User Reviews

I'm a newcomer to the world of early silent cinema and after having the pleasure of viewing the 1917 film The Dying Swan, by Yevgeni Bauer, I viewed this earlier film of his, Daydreams. The 1915 film Daydreams, much like his The Dying Swan, illustrates Russia's more than capable film industry during this time period.

Daydreams, is a drama containing themes such as love, madness, and death that I also saw in Bauer's film, The Dying Swan. This film revolves around a man, in what was then modern Russia, and his obsessive love towards his recently deceased wife; this obsession ends up creating not only an unhealthy and disastrous predicament for himself, but for those around him as well.

The actors in the film did very well in conveying the emotions of the story allowing me to understand the feelings within the unspoken narrative. There was even an instance where the main character made a scene hard to watch as he embarrassed himself in front of many as he allowed his obsession to take over; an obsession, he worried, was making him mad. Additionally the editing was also something to behold. In this film I witnessed the implementation double exposure creating the image of a transparent phantom; a trick that took me by surprise.

Despite the well done acting, sets, and cinematography, the story was not as gratifying for my tastes. The character development was simply unassuming and not as developed. However after watching The Dying Swan, which I can now say is the preferred of the two, I am given an appreciation towards the advances he made in filming and storytelling between the two.

Overall I believe this is quite a decent film and in no way mediocre; a good demonstration of the work of Bauer and perhaps of early Russian cinema.

From what I've seen, it seems that director Yevgeni Bauer's best films are his tragedies obsessed with death, which include this film "Daydreams", as well as "After Death" (1915) and "The Dying Swan" (1917). Perhaps it has something to do with the interest of macabre subject matter, or maybe they provide opportunities for the best in Bauer's film-making, as well as Boris Savelyev's cinematography. The opening scene with the protagonist beside the coffin with his dead wife features a black background similar to those visible in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Cheat". Additionally, there's a trucking shot when he sees a woman resembling his wife (it does remind one of Hitchcock's "Vertigo").

Those are two advanced film techniques; even more impressive are those that Bauer uses to advance or annotate the narrative. Mise-en-scène was always one of Bauer's foremost concerns, and here there is a great opera scene on stage, which is about death. Besides being a detailed and lovely composition, it is also self-referential. In general, scenes are filled with props, decorations and adornments. The main room of the protagonist's home, where he keeps his wife's hair, seems to become more cluttered with objects as the story progresses, as he becomes madder.

Another interesting thing is how Bauer represents memory. The story is about a man who is tormented by the memory of his late wife. He often looks at photographs of her, which only keep his memory afresh. There's a scene of painting in this film, which seems to serve little of function for the story. For centuries, painting was the medium for mankind to document an event, or remember it. Photography has replaced it. Theatre, too, has seen cinema not only represent a story and life, but to remember it.

When the protagonist first kisses the woman who looks like his wife, the shot fades away into the likeness of a still photograph, as though a passing memory. The superimposed memory of his wife, or double expose effect, leads to a moving montage of his memories of scenes with his late wife. This is an impressive film, with much in its short runtime. To be critical, I think it's too short; the extra ten or so minutes in "After Death" or "The Dying Swan" made quite a difference, although their narratives were also more complex. Moreover, there are jump cuts in the finale; plus, you can see her breathing. Nevertheless, I consider "Daydreams" among Bauer's best work.

Acting is very convincing with a contrast between Sergei sinking into madness, with a brief moment of lucidity and Tina as a young and carefree woman. The use of flashback is very effective with an ambiguous transition between present and past. The filming mirrors the progressive confinement of Sergei's mind After the initial scene where we briefly glimpse Elena alive before seeing her on her deathbed, we see Sergei walking in the streets with the camera panning to follow him. He then goes to the opera where he meets Tina and his obsession becomes more and more oppressive. From that moment we see only inside scenes, her place, his place and the place of his painter friend. He realises himself that he is becoming mad but cannot resist his madness. After a violent scene at Elena's place where she tells him to go and lie down with his dead wife, he will no longer move out of his room where Elena's ghost will start appearing to him. We think for a moment that he is walking in a park with Tina, but it is a flashback of walks with his wife, which finishes with the scene of the beginning at the deathbed being replayed. When the maid announces that she is leaving him and Tina comes to his place talking lightly about Elena, we know that a tragic issue is forthcoming.

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