Vsevolod Pudovkin

Directing

Vsevolod Pudovkin

Born — Died

1893-02-16 — 1953-06-30

Place of birth

Penza, Russian Empire (Russia)

Known for

Directing

Credits

41 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage. Pudovkin's masterpieces are often contrasted with those of his contemporary Sergei Eisenstein, but whereas Eisenstein utilized montage to glorify the power of the masses, Pudovkin preferred to concentrate on the courage and resilience of individuals. He was granted the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1948.

Known for

Ivan the Terrible, Part I poster
7.3

Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.

Ivan the Terrible, Part I

1944

Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot poster
7.3

This is the second part of a projected three-part epic biopic of Russian Czar Ivan Grozny, undertaken by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein at the behest of Josef Stalin. Production of the epic was stopped before the third part could be filmed, due to producer dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's introducing forbidden experimental filming techniques into the material, more evident in this part than the first part. As it was, this second part was banned from showings until after the deaths of both Eisenstein and Stalin, and a change of attitude by the subsequent heads of the Soviet government. In this part, as Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate him.

Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot

1958

Zhukovsky poster
7.6

A biographical film about the fate of the great Russian mechanic and creator of aerodynamics Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky.

Zhukovsky

1950

The End of St. Petersburg poster
6.7

Arriving in St. Petersburg in search of work, a peasant unwittingly aids in the arrest of an old friend who is now a labour leader. The unemployed man is arrested and sent to fight in the Great War. After three years, he returns to rebel.

The End of St. Petersburg

1927

Mother poster
7.1

A Soviet woman is caught between her husband and son, who find themselves on opposing sides of the Russian Revolution.

Mother

1926

The Return of Vasili Bortnikov poster
5.0

A veteran of World War II returns to civil life and the collective farm he once led, only to find his wife has re-married.

The Return of Vasili Bortnikov

1953

Film credits

1950s · 1 titles

1940s · 4 titles

1920s · 10 titles

The End of St. Petersburg poster
6.7

Arriving in St. Petersburg in search of work, a peasant unwittingly aids in the arrest of an old friend who is now a labour leader. The unemployed man is arrested and sent to fight in the Great War. After three years, he returns to rebel.

The End of St. Petersburg

1927

Mother poster
7.1

A Soviet woman is caught between her husband and son, who find themselves on opposing sides of the Russian Revolution.

Mother

1926

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks poster
6.0

An ignorant and prejudiced American’s visit of Soviet Russia goes off the rails after his luggage is stolen and he is separated from his bodyguard.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

1924

The New Babylon poster
6.1

In the short-lived Commune of Paris, a conscripted soldier falls in love with a Communard saleswoman. As the army cracks down on the revolutionaries, the soldier is forced to fight against the Commune, and the pair's love is put to the test.

The New Babylon

1929

The Living Corpse poster
5.3

The central character of the play, Fedor Protasov, is tormented by the belief that his wife Liza has never really chosen between him and the more conventional Victor Karenin, a rival for her hand. He wants to kill himself, but doesn't have the nerve. Running away from his life, he first falls in with Gypsies, and into a sexual relationship with a Gypsy singer, Masha.

The Living Corpse

1929

The Death Ray poster
5.2

In a Western capitalist country where a fascist government attempts to suppress a socialist uprising, revolutionary leader Thomas Lamm is imprisoned by the government but he escapes to the Soviet Union. There, he meets the engineer Podobed who invents the 'death ray' – a device which explodes gunpowder and fuel mixtures at a distance.

The Death Ray

1925

Bricks poster
NR

Partially lost.

Bricks

1925

In the Days of Struggle poster
NR

An agit-film about the struggle of Ukrainian peasants against the White Poles. A young woman, the daughter of a blacksmith taken prisoner by the White Poles, and a Red commander organise a partisan unit. One scene depicts the capture of a Polish landowner attempting to elude capture. He had been hiding from the Red Army soldiers in a barrel. The peasants nailed the barrel shut and, having inscribed the words: ‘To Warsaw – to Mr Piłsudski’, threw it into the Dnieper. Lost film.

