Live Recording by Wilfried Kaets
Short and Sweet
Mr. West, a nice and harmless Yankee, travels to young Russia: an unknown territory full of nasty surprises and wild men posing as Bolsheviks. The American businessman West is horrified: he is robbed in Moscow. Then, a mysterious Mr. Shban offers him help…
In real, snowy Moscow, the actors can be seen chasing each other on motorcycles, cars, and horse-drawn sledges, crossing streets via telephone lines, and throwing limbs up like exclamation marks. An unusual cinema fun: young Russian filmmakers already parodied Hollywood Western clichés as early as 1924!
THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF MR. WEST is presented in the style of an American detective film, but at the same time, it mocks Western prejudices about conditions in the Soviet Union. The film’s plot is accordingly grotesque: American Senator West goes to the Soviet Union expecting to find fur-clad savages, as illustrated textbooks promise; for his protection, he has brought along a cowboy with a lasso. In Moscow, Senator West falls into the hands of a gang of criminals who trick the naive American into believing they will protect him, only to rob him. However, the real Bolsheviks appear just in time to expose the criminals.
The actors of the film, including Pudovkin, used ecstatic facial expressions and gestures that fit perfectly with the film’s parodic style. Kuleshov aimed to prove that specifically trained film actors were better than “psychologically-theatrical film stars.” This film actually established a new acting style, related to Expressionism, which, in the sense of Meyerhold, aimed at the symbolic externalization of inner states.
Content
The American Mr. West wants to see the strange new land, the Soviet Union, with his own eyes. His friends send him warning letters and American magazines depicting the Bolsheviks as heavily armed assassins and savages in shaggy furs. Although this does not stop him, he decides, at his wife’s suggestion, to take the cowboy Jeddy for personal protection.
Mr. West’s arrival in Moscow does not go unnoticed, as he carries at least half a dozen suitcases. When his briefcase is stolen right under his nose, it confirms his belief that he is among savages in Moscow, whom only Jeddy – fully dressed as a cowboy, with lasso and loaded Colt – can protect him from. The pickpocket spreads the news of the rich foreigner’s arrival to his gang. The criminals quickly conclude that the scent of dollars is in the air and plan a big coup…
This film has little to do with class struggle or revolutionary pathos, and it caused strong protests at its premiere from the party, who accused Kuleshov’s over-the-top satire of being formalistic. Today, the film still excites audiences, with its dynamic editing and the excellent performances of the protagonists, such as Alexandra Chochlowa, who played the role of the countess and embodied the type of the eccentric actress throughout her life. Boris Barnet, as the cowboy Jeddy, is remembered in film history for his quiet, comedic style in Soviet cinema. Vsevolod Pudovkin is counted among the three greatest Soviet-Russian directors, alongside Eisenstein and Dovzhenko.
Director Lev Kuleshov (1899-1970) was a pioneer of Soviet cinema and struggled with severe artistic repression throughout his life. However, he remained influential as a lecturer at the State Film School in Moscow, where he taught from 1922. Kuleshov entered film history with his montage experiments in the 1920s, demonstrating how much film effect depends on the montage of images, and only secondarily on the individual image motifs – the so-called Kuleshov Effect. Another phenomenon that interested him as a fan of American adventure films and as a theorist of Russian Constructivism was the phenomenon of movement. All of this can be found in The Strange Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks: thrilling chases, tumultuous fights, grand gestures, and eccentric facial expressions.
Music
New music for piano and cinema organ by Wilfried Kaets. Alternative music for solo piano.
The music is newly composed and structurally follows the film music dramaturgical approaches of the silent film era. It also uses themes from 1920s film libraries, such as Motion Picture Moods for Pianists and Organists, which Ernö Rappé published in 1924.
Russian and American compositions, melodies, hymns, and folk songs take up significant space due to the special subject. The often over-the-top montage and absurd action pace of the film find their musical counterpart, as is typical for the historical accompaniment of action comedies, in a close link between visual content and tonal painting.