Potomok Chingis-Khana aka Storm Over Asia

Vsevolod Pudovkin - Potomok Chingis-Khana aka Storm Over Asia (1928)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019286

Silent with English intertitles

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa318/crasus_mulder_v2/dana_scully/Img100.jpg

This Soviet film focusing on the British occupied portions of Tibet and Siberia during the time of the Russian Revolution is thematically notable for featuring Mongolian fur trappers, a huge break from the typical depictions of heroic Soviet masses that didn't exactly win Pudovkin a lot of friends. Apparently this rousing action epic that substitutes activities for plot was the first film to record Mongolia's traditional lifestyle. The attention to detail is amazing, but Pudovkin caricatures the evil British capitalists so badly it's more often laughable in unintended ways. The influence of D.W. Griffith is obvious, though Pudovkin's propaganda is perhaps less black and white if for no other reason than he still views the Mongolian heroes through the limited sphere of communist propaganda, which sees their religion as a corrupting influence.


Pudovkin refuses to lessen the cinematic impact of any scene even one iota, but the value of the ethnographic depiction of Mongolia is reduced by the fact the authentic scenes of their culture, ceremony, and tradition are depicted in a condescending light. Daily life and suffering are depicted with what the director would like you to believe is documentary-like realism. In some sense that is the case, but as a whole this work is very manipulative in its stirring melodramatic ways, trying to call the audience to action with it's liveliness and verve.

Despite it's character and ideological flaws it's still a very humanist film, siding with the few weak against the many powerful. The film is often very naive and dishonest, but in most technical aspect this is a masterpiece. The superb wide-angle panoramics allow the landscape to set the mood of the picture, bring out their effect on the people and depict the human's emotions. The montage is wonderful, perhaps not as good as Pudovkin's Soviet peers like Vertov and Eisenstein but certainly a different worthy style that surpasses them in building anticipation and fluidity.

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af169/kashmir_kittie/Clipboard01-29.png

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af169/kashmir_kittie/Clipboard02-29.png

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af169/kashmir_kittie/Clipboard03-29.png

--------my rip----------

It's always fun (to me) to encode these silent films and work out the proper frame rate. You must remember that both the camera and projector were hand cranked in those days. Therefore it's pretty much impossible to nail the frame rate perfectly, but usually you can get it pretty close. I encoded test clips from several sections of the film reducing the rate a little at a time until the dupes went away, then I encoded the entire film. You got to love srestore and the frate variable!

~~~~~~ Potomok Chingis-Khana.avi ~~~~~~

File Size (in bytes):...........................1,231,163,392

--- Video Information ---
Video Codec Name:...............................XviD ISO MPEG-4
Duration (hh:mm:ss):............................2:05:27
Frame Count:....................................135467
Frame Width (pixels):...........................640
Frame Height (pixels):..........................480
Aspect Ratio:...................................1.333
Frames Per Second:..............................18.000
Video Bitrate (kbps):...........................1173
......MPEG-4......B-VOP........................
Quality Factor (bits/pixel)/frame:..............0.212"

--- Audio Information ---
Audio Codec:....................................0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Sample Rate (Hz):.........................48000
Audio Bitrate(kbps):............................128
Audio Bitrate Type ("CBR" or "VBR"):............CBR
Audio Channel Count:............................2


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