Thursday, September 19, 2013

Za stshastjem / For Happiness


For Happiness. Tasja Borman, Lev Kuleshov
За счастьем / Onnen tähden / Za schastem / For Luck / Za schast’em. RU 1917. PC: Akts. o-vo Hanzhonkov i K. D: Jevgeni Bauer. SC: N. Dennitsyna. DP: Boris Zaveljev. AD: Lev Kuleshov. C: Nikolai Radin (Dmitri Gzhatski, a lawyer), Lidia Koreneva (Zoja Verenskaja, a rich widow), Tasja Borman (Lee, her daughter), Lev Kuleshov (Enrico, an artist), N. Nennitsyna (Lee's governant), Emmotshka Bauer (little girl), Aleksandr Heruvimov (doctor). A Gosfilmofond print without intertitles /18 fps/ 36 min. E-subtitles in Finnish by [Onni Nääppä?] covered the original intertitles missing from this print.

3. film in the Russian film concert - Mauri Saarikoski (violin) and Marko Puro (piano). Cinema Orion, Helsinki (History of Russian cinema), 19 Sep 2013.

Shot at Crimea, a triangle story of a widowed mother and her fragile daughter falling in love with the same man. The young artist is played by none other than Lev Kuleshov who brought Yevgeni Bauer's last film to a finish after the great director's death and was the only one to continue aspects of Bauer's legacy after the revolution.

A beautiful print of a beautifully shot film. The images are soulful. The lighting is glorious. The beauty is perfect, but happiness is evasive. "I am exhausted by this endless pursuit of happiness".

There is a danger of the daughter going blind if she experiences a shock.

The daughter learns that her beloved artist is in love with her mother.

"Where are you, mother? I cannot see anything."

Another soulful and deeply felt musical contribution by Mauri Saarikoski and Marko Puro, with themes from Tchaikovsky, Rimski-Korsakov et al.

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