The New Babylon
| The New Babylon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Grigori Kozintsev Leonid Trauberg |
| Written by | Grigori Kozintsev Leonid Trauberg P. Bliakin (idea) |
| Starring | Yelena Kuzmina Pyotr Sobolevsky Sergei Gerasimov Vsevolod Pudovkin Oleg Zhakov Yanina Zhejmo |
| Cinematography | Andrei Moskvin |
| Edited by | Grigori Kozintsev |
| Music by | Dmitri Shostakovich |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | German export edit: 125 minutes (ca. 2,900 m) Gosfilmofond version: 93 min. (ca. 2,170 m) European export edit: 84 min. (ca. 1,900 m) |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
The New Babylon (Russian: Новый Вавилон, romanized: Novyy Vavilon alt. title: Russian: Штурм неба, romanized: Shturm neba) is a 1929 silent historical drama film written and directed by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg. The film deals with the 1871 Paris Commune and the events leading to it, and follows the encounter and tragic fate of two lovers separated by the barricades of the Commune.
Composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his first film score for this movie, hurriedly writing about 90 minutes of music. In the fifth reel of the score he quotes the revolutionary anthem, "La Marseillaise" (representing the Commune), juxtaposed contrapuntally with the famous "Can-can" from Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld.
Footage from The New Babylon was included in Guy Debord's feature film The Society of the Spectacle (1973).
Kozintsev and Trauberg found some of their inspiration in Karl Marx's The Civil War in France and The Class Struggle in France, 1848–50.