In the Days of Struggle

1920

The Happy Canary poster
8.0

Actress Brio working in a cafe "The Happy Canary", does not suspect that her new acquaintances Brianski and Lugovec are Communists sent by an underground committee to fight the enemy's counter-intelligence.

The Happy Canary

1929

Sickle and Hammer poster
NR

A down on his luck peasant goes to fight in World War I and returns home a hero. Partially lost.

Sickle and Hammer

1921

Behind the camera

Zhukovsky poster
7.6

A biographical film about the fate of the great Russian mechanic and creator of aerodynamics Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky.

Zhukovsky

1950

The End of St. Petersburg poster
6.7

Arriving in St. Petersburg in search of work, a peasant unwittingly aids in the arrest of an old friend who is now a labour leader. The unemployed man is arrested and sent to fight in the Great War. After three years, he returns to rebel.

The End of St. Petersburg

1927

Mother poster
7.1

A Soviet woman is caught between her husband and son, who find themselves on opposing sides of the Russian Revolution.

Mother

1926

The Return of Vasili Bortnikov poster
5.0

A veteran of World War II returns to civil life and the collective farm he once led, only to find his wife has re-married.

The Return of Vasili Bortnikov

1953

Storm Over Asia poster
6.5

Lowly Mongolian trapper Bair, shunned by his fellow trappers for fighting with a trader, flees his trading post and joins the Soviet partisans trying to oust the occupying British forces. After Bair is captured and shot by the British, they find an amulet on him suggesting he is a descendant of Genghis Khan. The soldiers nurse Bair back to health and use him to establish a puppet government, unaware that their plan will backfire when the puppet breaks his strings.

Storm Over Asia

1928

No artwork available
NR

On the development of domestic cinema during the first two decades of Soviet rule.

Twenty Years of Soviet Cinema

1940

No artwork available
NR

On the development of domestic cinema during the first two decades of Soviet rule.

Twenty Years of Soviet Cinema

1940

Minin and Pozharsky poster
6.1

Historical film about the invasion of the Poles in the Moscow Empire (1611), the creation of Minin and Pozharsky people's militia. The beginning of the XVII century. Already the sixth year the Muscovite land under the yoke of intervention. In the fall of 1610 Polish pans in deceitfully seized the Kremlin and tried to break through to the north. Everywhere rebellions broke out, but well-armed interventionists smashed the scattered peasant detachments. The liberation movement was led by Nizhny Novgorod merchant Kuzma and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky.

Minin and Pozharsky

1939

Pobeda poster
8.0

About the non-stop flight of three Soviet pilots around the globe on the stratoplane "Pobeda-1".

Pobeda

1938

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks poster
6.0

An ignorant and prejudiced American’s visit of Soviet Russia goes off the rails after his luggage is stolen and he is separated from his bodyguard.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

1924

The Death Ray poster
5.2

In a Western capitalist country where a fascist government attempts to suppress a socialist uprising, revolutionary leader Thomas Lamm is imprisoned by the government but he escapes to the Soviet Union. There, he meets the engineer Podobed who invents the 'death ray' – a device which explodes gunpowder and fuel mixtures at a distance.

The Death Ray

1925

No artwork available
NR

A film by Vsevolod Pudovkin. Experimental reel later worked into "A Simple Case (1930)"

Birth of Life

1930

Chess Fever poster
6.4

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.

Chess Fever

1925

No artwork available
6.5

The film collection consists of three novellas: "Women of the Air Fleet", "Hate", "Feast in Zhirmunka".

