Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on March 04, 2010 at 14:31:38

I just saw three of his silent films, each under an hour and each one a masterwork, a pearl. Tragically, he only made films for four years before an early death but during those years he was unusually prolific; his films were not considered "communist enough" so they were put away for decades, only finding release quite recently.
"Twilight of a Woman's Soul, After Death and The Dying Swan" all are now available now on one disc, with brilliant commentary from Russian film scholars which itself is worth the price.
Griffith no longer can be placed at the zenith of early filmmakers: Bauer, as shown in these three shorter pieces, is his equal if not outright superior.
All of the films are tragic accounts of addictive love and feature spell-bindingly excellent actors, free from many of the Western silent-acting excesses. All also feature deeply beautiful dream sequences leading one critic to ponder whether Bauer considered the films as scaffolds for his dream sequences.
I own very, very few DVDs but this one, and everything else I can find by this fellow, I'm purchasing.
A word about silent film: because no words are used, great silent films must do their "work" purely by visual skills. And acting must convey the nuances that audiences have come to expect from words. Actually, it is more like a completely separate art from from "talkies." When done properly, I'd argue that silents have a power, a purity which speaking films cannot match. Perhaps it's the power of the image, the fuller concentration forced onto the serious viewer? At any rate, the films of Bauer are poetic, powerful, and the images are sometimes overpowering.
If his name is unfamiliar to you, take immediate steps to become acquainted.