Autumn Mists

Brumes d'automne

France

1929

12 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

Silent

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
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Brumes d’Automne is a cinematic poem – an astounding, lyrical and avant-garde oeuvre wherein Kirsanoff gets hold of the titanic task of capturing the melancholy, nostalgia, hope and hopelessness of human inner sentiments. Nadia Sibirskaia (Kirsanoff’s first wife and his muse during his early oeuvres) reflects these aims perfectly and Kirsanoff transmits them to the audience in an incredible way.

The genuine autumn mood is exhibited in a superior, unique, painful and even magical manner. It is an exceptional film in which the autumn atmosphere and ethereal human feelings complement each other admirably. The audience is moved by evocative images from nature (falling leaves, rain, mist frozen landscapes), all beautifully photographed by Jean de Miéville. This, combined with the suffering the heroine must undergo, makes the film a melancholy masterpiece. —IMDb

Director

Dimitri Kirsanoff

Dimitri Kirsanoff (Russian: Дими́трий Кирса́нов) (6 March 1899 – 11 February 1957) was an early filmmaker, considered part of the French Impressionist movement in film. He is known for his inexpensively made experimental films.

Kirsanoff was born Markus David Sussmanovitch Kaplan (Маркус Давид Зусманович Каплан) in Tartu (then Juryev), Estonia, then Russian Empire in 1899. In the early 1920s he moved to Paris and became involved in cinema through playing cello in the orchestra at showings. He began making films on his own, and never worked with a production company. —Wikipedia

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Aguaespejo

15Mar13

Like a melancholy poem by Andrew Marvell or one of the Metaphysicals: focused on one extended metaphor: the state of a woman's mind & autumn; enjoying this film entails a willingness to unpack the variations over the extension of the metaphor. A film in an essentially lyrical not narrative mode. Btw I have no idea what pure cinema is but felt the need to defend it from Judicial Joe who is one of my favorite reviewers

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Judicial Joe

23Jul11

This did not entertain me. Oh well, this is a film, and it's not meant to be entertaining, it's meant to be thought-provoking. Yet, it is devoid of any explicit or implicit meaning. You ask, does it move you as pure cinema, at least? No, I was left cold by an experiment that had no true beauty, just some mildly pleasant shots of Paris in the rain. At least HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS was willing to offend me. F-.

Matthew_Lucas

15May11

French Impressionism may be my favorite film movement, and Dimitri Kirsanoff is perhaps my greatest artistic inspiration. His ability to tell a story and convey emotions without words is unparalleled, and in AUTUMN MISTS, he turns the disillusion of a young woman's relationship into pure visual poetry. Raindrops turn to tears, leaves fall to the ground, each lyrical image suggesting their own emotions.

João Romeiro likes this

VENIMOS LOS JODIMOS Y NOS FUIMOS

8Mar11

Autumn mists (Brumas de Otoño) es una obra excepcional de Dmitri Kirsanoff, en la cual, el cineasta logra captar (y, lo más importante: logra transmitir al espectador) mediante imagenes de una gran belleza visual, sensaciones llenas de melancolía y nostalgia, en un film lleno de evocaciones hacia la naturaleza del mundo exterior, pero tambien hacia el interior de la naturaleza humana por medio de cortes rapidos, un montaje preciso, y, sobre todo, una actuación magistral de Nadia Sibirskaia (quien, por cierto, fue la primera esposa de Kirsanoff y su musa durante su primera etapa) cuya interpretación, llena de dolorosos matices, resulta tan eterea como conmovedora. Si esto no es verdadera poesia cinematografica, no sé que más pueda serlo.