Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Mad Love The Films of Evgeni Bauer (1913-1917)

Contents: Twilight of a Woman’s Soul (1913), After Death (1915) and The Dying Swan (1917).

A former set designer, Russian film director Evgenii Bauer exhibited an extraordinarily innovative concept, for his time, of cinematic composition.

As is apparent from the films in this collection, Bauer rarely placed the camera at a right angle to his settings, creating a dynamic visual space which was constructed in light and shadow in conjunction with often elaborate set decorations to create a compelling visual tapestry. Bauer’s shots were often deep shots, where actors and settings were layered in planes to create a sense of reality of perception — depth — within the normally constrictive and two-dimensional window of film. The surprising realism of such composition sets Bauer’s work apart from many of his film contemporaries.

And at a time when world cinema was just discovering camera mobility, Bauer often directed his camera to track in and out of shots to change the framing of his story and to imply certain emotional contexts. Visual technique is often balanced with his actors’ performances, with moments where the balance is deliberately thrown out to emphasize one aspect or the other.

In Bauer’s earliest surviving film, Twilight of a Woman’s Soul (1913), a bored society woman finds some spark in charity work until she is raped by one of the poor and cynical recipients of her compassion. Some time later when, troubled by conscience, she tells her new husband of her past and he cannot accept the thought of it — a la Tess of the D’Urbervilles — and abandons her.

After Death (1915) is adapted from a story by Ivan Turgenev of a withdrawn and intellectual man who is coaxed into society, where he meets a striking woman who comes to dominate his dreams and thoughts after she unsuccessfully professes her love for him and ultimately commits suicide. The film features an amazing reverse tracking shot through a society event, which pulls the main character deeper into an unwanted situation toward his destiny.

In The Dying Swan (1917), a morose and struggling young artist becomes obsessed with capturing the sad image of a mute ballerina in his painting. When her despairing countenance is changed by the return of a lost love, the artist strangles her to achieve the lifeless effect of the dying swan he must have from his unfortunate model.

Bauer died during the production of his film The King of Paris (1917), from complications of pneumonia after breaking his leg. In his brief four-year career, Bauer appears to have been intent on expanding the possibilities of cinema storytelling. And while he was visually innovative in comparison to many others, Bauer did not fail to give his prerevolutionary Russian audiences the predictably tragic stories they expected of their national cinema.

— Carl Bennett