Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageWe Live Again (1934)
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Conceived as a vehicle for Goldwyn's protégée Anna Sten, this adaptation of Tolstoy's novel Resurrection was turned into something more by Mamoulian's superb direction. He opens with an airy Dovzhenko pastiche to introduce the light-hearted farmyard flirtation between Prince Dmitri (March) and serving maid Katusha (Sten). Then, clearly drawing on his own background, he stages a stunning evocation of the Russian Orthodox Easter Mass, carrying the richly sensuous mood over into the seduction scene that immediately follows. The inescapable parallel between worship by the soul and by the senses intimates that Dimitri is motivated as much by love as by lust; and this lends conviction to his 'resurrection' when, seven years later, he realises his culpability in the girl's physical (though not spiritual) degradation, and follows her into Siberia. The second half of the film rather loses its momentum in a flurry of explanatory plot and scratchily staged scenes, but is sustained by the performances. Gregg Toland's camerawork is superlative throughout.Author: TM
Cast & crew
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn
Cast: Anna Sten, Fredric March, Jane Baxter, C Aubrey Smith, Ethel Griffies, Gwendolyn Logan, Sam Jaffe, Dale Fuller, Leonid Kinsky full cast
Genre(s): Period/Swashbucklers
Duration: 84 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Review: Penélope Cruz more raunchy than ever in 'Nine'
Dave Calhoun reports on Rob Marshall's Oscar-touted musical with Daniel Day-Lewis playing a troubled director
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Jim Jarmusch on 'The Limits of Control'
Jim Jarmusch has followed ‘Broken Flowers’ with an esoteric crime mystery. Dave Calhoun speaks to him from his New York office
Richard Linklater on 'Me and Orson Welles'
Dave Calhoun meets the 49-year-old, Houston-born filmmaker Richard Linklater to discuss his new comedy
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now