“The premiere of Der lebende Leichnam (The Living Corpse) took place on February 4th, 1929 at the Capitol Theatre, famous and exclusive cinema in Berlin. The fact that the German-Soviet film, co-produced by Mešrabpom and Prometheus-Film (of staunch Communist tendency) was presented in the wealthy neighbourood of the German capital was not surprising at the time. After Potemkin, whose triumphal journey had started in Berlin in 1926, Soviet films were regularly screened in Berlin theatres and, independently from their political message, were considered the highest artistic examples of the seventh art. Their visual and emotional impact had won big audiences.

And this enthusiasm for Soviet cinema was the reason behind the making of Der lebende Leichnam. All the elements of production – subject, crew, actors – make us believe that the project had some commercial aspiration and was looking for success.

Lev Tolstoj’s play provided a subject which was familiar to German audiences after the famous mise en scène by Max Reinhardt. Also, the project made a strong contribution to the celebrations for the centenary of Tolstoy’s birth, a writer much appreciated by Western and Russian bourgeoisie alike.

Fëdor Ozep was then one of the most promising talents; he had won fame in Germany with his Zemlya v pleny from 1927. As for Pudovkin, the leading actor, he was the main personality of Russenfilme, famous for his interpretation in The Mother, The End of St. Petersburg and Storms over Asia, but also for his theoretical activity.

The film was a great hit, as Ernst Jager wrote in Film-Kurier dated 15th February 1929: ‘The Bravo!’, hand-clapping and appreciations testify of the enthusiasm of an otherwise snobbish and bored audience’. Reviewers, for the most part quite favourable, underlined however the anachronistic aspect of the film, which compressed and overstressed Tolstoj’s dramatic tones. The moral conflict at the core of the tale is barely understandable. On Acht Uhr Abendblatt from February 15th, 1929 it is said: ‘Of this work by Tolstoj only the poetic soul has remained and certainly not his ethical transgression nor his fanaticism for the truth. In our eyes Fedja is neither a hero nor a martyr but more a weak and pathetic man. Symbol of passivity, irreality, only the love by which Tolstoj creates and invents this character makes him closer to us even today. But only as a poetic creation, and not as a man. We cannot understand this Fedya’”.

Martin Koerber

“Fëdor Ozep was born in Moscow on February 9th, 1895 from a wealthy Jewish family. He worked as a journalist for cinema magazines. He partecipated in the preparation of newsreels and adapted one short story by Puškin, which was brought to the screen under the direction of Jakov Protazanov, Pikovaja Dama (La dame de Pique, 1916). The Russ Artistic Collective – post-Revolutionary trasformation of Russ production company – made Polikuška in 1919, co-directed and co-written by Ozep. This was the first Soviet film, exported in the early 20’s all over Europe, where it enjoyed a mostly ideological success. Ozep co-operated again with Protazanov for Aelita (1924). From 1924 onward, Ozep and Alejnikov, his brother-in-law, took full control of Mešrabpom Rus’ production company (from 1928 Mešrabpomfil’m), the main institution acting as intermediary between post-Revolutionary Russia and Germany. In 1928 he was hired by Prometheus to direct Der lebende Leichnam (The living corpse, 1928) in Berlin. He would never go back to his home country, where the Stalin’s firm grip was starting to be heavily felt. Until 1933 he continues his activity as director in Germany: Der Mörder Dimitri Karamazov (The Karamazov murder, 1930/31), written in co-operation with Victor Trivas and Leonhard Frank; Les mirages de Paris/Grosstadtnacht (Mirages of Paris, 1932), again with Trivas. After the Nazis’ rise to power he took refuge in France, where he made Amok (1934), written by Boris Barnet, La Dame de Pique (1937), and La principessa Tarakanova (1937/38), a French-Italian co-production. His last film made in France, Gibraltar (1938) saw the participation of Erich Von Stroheim in a minor role. After the German invasion of France, he escaped to the United States, where he took part in the filming of Three Russian Girls (1943). Afterwards he worked in Canada, where between 1944 and 1947 he filmed Le père Chopin/L’oncle du Canada, Whispering City/La Forteresse. Suffering from heart ailments, he died of a stroke in his Beverly Hills’ home the 20th June 1949”.

Francesco Pitassio