448
PARTISAN REVIEW
sil ver temperament , a lterna tely kitte ni sh a nd petti sh , acting out the
bright book of life in the sandbox of sex. In the climact ic scene in
Ru ss ia, J ack a nd Loui se a re in bed , ma king love (ju st as in
Flaubert's assembl age of noises a t the li ves tock show , where
R odolphe's C ha teaubri a ndesque phrases a nd Emma's whi sperings
of love are combined with the bell owing o f the cattl e), coming to a
fin a l, heavin g orgasm amidst the cras hing chords of the "Interna–
tiona le." C urta in , Pa rt I.
If
Pa rt I is deri ved from a novel and expresses the spirit of its
age, Pa rt II is Hi sto ry , bu t hi story as a twice- told little red fa iry tale .
Exce pt fo r the refract ions from Ei senstein (in sepia) a nd Dav id
Lean's
Doctor Zh ivago
( in color), what is the untu to red viewer (and
R ona ld R eagan , who saw it on a Sa turday a fternoon) to ma ke of this
maelstrom? There a re sec ta ri a n deba tes whether to split the Socialist
pa rty, or immedi a tely fo rm a new Communi st pa rty. And two are
formed . R eed a rgues in Moscow against working within the A.F. of
L.
a nd fo r suppo rting the I.W .W ., but is overrul ed. When he sulks,
he is told by a stern Zinov iev that he has to learn to be a Bolshev ik .
At Ba ku , he decla res tha t the worke rs mu st suppo rt a class wa r , a nd
grins a t the roar o f a ppla use, but becomes a ngry whe n he find s that
the co rrupt Zinovi ev had o rde red the phrase tra nsla ted lo r the
Mos lem a udie nce as a "holy wa r. " On the re turn tra in the Commis–
sars a re a lready gorging themselves on fin e food a nd wine; they
cower when a ttacked , but R eed , on loo t, chases a fter the Red
caissons pursuing a White bri gade, hi s lungs burstin g, the tears
streaming down hi s face, as if to say tha t the express tra in o f History
is rollin g too fas t fo r him . Loui e, meanwhile (in a fi ctiona l scene),
treads across the northern tundra, like littl e Eva on the ice Aoes,
express in g her de termin a ti on to j o in the R evolution a nd to demon–
stra te her true love lo r J ack. By des pera te cha nce she mee ts him at
the ra ilway sta ti on . (C a n there be a Russ ia n film without a ra ilway
scene?) But he is already fa ta ll y ill. In th e hos pita l, wea ring a prole–
ta ri a n babushka on her head , she hold s the dy in g R eed in her arms.
C urta in , Pa rt II .
In Pa rt I , we can readil y understa nd Loui se, fo r we have both
the imagina ti ve contex t o f
bovaryisme
a nd its repet itions today. But
lacking a ny hi sto ri cal knowl ed ge o f the soc ialist movement a nd the
first years of revolution - a nd how ma ny persons have tha t knowl–
edge? - wh a t is one to ma ke of Pa rt II ? T he onl y commenta tors are
The Witnesses. These a re aged indi vidua ls, unidentified by name
but photogra phed as if by Ri cha rd Avedon (and a ll looking like a
haggard Di a na Vree la nd in drag), who tell us by reco ll ec ti on wha t it