Collection of Films for the Armed Forces #6

1941

General Suvorov poster
6.0

Primarily a biographical documentary about the military career of Alexander Vasilvich Suvorov, who was Field Marshal of the armies of Catherine the Great and Czar Paul I. After many military successes during the reign of Catherine, General Suvorov broke with her successor, Paul I, the Mad Emperor, over questions regarding army policy. He went into retirement and wrote "The Science of Victory," containing maxims such as "Swiftness of movement accompanies victory," and "the real general is he who defeats the enemy before reaching him." The czar recalled Suvorov to become the leader of the joint armies of Russia and Austria against Napoleon.

General Suvorov

1941

In the Name of the Motherland poster
5.0

The film deals with a Russian battalion under siege by the Germans during the Second World War.

In the Name of the Motherland

1943

In the Name of the Motherland poster
5.0

The film deals with a Russian battalion under siege by the Germans during the Second World War.

In the Name of the Motherland

1943

The Murderers Are Coming poster
5.4

Brecht's play Fear and Misery of the Third Reich consists of a series of playlets, portraying National Socialist Germany of the 1930s as a land of poverty, violence, fear and pretence. Nazi antisemitism is depicted in several of the sketches, including "the Physicist", "Judicial Process", and "the Jewish Wife".

The Murderers Are Coming

1942

The Murderers Are Coming poster
5.4

Brecht's play Fear and Misery of the Third Reich consists of a series of playlets, portraying National Socialist Germany of the 1930s as a land of poverty, violence, fear and pretence. Nazi antisemitism is depicted in several of the sketches, including "the Physicist", "Judicial Process", and "the Jewish Wife".

The Murderers Are Coming

1942

Three Encounters poster
7.5

The film consists of short stories about participants of the Great Patriotic War, who returned from the front and entered a peaceful life. The heroes of the tape are fellow soldiers: Major Kornev, formerly a domain engineer; petty officer Samoseev, in the future chairman of the collective farm; senior lieutenant Rudnikov expects an Arctic expedition, and lieutenant Bela Mukhtarova will go with a party of geologists to the East.

Three Encounters

1950

A Simple Case poster
5.3

Following the end of the Russian Civil War, three close friends and former Red Army commanders—Langovoy, Zhyoltikov, and their elder comrade Uncle Sasha—return to their hometown to serve in the military headquarters. While Sasha and Zhyoltikov remain bachelors and share a room, Langovoy lives with his wife, Mashenka, whom he married during the war.

A Simple Case

1930

Admiral Nakhimov poster
5.3

A biography of a famous Russian Admiral Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov.

Admiral Nakhimov

1947

Deserter poster
5.0

A wise and forgiving communist leader decides to send a young worker, Karl Renn, as an international delegate to the Soviet Union after the worker had deserted a picket-line and had expressed doubts about the methods of class struggle in in his own country.

Deserter

1933

No artwork available
4.9

"Though not given a New York showing until 1935, V. I. Pudovkin's Mechanics of the Brain (Mekhanika Golovnovo Mozga) was written and directed by Pudovkin in 1926. A full year in the making, this scientific documentary concentrates on the behavioral studies conducted by Prof. Ivan Pavlov. The laboratory dogs used in Pavlov's research don't seem too happy about it, and as a result this film might be hard to take for the more sensitive viewers (the vivisection sequence is particularly rough). The progress of the research is detailed with charts and graphs, hardly the "cinematic" touches one might expect from Pudovkin. Interestingly, Mechanics of the Brains was released two years before the results of Pavlov's studies were printed in book form."

Mechanics of the Brain

1926

Locksmith and Chancellor poster
7.0

The Government of the fictional country Norland has unleashed a war with the neighboring Galikania and is suffering one defeat after another. A group of conspirators who were dissatisfied with this state of affairs, led by the Social Democrat Frank Frey arrange a coup to overthrew the emperor of Norland. But the working class does not like the new order either. Workers expose Frank Frey's policy of continuing the war and a revolution breaks out in the country. The leader of the socialist revolution becomes a mechanic of the name Franz Stark.

Locksmith and Chancellor

1924