disappearing from
history
by Douglas Messerli
Yet another of Eleanor Antin’s personae,
Yevgeny Antinov was supposedly a Russian-Jewish filmmaker whose films, thought
to be lost, were rediscovered in Soviet archives. His two major silent films, Last Night of Rasputin and the
shtetl-based The Man Without a World,
fill the gaps in Russian cinema, giving us a view of what should have been depicted, even if it was not. In a prologue to the
film, Antin tells us that having gotten into trouble with Stalin, Antinov fled
to Poland, where, in Cracow, he encountered a couple of affluent American
entrepreneurs, who were willing to back a film on shtetl life for the “Jewish
nostalgia market” back home, but notes “For a secular urban Jew, doing a
Yiddish shtetl film must have presented something of a problem.” The Man Without a World appears as if
actually were created in the late
1920s, a mix of cinematic styles that uses the tropes of figures from Yevgeni
Bauer to Sergei Eisenstein. And the screenplay mixes elements of Isaac Babel,
Shalom Aleichem, and other Jewish writers.
Indeed, Antin’s film is so convincing that it is hard not to imagine it
is not a real document. But, of course, it was not filmed by a Russian-Jewish
filmmaker of the early twentieth century, but by a sophisticated woman artist
well aware the century’s film tradition, with unusual tips of the hat in
Antin’s work to Bergman and Fellini! And in that sense, this is only an
“imaginary” film, even if it feels like a work that should have existed.
For
all that, however, Antin’s film is a splendid piece of cinema-making, a
remarkable piece that, while pretending to be something it is not, is in itself special.
The
story is a simple one: a beautiful country girl, Rukhele (Christine Berry) is
in love with a local boy, Zevi (Pier Marton), but before the couple can even
express their love to each other, a group of performing gypsies arrives in
town, including a handsome Magician (James Scott Kerwin), a Gypsy fortuneteller
(played as a transvestite by Sabato Fiorello), a Strongman (Nicolai Lennox),
and a beautiful Ballerina (Eleanor Antin), the latter of whom immediately
attracts the eye of Zevi, who soon joins the group in the local bar with “the
Intellectuals,” a Zionist, a Socialist, a Cynic and, later two strange women, a
sexy Anarchist, and a Bomber. Rukhele is quickly forgotten until she appears at
the bar to tell Zevi that his mother is dying and desperately wants to see her
wayward son for one last time.
Zevi’s sister, Sooreleh, has been gang rapped as a young girl by Polish
boys, and is now mad. And the old woman curses her bad luck as the Angel of
Death jumps onto her belly, putting the woman out of her misery.
After the funeral, Zevi is briefly reunited with Rukhele, realizing her
worth and seducing her. The girl soon finds herself pregnant, but by that time
Zevi has returned to the Ballerina and the bar, performing his poetic dramas to
the locals. Perceiving that her daughter is with child, Rukhele’s mother
quickly plans to marry her off to the local Butcher, whom the daughter finds ignorant
and course. But she has no choice.
When
the village fanatics, however, kidnap Sooreleh in order to perform an exorcism
upon her, Rukhele again encounters Zevi, who eventually discovers his one-time
lover is pregnant with his baby, and determines to mend his ways. Despite the
fact that wedding contracts have been signed with the Butcher, he will marry
Rukhele instead. Going to work for his tailor future father-in-law, Zevi
clumsily tries to take up the new trade, without much success.
Meanwhile, the women celebrate the upcoming wedding at the house and at
the ritual wedding bath. The couple are married, and the women again gather
over the bride for the traditional cutting of her hair and shaving of her head.
While waiting for Rukhele, however, Zevi and others encounter the drunken
Butcher who attempts to kill Zevi; pulling the knife away from him, Zevi stabs
his enemy to death just as his new wife returns to the celebration.
Determined to run away with her new husband, Rukhele is dissuaded by the
Gypsy ballerina, who explains that Zevi and she will be living without money in
a small, cold, basement apartment, predicting that her milk will dry up and
their baby will die, that Zevi, a poet afterall, will be associated with
dangerous men and be arrested, etc. A country girl, Rukhele, it is clear, will
be unable to survive in Warsaw.
“Zevi is a poet. He
would write. You would starve. There is no
help for it.”
Realizing the truth of the prediction, Rukhele remains behind while the
gypsies and Zevi walk, suitcases in hand, down the road to Warsaw, the Angel of
Death following after. A final crawl of sentences occurs on the screen,
restating one of the major themes of this lovely film, that this world will
soon be disappearing from history.
In April, 1939,
Germany invaded Poland.
In 1941, the
deportation of the Jews began.
By 1943, the shehtl
world had disappeared.

If
there was never actually a filmmaker like Yevgeny Antinov, we, nonetheless,
desire his existence! And my only regret is that he did not leave more films
behind at his death.*
Los
Angeles, March 19, 2012
*Antin did attempt to make more films, but
could not get funding.
In 2000 my press, Green Integer, published the
screenplay of Antin's film. In one of the early showings of this film, I sat at
the Cinemafamily theater in Los Angeles next to Marcia Goodman, Eleanor's
sister, who played Rukkele's mother in the film.
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