The Last Bolshevik (1993)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Last Bolshevik (1993) – C. Marker

Chris Marker’s essay films are a wonder, but I can’t help but feel that I’m missing layers upon layers of insights.  Undoubtedly, Marker has spent enormous amounts of time choosing images, film clips, and the very best words and phrases for the narration in order to pack his essay full of these insights (and information and jokes and opinions).  So, regardless of whether you are really interested in the topic – in this case Soviet director Alexander Medvedkin – Marker’s essays are a marvel that has much to offer to the engaged mind (Sans Soleil, 1983, is probably the easiest entry point to his work). Medvedkin is only the starting place for Marker, of course, and the video takes in the entire history of the Soviet Union, reflecting on the differences between actual reality and the state sponsored images and memories (Battleship Potemkin, portrayals of Stalin on film) that pervaded the culture.  Sure, there are talking heads but they are largely unknown to us, offering only elliptical bits and pieces of some larger tapestry that is impossible to grasp with both hands.  Marker keeps things interesting with his editing technique and by separating the film into two halves (with a cat listening to music during the intermission) and six separate letters from the narrator (presumably but not clearly Marker himself, voiced by someone else) to Medvedkin.  Knowing that Marker himself was a committed leftist helps to see how deeply the end of the Soviet Union and perestroika before it had affected him – he ruminates about the ideals (that Medvedkin also honoured deeply despite having all of his films banned by the authorities) and the actualities that never matched up.  However, Medvedkin never lived to see this, dying in 1989.  Now someone needs to create an essay film about Marker using his own techniques – now that is one that I would really like to see (and probably would never fully comprehend).