Astonishing, clever and inventive, Forty Hearts is not your typical Kuleshov movie – it offers no extraordinary adventures, there is no drama and nobody is hung. Forty Hearts is what was called a polit¬prosvet (political-educational) picture. King for a day, the politprosvet genre reigned supreme between December 1929 when the Soviet Government decreed education to be Soviet cinema’s principal mission till April 1932 when it was decided to put cinema in the service of recreation and entertainment. The picture Kuleshov was entrusted with was on the human use of tools – from horses and windmills to engines and electricity, all this viewed in the historical-materialist perspective. The film ends with strikingly emblematic visions of the future triumph of Communism. Soviet people used to stay away from politprosvet films – think twice before you follow suit or you’ll miss an hour of Kuleshov-quality filmmaking, excellent camera work and Ivanov-Vano’s exquisite animation inserts.
Yuri Tsivian