NOVJE POHOŽDENIJA ŠVEJKA
T. ing.: New Adventures of Schweik; Scen.: Evgenij Pomeščikov, Nikolaj Rožkov; F.: Mark Magidson; Scgf.: Sergej Kozlovskij; Mu.: Anatolij Lepin; Int.: Boris Tenin (il bravo soldato Schweik), Sergej Martinson (Hitler), Sergej Filippov (il caporale), Fajna Renevskaja (zia Adele), Pavel Suhanov (il cuoco), Sergej Troickij (l’italiano), A. Sevast’janov (l’aviatore), N. Nikitina (Hristina), Pavel Špringfel’d (Marko); Prod.: Sojuzdetfil’m 35mm. L.: 1895 m. D.: 69’.
Film Notes
It was to be an exaggerated farce with burlesque elements. Schweik, helped by his elderly aunt, worked towards Hitler’s ruin and ended up locking him away, frothing with impotent fury, in a cage. Jutkevič in 1943 would certainly not have had the possibility of seeing Chaplin’s The Great Dictator in Douchanbé. His idea of the double Hitler is completely original. Schweik’s helper is not Hitler’s double but his faithful reflection: his manner and his words reproduce the master, he is his emanation stretched over thousands of specimens. This zombie, mocking and frightening at the same time, created by the Führer in his image told the audience: careful, Hitler is lost, but these multitudes intoxicated by Nazism are dangerous, very dangerous.
Luda and Jean Schnitzer, Youtkevitch ou La permanence de l’avant-garde, L’age d’homme, 1976