{"id":147398,"date":"2026-05-07T06:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daydreams.museum\/?p=147398"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:17:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:17:31","slug":"sensational-bauer-lost-and-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daydreams.museum\/en\/blog\/sensational-bauer-lost-and-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensational Bauer: Lost and Found"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When we began working on the database of early films in 2021, one of our principal goals was to make it a useful tool for film archivists. The vast majority of films produced in the Russian Empire are considered lost, and those working in the field always hope that more films may yet be identified in archives. Our database makes more than 6900 images related to these films available online, and these can serve as reference images for archivists and scholars seeking to identify films presumably produced in Russia. We are very happy that this goal has already begun to be realized: the database has helped to identify at least two films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first film was identified even before the database officially launched online. In 2022, Andrea Meneghelli, Head of Film Archives at Cineteca di Bologna, drew attention to nitrate film cans from a private collection labeled VOLGA E SIBERIA.<\/em> These cans did indeed contain parts of Volga i Sibir\u2019 \/ Volga and Siberia<\/em><\/a> (1914, director Vasily Goncharov), but Meneghelli noticed that several sections came from another film. He shared several frames from this unknown film with historian and archivist Peter Bagrov. Since Bagrov has served on the database advisory board and worked closely with us, he sent these frames to me in the hope that they might match images we had been collecting for the database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, one of the frames (Fig. 1) proved close in mise-en-sc\u00e8ne and composition to a promotional photograph (Fig. 2) for Pokhozhdeniia Speiera i ego shaiki \u201cchervonnykh valetov\u201d \/ The Adventures of Shpeier and His \u201cJacks of Hearts\u201d Gang<\/em><\/a> (1915, director Evgenii Bauer). We also had an original synopsis (libretto) of the film, and upon comparing it to the Italian intertitles, it became clear that portions of the unidentified material came from Pokhozhdeniia Speiera.<\/em>\u00b9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fig. 1. Frame from Pokhozhdeniia Speiera i ego shaiki \u201cchervonnykh valetov\u201d \/ The Adventures of Shpeier and His \u201cJacks of Hearts\u201d Gang<\/em> (Evgenii Bauer, 1915). Courtesy of Cineteca di Bologna.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fig. 2. Promotional photograph for Pokhozhdeniia Speiera i ego shaiki \u201cchervonnykh valetov\u201d \/ The Adventures of Shpeier and His \u201cJacks of Hearts\u201d Gang<\/em> (Evgenii Bauer, 1915). Daydreams<\/em> Database<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bauer is best known as a director of salon melodramas, many of which have become central to the canon of pre-revolutionary cinema. The discovery of a sensational melodrama directed by him significantly broadens our understanding of this crucial director and of the genre\u2019s development in the Russian Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film was based on the real criminal case of the Jacks of Hearts Club, which operated in the Russian Empire from 1871 to 1875. This criminal organization was at one point associated with the legendary female thief and trickster Son\u2019ka the Golden Hand, who soon entered Eastern European popular culture. A series of Son\u2019ka\u2019s adventures was adapted for the screen by producer Aleksandr Drankov starring Nina Goffman. This heroine would have made a great addition for the groundbreaking Cinema\u2019s First Nasty Women<\/em> collection curated by Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak, and Elif Rongen-Kaynak\u00e7i if it included material from the Russian Empire.\u00b2 The Khanzhonkov studio likely sought to share in the commercial success of this series and responded with its own sensational drama featuring Son\u2019ka. In Bauer\u2019s film, Son\u2019ka was played by Nadezhda Nelskaia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fig. 3. Nadezhda Nelskaia as Sonka the Golden Hand. Daydreams<\/em> Database<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Russia, sensational melodrama was often considered a \u201clow\u201d genre that rarely attracted serious critical attention. Yet Pokhozhdeniia Speiera<\/em> received a relatively detailed review in the leading trade journal Sine-Fono.<\/em> Samuil Lurie, the journal\u2019s editor and founder, wrote: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe picture is made with great skill. […] To diversify the action, the film includes interpolated scenes, such as the debauchery at the Yar restaurant, with all its trimmings, from the Gypsy chorus to chanteuses bathing in champagne… All in all, setting aside its \u2018ideological\u2019 dimension, the film proves highly entertaining, capable of keeping the spectator amused throughout its full 1,500 meters\u2026\u201d\u00b3<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Lurie obviously did not approve of Bauer\u2019s experiments with this \u201cimproper\u201d genre, yet he acknowledged their success. The Yar scene he mentioned had probably been added not only for narrative variety but also to give room to test Bauer\u2019s innovative visual techniques. Similarly, when reflecting on Bauer\u2019s canonical melodrama Deti veka \/ Children of the Age<\/em> ( 1915), several critics singled out the carnival-on-water scene as one of the film\u2019s key artistic elements, even while interpreting it in different ways.\u2074 [Clip 1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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