A Simple Case (Prostoy sluchay) 94 years old

As a response to criticism for the allegedly excessive “mass appeal” of his earlier epic STORM OVER ASIA (1928), Vsevolod Pudovkin unleashed his flair for experimentation in what was supposed to be the director’s first sound feature. Everything went wrong: technical problems forced him to complete the film as a silent; viewers were baffled by the lack of a recognizable plot; then, the ideological climate of the Soviet Union changed. He was now being blamed for catering to bourgeois taste! Time has come to set the record straight. Here’s lyrical cinema at its best, deliberately operatic and yet intimate as it matches the characters’ inner life with the solemn rhythms of nature, and depicted through breathtaking black-and-white photography. A sensation at last year’s Pordenone fest, Pudovkin’s long-forgotten swan song to the art of montage is resurrected by Gabriel Thibaudeau’s emotionally charged live music performance. –PCU (USSR, 1930, 75m)

Credits

A Simple Case Cast

Name	Character
Aleksandr Chistyakov He was 50, 62 years old when he died	as Uncle Sasha
Ivan Novoseltsev He was 49, 36 years old when he died	as Vasya
Vladimir Uralsky He was 45, 67 years old when he died	as Wounded soldier

A Simple Case Crew

Name	Department
Vsevolod Pudovkin as Director. He was 39 (60) years old when He died	Directing
Mikhail Doller as Director. He was 41 (63) years old when He died	Directing