State Funeral

2+ hours archive footage of people from all over USSR gathering in town squares to either hear the news of Stalin's passing or going to see his corpse at the Unions building. Nothing else happens. Doesn't mean it's bad. Or good. Just saying.

This is a documentary about a very important episode in the life of a big country - the funeral of the leader, the father of the people, as he was called. The personality of Stalin, even in our time, is quite controversial, but undoubtedly significant.

It was very interesting to see the live footage of the event, the faces of people of that era, Moscow of those years, the decoration of the Hall of Columns, where Stalin reclined.

I peered curiously at their faces: how they listened to the announcement of his death, what emotions they reflected or they tried to suppress. How they cried or watched warily, how they were dressed, how they behaved.

This is a chronicle, there is no director's assessment, just the opportunity to go back to those three days when the whole country said goodbye to its leader.

It was also interesting to see the reaction of the audience in the hall: after the show, someone went out recalling stories about this event, and someone sang patriotic songs, standing at the side of the balcony like ghosts of that era.

And mostly I had a sense of theatricality while watching a movie. Of course, the appeals of the country's leaders to the people should have a certain rhetoric, but such pathetic speeches with an abundance of pathos and slogans today seem something unnatural.

Nearly ten years ago I saw "In the fog" (2012) from Sergey Loznitsa. "In the fog" was a feature film but in essence Loznitsa is a documentary maker. With his documentaries "The trial" (2018, about a show trial in 1930), "State funeral" (2019, about the death of Stalin) and "The event" (2015, about the failed coup against Gorbatchev and the disintegration of the USSR not long after) he gives an overwiew of the history of the USSR.

For "State Funeral" Loznitsa used archive material that was shot after the death of Stalin with the intention to make the propaganda movie "The great farewell". When Stalin fell into disgrace after a 1956 speech by Nikita Khrushchev, "The great farewell" was never finished and the archive material had to wait for a long time before being rediscovered by Sergey Loznitsa.

Loznitsa just edited the archive material. There is no voice over. Only in the end credits there is a little explanation. It is assumed that everybody knows Stalin and his crimes. In the film there are speeches of Gregory Malenkov and Lavrentyi Beria. At the time of their praise for Stalin these men were already in a fierce power struggle with Nikita Kruschev. If you want to know more about this power struggle, watch "The death of Stalin" (2017, Armando Iannucci).

In effect "State funeral" is not about Stalin but about a personality cult. Yes the film is long and many would say too long. But it is too long with a purpose. All those speeches throughout the vast Soviet Union, using the same vocabulary again and again, ultimately give the impression of some sort of religious liturgy.

Cinimatically speaking the film is much richer than the (lack of a) story suggests. In the use of faces Loznitsa proves to be a worthy successor to Sergey Eisenstein. The use of color (bright red flags against grey buildings) reminded me of "Raise the red lantern" (1991, Zhang Yimou). The image of a picture of Stalin floating through the air on a crane via "Good Bye Lenin" (2003, Wolfgang Becker, a statue of Lenin) ultimately leads back to "La dolce vita" (1960, Federico Fellini, a statue of Jesus Christ). A movie quote on the basis of a movie quote! All this together with beautiful (funeral)music from Schubert, Mozart, Mendelsohn, Chopin, Schumann and Tschaikovsky make "State funaral" to a unique viewing experience.

Shortly after Stalin's death, on March 5, 1953, Soviet film crews were instructed to picture the national mourning all over the USSR. This resulted in kilometres of film, shot in the highest quality available at the time.

A few years later Stalin fell off public grace, and these films were stored & forgotten.

About 60 years later, Sergey Loznitsa worked his way through this extensive material, and produced this excellent documentary about Stalin's funeral and the national mourning around it.

Loznitsa's choices are historically correct, and the fine shooting of the 1953-Soviet film crews does the rest. You should also remember that the Russian way is somewhat slower than our way - they take their time to do things. And so does Loznitsa.

I saw it as a profound useful film. For remember. For discover. Maybe, for understand. Sure, I am an Eastern European and I am conscient to see this sort of documentaries from a specific perspective. In same measure, I am history teacher. So, the resonance of images is special, too. Because it is a film about people, less about Stalin. About reaction, conformism, fear , reading newspapers. It is a film about propaganda, too. And, not the last, it is a film about truth and a warning about personality cult. Short, a profound useful film for each sort of public.