Pyotr Velikiy

Review Excerpt

" A cathedral of fire on 35 mm: how a forgotten Petersburg poet-filmmaker ignited an empire Imagine, if you dare, a time when cinema itself wore iron boots. In 1910 the medium still smelled of saltpetre and wet varnish; newsreels of Corbett-Fitzsimmons pugilists or Birmingham factory chimneys flickered beside carnival barkers promising “living photographs.” Into that smoky fairground strode Vasili Goncharov, a failed opera tenor turned lens-wielding courtier, clutching a scenario that would fuse ..."