The New Babylon (1929)
Directed by Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg

Film Review

The New Babylon (a.k.a. Novyy Vavilon) marked the creative zenith of the collaboration of Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, two experimental Russian filmmakers who made some radical advances in silent cinema during their time at the Factory of the Eccentric Actor (FEKS), an important film school in Leningrad.   Along with other great Russian cineastes of the period (such as Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin), Kozintsev and Trauberg were pioneers in the art of montage and The New Babylon, their greatest film, shows how its various techniques can be used effectively to drive home a contemporary political message through a seemingly unrelated historical fresco.  Yet the film is far more than a propaganda piece championing the virtues of Soviet-style Communism.  It deals with universal themes: the invincibility of the human spirit and the power of love to transcend barriers and endure in the face of disaster.  It also serves as a cogent morality play, warning of the dangers that a society faces if it becomes too stratified, with too great a separation between the haves and the have-nots.  This is a film which, believe it or not, has as much to say to us today as it had to say to a Soviet audience back in 1929. 

Significantly, The New Babylon was the first film to be scored by the great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (in fact it was the only full-length film for which he wrote a complete score).  Not long after the film's premiere in 1929, Shostakovich's score was removed when several scenes were excised by the Soviet censor.  For the film's recent restoration and re-issue in 2006, Shostakovich's score was reinstated (with a few alterations to accommodate some missing footage).  It is remarkable to think that the composer was just 23 when he wrote the score, one of his most experimental and expressive pieces of music.  Shostakovich's score is not only a perfectly synchronised match to the images on the screen, it also adds further layers of feeling, accentuating the pathos and the ironies of the small human dramas that are contained within the historical whirlwind that is so powerfully evoked by the film.  As the music wryly segues back and forth between the Marseillaise and Offenbach's can-can, the shallow self-interest of the bourgeoisie becomes magnified to ludicrous proportions.  We cannot help siding with the unwashed masses as they bask in their newfound freedom, whilst the loathsome bourgeois scoundrels plot their revenge from the comfort of Versailles.

Whereas Eisenstein would use elaborate crowd scenes to convey the unbreakable spirit of the proletariat, Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg achieve a similar result in a more expressionistic way, with anonymous shadows and silhouettes populating sombre urban landscapes that evoke the fury of rebellion and the despair of defeat.  The film ends with its most moving, most visually striking sequence, in which the defeated rebels are assembled and summarily executed under a relentless barrage of rain.  The victorious bourgeoisie watches on in delight as the low life are brought before a tribunal and sentenced to death.  A woman and a man who met and fell in love during the siege are reunited - she, a prostitute who must be executed; he, a lowly solider who must now dig her grave.  Although separated by circumstances, it is evident that they still love one another, and not even death will keep them apart.  The intention of the bourgeoisie, to crush all hope and vitality from the oppressed working man, has failed.  The Commune will endure, in spirit if not in name.

Film Synopsis

Paris, 1871.  As French soldiers set out to fight in the war against Prussia, the Parisian bourgeoisie continue to amuse themselves, revelling in all the delights the city has to offer.  Business is brisk at the up-market department store, the New Babylon, a magnet for well-off pleasure-seekers who delight in hunting bargains.  One of the store's sales assistants, Louise, is surprised when her employer invites her to a ball that evening.  The festivities are abruptly ended when news is received that the French armies have been defeated by the Prussians.  Fearing they will be murdered in their beds, the bourgeoisie flee to the Palace of Versailles and are more than ready to give in to the advancing Prussians.  But the poor people of Paris have no intention of surrendering.  Instead, they rise up and create the Commune, a self-governing mini-republic in which all men and women are equal, banding together to form an army to defend the city from further attack.  However, the bourgeoisie have the government troops on their side and it is only a matter of time before the Commune will fall, allowing the idle rich to move back and resume their frivolities in gay Paris...