Original subtitles

You would think that artists

of such calibre

would be fairly intimate,

and would exchange ideas about their work.

Yet none of the documents, witnesses

or personal archives make any mention of this.

It's odd,

seeing as they lived in the same building.

But I believe

there's a simple explanation for this.

Their respective biographies and filmographies

paint an interesting picture.

They moved into the same building in 1937.

Let's see what their relationship was before this.

In the early 1920s, Vertov, a major theoretician and filmmaker,

was the most famous figure

of documentary cinema, with Kino Pravda.

At the time, Medvedkin was just

a propaganda worker in the Red Army,

in Budyenny's 1st Cavalry Army.

Until 1926 he wasn't active in film.

He must have seen Vertov's films,

but the two men couldn't have met.

When Medvedkin

left propaganda for cinema in 1927,

it was to go to Gosvoyenkino Studios,

which was an offshoot of the Army Ministry,

the "Army Department", as it was called.

Vertov worked for other studios,

the two directors weren't neighbours,

so they couldn't have met in the evening or at work.

There couldn't have been any contact.

Vertov was already in conflict

with the management of Moscow's studios.

In 1928 he went to the Ukraine, where he made The Eleventh Year

and his famous The Man with a Movie Camera.

So they were very far apart geographically.

At the beginning of the 1930s, Vertov was in Moscow,

and Medvedkin was in charge of the film-train,

travelling across country,

and was never in Moscow.

On his return,

he joined Mosfilm, made Happiness,

and became secretary of a Party committee,

a function which required his presence.

Vertov was working at the Documentary Studio.

He was the target of ideological criticism,

and he suffered real persecution.

Vertov wasn't only criticised,

but persecuted, too.

And, I repeat, was working in another studio.

Soviet directors

and people with administrative positions

had to be present in person.

Living in different places, they didn't come into contact.

Then, in 1937,

when they moved into the same building,

Medvedkin was the director of two banned films.

Happiness was boycotted by the press rather than actually banned,

but The Miracle Workerwas banned.

He was persecuted by Shumiatsky

for having dared defend, at a Party meeting,

Eisenstein's banned film, Bezhin Meadow.

As for Vertov at that time,

almost all his projects were denied production

and his films hardly ever got screened.

So he tried to compromise

as stifle his theoretical conception of Soviet reality.

He even tried to follow Stalin's personality cult,

and he made...

Lullaby, an excellent film in itself,

but which, politically, perfectly suited those in power.

The film came out in 1937.

And so,

the press ignored these two filmmakers,

while other filmmakers lost interest in them.

They had become

nothing more than simple Soviet employees,

even if it's sacrilegious to say that.

They went to work,

but, as Aleksandr Ivanovich used to say,

it was like punching a pillow: there was no reaction.

They kept on trying, throwing punch after punch,

but it was into a soft pillow and there was never any reaction.

Silence from the press.

Their colleagues probably talked to them,

but only about domestic problems.

When they became neighbours in 1937,

they couldn't meet in the daytime, because they were at work.

And getting together in the evening to discuss artistic questions...

was pointless and, above all else, dangerous.

That's why...

I think,

there was never any exchange between them.

It was impossible and they did their utmost to avoid it.

Then life separated them once again.

During the war, Medvedkin was in charge of a group at the front.

Before that he was working in Azerbaijan.

Vertov was editing the news at the Documentary Studio,

and his work as a director

was of no interest, either to the press or his colleagues.

After the war, Medvedkin went to Sverdlovsk,

and made Liberated Earth,

then worked in Kazakhstan.

Vertov died in 1954.

And it was at exactly the same time

that Medvedkin joined the Documentary Studio.

Ironically, the place where they could have worked together

was empty.

Vertov was dead.