The New Babylon September 14, 2012

ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage presents The New Babylon. Considered today to be the culminating achievement of the Soviet silent film era, historical epic The New Babylon was filmmakers Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg’s final silent work. Set during the 1871 Paris Commune, the New Babylon luxury store clerk Louise joins the Communards to fight for the cause, highlighting the clash and contrast between Parisian workers and the bourgeoisie, capitalist functionaries and soldiers manning barricades. Kozintsev and Trauberg depict this revolutionary time with impressionistic cutting and metaphorical compositions in this dazzling work. The original score by Dimitri Shostakovich uses period French music and features an arrangement of “La Marseillaise.”

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