UID:
kobvindex_ZLB15473705
Format:
2 DVD-Video (91 Min.) : s/w
,
DD/2.0
,
PAL
Edition:
Restored version
Series Statement:
KinoAcademia : [DVD-Video] 3
Content:
The Great Consoler was conceived and directed by Lev Kuleshov, himself no stranger to bringing American tales to the big screen. In 1926 he'd adapted Jack London's By the Law to stunning effect, drawing out the tensions of the original short story to deliver a brilliant chamber piece brimming with tension... In approaching Henry, however, he not only took one of his stories, he also took on the author's life and added a fictional tale too. William Sydney Porter was convicted of embezzlement in 1898 and sentenced to five years, which he spent in Ohio Penitentiary. It was during this time as an inmate that he began to write; by the end of his sentence he̷d had a number of these short tales published under a number of pseudonyms. O. Henry was the one that stuck and a career was born. It was the prison term which interested Kuleshov and how the author's both existence was both reflected in and affected by his work. Scenes in the cells find their counterpoint in a film-within-a-film adaptation of A Retrieved Reformation, one of Henry's most famous tales, about a safecracker whose skills come in unexpectedly handy. The other fictional element - the one created by Kuleshov himself - adds a further dimension, about one of Henry's readers and how his stories affect her. The Great Consoler approaches these three strands with differing techniques (though an early talkie, A Retrieved Reformation is told as a silent) but refuses to keep them entirely separate. Their narratives intertwine in a manner that prefigures Pulp Fiction or Amores Perros by decades, though Kuleshov also goes one step further. Despite his plot strands existing on differing plains of reality - not to mention those of fact, fiction, true life, wish fulfilment and even genre - he nonetheless brings the same characters to each. O. Henry's presence is felt in each, either as lead character (in the guise of plain old Bill Porter the jailbird as portrayed by Konstantin Khokhlov), creator or off-screen influence. The detective played by Andrei Heij, meanwhile, gets to appear onscreen in all three. Such crossover allows the characters to serve as commentaries on their other selves. They are treated to both happy and tragic endings, receive their comeuppance or are granted their deserved freedom. Each existence sits atop the other, acting as, say, influence or a stark counterbalance. There's a playfulness to their interaction - Jonathan Rosenbaum has compared the film to those of Alain Resnais - but also a strongly defined emotional weight. (Anthony Nield, The digital fix)
Note:
Ländercode: 0
,
Orig.: Sowjetunion, 1933
,
Hyperkino commentary by Ekaterina Khokhlova (Ekaterina Chochlova).
,
Enth.: Disc 1: Annotaded version (Hyperkino russ. and engl. versions). - Disc 2: Subtitled version
,
Russisch ; Englisch . Mit russ., engl., franz., dt., span., ital. und portugis. Untertiteln
Language:
Russian
Keywords:
Velikij utešitel'
;
Filmanalyse
;
Kommentar
;
DVD-Video
;
Henry, O.
;
Biographie
;
Film
;
DVD-Video
;
Kommentar
;
DVD-Video
;
Biographie
;
Biografie
;
Kommentar
Author information:
Henry, O.
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