Gor'kii

[Barry P. Scherr]

On May 6, 2012, at 8:22 PM, Delic, Irene wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
> would anyone know what Gor'kii's reaction was to Pudovkin's film adapation of his novel Mother? Did he see it, like it, dislike it for its 'inaccuracies'? A Duke student asked this interesting question and I did not know the answer--perhaps you do?
> Irene Delic (OSU)
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Well, Gorky did see it:  Anastasiia Tsvetaeva mentions in her memoirs that she was at a special showing of the film in a Sorrento movie theater.  Gorky and friends were clustered at the front of a hall that was otherwise empty except for some representatives of the local fascist authorities who watched the film from the back.  This would have been in the summer of 1927; the film had opened in Moscow the previous October.  Tsvetaeva does not, unfortunately, say anything about Gorky's reaction to the film.  She refers to a Soviet diplomat who had brought the film to Italy and attended the showing: this was Lev Kamenev, who, in a recently published letter (Gor'kij v zerkale epoxi (neizdannaia perepiska), 2010, p. 551) reminded Gorky that in watching the film the latter "kak budto potjanulas' k scenariju novoj fil'my."  This could indicate some dissatisfaction with Pudovkin's version, though Gorky had long considered writing screenplays based on some of his works and seeing the film simply may have once again prompted the thought of doing so.  

I do not recall reading anything that Gorky wrote directly about the film.  The Letopis' zhizni i tvorchestva Gor'kogo refers to a letter he sent to some pioneers years later in which he explained that certain scenes were changed due to filmmaking technology; the account there is silent regarding his opinion of the film.  Perhaps a response by him has already been published somewhere; if not, the complete letters, which have been coming out slowly, will possibly contain other references to the film.




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