Mad love: three films by Evgenii Bauer

Three short silent films by Soviet director Evegnii Bauer. “Twilight of a woman’s soul” Vera, a wealthy lady of society who distributes alms to the poor is raped by a lascivious working class brute; traumatised, she kills him. Shortly after she becomes engaged to a charming and urbane Prince, who, appalled by her confession, spurns her, only to regret his impetuousness. “After death” Andrei, a young man living in seclusion, is obsessed with death. He attends a lavish garden party where he meets a beguiling actress. Andrei rejects her declaration of love, and following her suicide, laments his actions and is haunted by her ghost. “The Dying swan” A painter, obsessed with capturing death in his work, becomes enraptured with the talents of a mute ballerina whose most famed work is ‘The Dying swan’. When the dancer becomes enlivened by love, the artist determines that she will remain the essence of death. In these expressionistic works, Bauer explores the themes of obsession, death, desire, suicide, tragic love and the artistic temperament depicting a reality permeated by dreams, ghosts and visions. With musical score, Russian intertitles and English subtitles.