mata Hari and Ogareff’s left-hand woman she can dance, dance and be a villain
too… Other amusing stereotypes are available in the form of Daily Telegraph
writer Harry Blount (Henri Debain) – a whiskery notepad scribbler for the
status quo (they haven’t changed much have they?) and his French counterpart
Alcide Jolivet (Gabriel de Gravone).
Vladimir Gajdarov makes Tzar Alexandre is far more
likeable than I expected him to be whilst Boris de Fast Tartar leader
Féofar-Khan is a superb creation of make-up encrusted malevolence: his evil
runs so deep he seems almost serene and yet it's only ever a micro-second from boiling to the surface as he
selects random vengeance from God.
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| Boris de Fast |
Micolas Kougoucheff also features as General Kissoff who
I just had to mention... no sign of Generals Sodoff or Clearoff though.
But, it’s all about Ivan who portrays a model of
disciplined heroism with a twinkle in his eye that not only speaks of his wit
but also his weakness. His Strogoff is not someone who can go about his
triumphs in a way that makes them seem inevitable he gets stuck in even when he
seems to be losing and, indeed, to have lost. What’s more, his victories are
not achieved without the help of others…
He fights off dozens of attackers on a ferry only to be
struck down into the water where he makes it to shore and is saved by the
kindness of an old man. In his delirium he sees himself in neo-classical
torment – barely clothed and assailed by all kinds of monsters only to be saved
by the two women in his life. Later he’ll look just like St Sebastian in
seeming defeat to the Tartans…
Strogoff is knocked down more times than Rocky by Apollo
Creed yet still gets up for one final fight with his nemesis Ogareff which is
so much more than a standard silent scrap, the two push each other all over the
screen and you’re not sure who the winner is until the very last as one after
the other staggers out seemingly in victory…
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| Sightless in the snow |
If we felt slightly exhausted watching all of this, spare
a though for tonight’s pianist. Mr Sweeney set about his work with Mousjoukine-levels
of energy and invention. His playing was impressively full-blooded and
certainly contained doses of Russian
that I wasn’t quite able to identify. This melodic engagement with the film
must be very hard to maintain and yet he was still as fresh after the three
hours: that my friends is the business of show and, indeed, entertainment! Salute
Comrade Sweeney!
For such a major work – flawed but sprawlingly-brilliant
– it is surprising that this reconstruction (from 2007?) is not available on
DVD along with the Albatross output from many of the contributors. All we have
is a VHS transfer that collectors swap amongst themselves, passed from hand-to-hand in the darker corners of bars from Omsk to Ormskirk and Irkutsk to
Ipswich…
Come on, The Man, there’s money to be made in these
digital disc sales!?
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| Sound and vision |
I drove back down the darkened motorway coffee and
calories at the ready but uplifted by the show – I’d left the party halfway
through but happy with all I’d seen – yes, even you, Three Live Ghosts with your soviet ret-con nonsense. Next year all
four days!
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