In Spring

(Vesnoy, Mikhail Kaufman, USSR 1929, 66 min., 35mm, Russian w/subtitles)

Silent Tuesdays. The Kaufman brothers’ enormous contribution to film history still needs to be properly evaluated. The oldest, Dziga Vertov (born David Abelevich Kaufman), established himself as one of the world’s leading film theorists and gave us Man with a Movie Camera, one of the most innovative and influential films ever made. The youngest, Boris, was a cinematographer for such diverse luminaries as Jean Vigo, Elia Kazan, and Sidney Lumet, and shot such classics as L’Atalante and On the Waterfront. Mikhail, the middle child, began his career as a cinematographer (he shot Man with a Movie Camera), and then went on to direct only two features, In Spring being his masterpiece. This stunningly beautiful avant-garde poem is the answer to a question what happens if you enlist a Vertovian vortex of radical stylistic ideas and concepts not to create political propaganda, but to depict something as simple and tender as nature’s yearly awakening. Live piano by Philip C. Carli. Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.