The Childhood of Maxim Gorky

Starring:Aleksei Lyarsky, Varvara Massalitinova, Mikhail Troyanovsky, Yelizaveta Alekseyeva, Vasili Novikov, Aleksandr Zhukov, K. Zubkov, Daniil Sagal, S. Tikhonravov, Igor Smirnov, E. Mamaev, V. Korochentchikov, Nikolai Pogodin, B. Radkevich, V. Maslakov, A. Korneyev, A. Lebedev (II)
Director: Mark Donskoy
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The memoirs of the great Russian writer Maxim Gorky come to pungent life in part 1 of a prewar Soviet trilogy (it was followed by My Apprenticeship and My Universities). Director Mark Donskoy creates the endless hardships of Gorky's adolescence in small, precise scenes, orienting us in the 19th-century "lower depths" of czarist Russia. Refreshingly, the movie has no "great literature" grandness about it, but an abrupt, episodic grit. Dominating Gorky's Dickensian youth are his grandfather, a mean bantam with a fondness for whipping his underlings, and his grandmother, a kindly storyteller (vividly embodied by the goodhearted Varvara Massalitinova). The extraordinary faces of the actors (even in tiny roles) speak volumes about the Russian spirit; it's hard to forget the gypsy laborer who dreams of being a singer, or the little lame boy who keeps a zoo of insects by his bedside. --Robert Horton

Description

This haunting, unforgettable film, based upon Maxim Gorky's 1913 autobiography, shows a twelve-year-old's journey in life against the tumultuous backdrop of 19th century Russia. With tableaux beautifully vivid and forceful, it recounts the touching relationships which develop when Gorky is put into custody at his grandparents' home. His grandmother, a simple woman who knows how to make people laugh, represents optimism in the direst situations, honesty in a world of deceit. Gorky's poverty-stricken childhood formed his life-long compassion for the underdog, and the film is filled with powerful portraits of lower class people whose qualities of integrity and dignity shine through their hopeless circumstances. Among many others are the half-blind Grigory, who works at the grandfather's dye factory, and Gorky's little orphaned friends, who live out of garbage cans, dreaming of a utopian neverland. From these portraits come an inspiring, panoramic view of human conditions and conflicts.

Customer Reviews:

A truly great movie.......2006-12-01

This is the first part of a trilogy based on Gorky's autobiography directed by Mark Donskoi. It is totally free of Soviet propaganda, but the commissars moved in on Parts 2 and especially 3, so that there is a significant falling-off in the rest of the trilogy. I confine myself to review of the Childhood. The acting is astonishing for its emotional depth and the human feeling that derives from Gorky's sympathy for the poor and downtrodden. Maxim is 12 at the outset, left by his widowed mother to the care of his grandparents. The grandmother is everybody's grandmother (you should be so lucky!) and the grandfather is a reckless and volatile character who, together with the idiot uncles, reduces the family from fair prosperity to utter poverty. There is a gallery of other characters to add local color and an authentic sentiment that sweeps the viewer away. I've seen this movie many times since its 1938 release; newly released in 2002 we have the benefit of a clearer soundtrack, coherent subtitles; the music is deeply touching. Having been a moviegoer for over 70 years I rank this one among the greatest I have ever seen, in a league with the Eisenstein movies, the Jean Gabin movies of the 30s, and American movies like Of Mice and Men or the Ox-bow Incident. I've just watched the 2002 re-release on DVD and cried all the way through.

Deeply moving film that doesn't betray its Soviet origins.......2002-08-02

Even good early Soviet films, like Storm Over Asia, often betray some sign of their propagandistic intentions (and the lesser ones have nothing but such intentions). That's not the case with this deeply moving account of the early childhood of the writer Gorky, which (probably because it was based on a well-loved book) simply captures the joys and sufferings of simple people with scarcely a hint of political intent. (An anarchist turns up toward the end, but only as a sort of harbinger of what would supposedly end the miseries of Tsarist Russia and usher in a new age.)

The pictures of the Russian character-- emotional, willful, self-destructive-- are as vivid as anything in Doestoevsky or Tolstoy, and the performances throughout are powerfully affecting-- you are not likely to forget wise Grigori,... the grandfather's King Lear..., or most of all the wonderfully warm and loving grandmother,...

The print is in excellent shape, with very good contrast, and the disc includes a short newsreel with scenes of pre-Revolutionary Moscow. This is one of those movies that was often talked about as being one of the best of all time, but then was so little seen for so long that it was easy to think it no longer deserved its reputation. It does, and it's remarkable that we can now have it in such a worthy edition.

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