Po zakonu

A masterpiece of visual storytelling that lays bare humanity's potential for cruelty and greed. The brilliance of this film is best appreciated through a Peircean lens; Kuleshov realises in cinematic form not only Firstness (possibility), Secondness (actuality) and Thirdness (habits, laws) but also the three normative sciences of aesthetics (what we ought to admire), ethics (how we ought to conduct ourselves) and logic (how we ought to think). I need to read 'The Unexpected' and 'Just Meat'.

wondrous silent film that reframes the ultimate question of law into a lonely, claustrophobic setting. the stark photography is beautiful, and the ambient drone soundtrack by franz reisecker fit the material and aesthetic perfectly. strange that a film by lev kuleshov himself contains little montage. a few unnecessary ancillary bits, but mostly excellent.

A tense and forcefully presented tale that really makes the most of its resources. It's a bit instructive to see that one of the leading writers on the subject of montage was actually so economical when it came to applying it, lending full force to just the right moments (a certain bowl of beans and coffee cup during the murder scene, say). Of course there's also some very literal economy to the film, as Kuleshov wasn't deemed political enough to rank above a C-class budget.

Kuleshov shows his prowess as a photographer and his inventiveness with a low budget. But I never really felt involved until the ending, which, in all fairness, is pretty damn good.

Beautiful imagery, especially the use of closeups, but it's the wonderful little morality play that really makes the film. Simple but incredibly effective and a fantastic finale.