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Three Songs of Lenin (Tri pesni o Lenine) (U.S.S.R., 1935/'38);
Lullaby (Kolybel'naja) (U.S.S.R., 1937)

Three Songs of Lenin (1935/'38)
March 17, 2012 - 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder Theater

Print courtesy of the Austrian Film Museum

Three Songs of Lenin (Tri pesni o Lenine) (U.S.S.R., 1935/'38)

Directed by Dziga Vertov

In 1938, Vertov was instructed to reedit his most celebrated film to remove any references to “enemies of the people” who had since become victims of Stalin’s purges. This sound version features images of Stalin removed from yet-another edit in 1970. The film, structured in three parts, glorifies Lenin’s life and legacy through folkloric songs and tales. H.G. Wells called it “One of the greatest and most beautiful films I have ever seen.”

Screenwriter: Dziga Vertov. Cinematographer: Dmitrii Surensky, Mark Magidson, Bentsion Monastyrsky.

35mm, b/w, in Russian w/ English subtitles, 67 min.

Print courtesy of the Austrian Film Museum

Lullaby (Kolybel'naja) (U.S.S.R., 1937)

Directed by Dziga Vertov

Commissioned to make a documentary on the State’s network of maternity homes, nurseries and kindergartens, Vertov produced Lullaby, with its approximately six hundred shots of different women symbolizing Woman and Motherhood all shown to love and worship Joseph Stalin. The film was shelved as soon as it was finished; rumor has it that Stalin was unhappy with the interminable images of him being smothered by all these women.

35mm, b/w, in Russian w/ English subtitles, 67 min.

Part of: 
Kino-Eye: The Revolutionary Cinema of Dziga Vertov