Happiness | |
---|---|
Directed by | Aleksandr Medvedkin |
Written by | Aleksandr Medvedkin |
Starring | Pyotr Zinovyev Yelena Yegorova |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes West German TV cut: 66 minutes |
Country | Soviet Union |
Languages | Silent film Russian intertitles |
Happiness (Russian: Счастье, romanized: Schastye) is a 1935 silent satirical slapstick (or rather lubok[1]) comedy set in the Russian Empire before the October Revolution and in the Soviet Union at the time of the collectivization. Medvedkin's original title was The Snatchers or The Possessors (Стяжатели).[2]
The original print featured an experimental color sequence illustrating a poor peasant's dreams of becoming a king.[1] It was the first color production of the Mosfilm studio. According to Medvedkin, "At that time the peasant could not dream of anything multicoloured of beautiful. His dream was limited, and in that the technology helped".[2] The sequence was discarded on account of its poor technical quality and is apparently lost.[2]
Unnoticed on its release, Happiness became well known in the 1960s among film scholars.[3] It was especially championed by Chris Marker who included some excerpts from Happiness in his 1992 documentary The Last Bolshevik.
Cast
- Peter Zinoviev as The Loser
- Elena Egorova as Anna
References
- ^ a b "Художественный фильм "Счастье"". Russkoekino.ru. Retrieved 2012-09-22.
- ^ a b c Emma Widdis. Alexander Medvedkin. I.B.Tauris, 2005. ISBN 9781850434054. Pages 36, 49.
- ^ "Happiness". Silentsaregolden.com. Retrieved 2012-09-22.
External links
- 1935 films
- 1935 comedy-drama films
- Russian silent feature films
- Soviet comedy-drama films
- Russian comedy-drama films
- Soviet black-and-white films
- Soviet silent feature films
- Russian black-and-white films
- Silent comedy-drama films
- 1930s Soviet films
- Russian-language comedy-drama films
- 1930s Russian-language films
- 1930s Soviet film stubs