Pater Sergius [Otec Sergij], 1918

Pater Sergius | Otec Sergij

Year		1918
Country		Russia
Director		Yakov Protazanov
Screenwriter		Aleksandr Volkov Lev Tolstoj
Producer		Dzhozef N. Ermol'eff
Operator		Fedot Burgasov Nikolaj Rudakov
Composer		Evgenij Bukke
Artist		Vladimir Balluzek Alexandre Lochakoff V. Vorob'ev
Genre		Drama [play] Biography History
Premiere date (world)		October 18, 1920
Duration		70 min. / 01:10
Actors		Ivan Mozzhuhin Ol'ga Kondorova V. Dzheneeva Vladimir Gajdarov Nikolaj Panov Natal'ya Lisenko Iona Talanov Vera Orlova Petr Baksheev Polikarp Pavlov
Rating		7.95 / 10 [votes: 246]
IMDB Rating		6.90 / 10 [votes: 163]

Prince Kasatsky was rich and ambitious. He dreamed of a military career and the love of beautiful women. Fate smiled at him. But the day before the wedding, he learned that his bride - the mistress of the Emperor. In desperation, the prince renounced the world and retired to a monastery ...

Did you know that ...

» For the first time its intention to film the story of Tolstoy Protazanov said while working on the production of "Queen of Spades", and in 1916, "Father Sergius" was even announced in the advertising company J. Yermolyeva. But at the time production of "Father Sergius" would be at least difficult, since acted censored image in the feature films of the royal family and members of the clergy.
» The film was shot in late 1917 - early 1918.
» During the filming of James Protazanov ill for some time and it is replaced with the set written by Alexander Volkov.
» Composer Eugene Bukke was written original music, which was accompanied by a demonstration of the movie.
» The surviving version of the film has a duration of 79 minutes.
» On the 150th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy in 1978 was made a new film adaptation - the movie "Father Sergius" put director Igor Talankin, and starred Sergei Bondarchuk.

Review

This Russian film is in many ways unique. He was removed after the revolution, in the private cinema partnership Joseph Yermolyeva but widely demonstrated in the Soviet box office, and in 1928, the centenary of Leo Tolstoy, reissued and not much later taken out of the cinematic treatment, even then was shown on television. At the same time was taken out in 1920 by Yakov Protazanov abroad and members of his crew, went to France, became known and well received in Europe.

Being a creative result of all of the pre-revolutionary Russian cinema, this tape can undoubtedly be included in the context of world cinema as a rare example of an early breakthrough to the depth of understanding of human psychology on the screen. If we evaluate the product Protazanov (which, of course, would not take place without accurate and surprisingly stingy foreign manner of playing Ivan Mozzhukhina) from the point of view of anticipation in film aesthetics, "interior monologue" and the attempt to transfer the on-screen line of thought and experiences of the hero, the closest analogues would appear, movies Scandinavian School (Victor Sjöström, Maurice Stiller) and a number of German films (such as "The Last Man" Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau).

High artistic value "Father Sergius" is further enhanced when compared with the previous Russian cinema experience and the subsequent phase of the Soviet cinema 20s, when even recognized masterpieces undoubtedly inferior film Yakov Protazanov just in the complexity and volume of the hero, a realistic completeness and credibility of his behavior on the screen. Perhaps only some of the bands of the decade, has emerged at the turn of the New Economic Policy (such as: "A man from the restaurant" and the "White Eagle" of the same Protazanov "The Living Corpse" by Fyodor cordoned off again on Tolstoy), can be compared with "Pater Sergius"on the ambiguity of human images and psychological nuances of behavior.

Moreover, in contrast to the next, to some extent, in the wake of his "Polikushka" (again adaptation of the novel "Father Leo", was filmed in 1919, but released on the Soviet screen only in 1922), the work of James Protazanov not stay in one only play a leading performer. And Ivan Mozzhukhin as an experienced actor, will still be stronger than his debut on screen in the role Polikushka outstanding theatrical master Ivan Moskvin. "Pater Sergius" is a solid, verified in style, memorable cinematic works in which talent Mozzhukhina - as one of the polished faces of this "true film diamonds".