Father Sergius
Father Sergius / Отец Сергий (1918, 112 min, silent) – dir. Yakov Protazanov, starring Ivan Mozzhukhin, Lubov Orlova
1 November 2010, 4pm
A classic of silent cinema, this adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's story is one of the rare surviving films (and certainly the most famous example) of the pre-Soviet era. It was made just before the revolution of 1917 in a time of turmoil; it could just barely be made then: it was only because the film boasted Tolstoy's name that it was able to escape full censorship. After the revolution, no such movie would be made for a long time (a remake was made in the USSR in 1979).
The film has both a very unconventional religious figure and it portrays the Tsar as having extra-marital relationships. At its heart is the life story of a young successful army officer, Prince Kossotski, who unknowingly falls in love with the mistress of the Tsar.
The movie has many uncommonly modern characteristics. Besides the daring subject, it has a rather strongly developed lead character, good storytelling and cinematography and a script which deals with human emotions without being exploitative or sentimental. Altogether, it has a very modern touch to it for a movie made in 1917, although the lack of sound (originally it had a score played live to the audience) does make it a little weary at times. Still it is a prime example of the art film movement of pre-soviet Russia and a timeless story of unfulfilled love.
The film has a typical 'Russian ending', with the almost total humiliation of the central figure, but it is not there to morally condemn Kossotski; it's just that this was how stories like this always ended in the tragedy genre.