After Death (1915)

Cautiously Recommended

Russia

Short Feature Film

Original Title: Posle smerti

Director: Evgeni Bauer

Writers: Evgeni Bauer, Ivan Turgenev

Cast: Vitold Polonsky, Vera Karalli, Olga Rakhmanova, M. Chalatova, T. Gedevanova

Though it’s perhaps a tad melodramatic for modern tastes, and its central plot point of a young woman committing suicide over unrequited love - rather hokey (it might have worked better with hormonal adolescents- à la Romeo and Juliet - rather than the adults that we have here), Bauer’s distinctive film is, never the less, a thoroughly well made work, filled with cinematic techniques that must have seemed truly dazzling on its original release. Iain.Stott