List of Lost Films of Russia (1911)

In general, it should be noted that Russian comedy was not vaccinated. “Akulina Fashionista” (145 m.), Released by Drankov, and “Husband in a Sack” produced by “Salesfilm” had neither artistic nor material success.

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, pp. 85-86

Initially, the film adaptation was conceived by Khanzhonkov, but not implemented.

The script by C. Sabinsky, written for the film "Anna Karenina" <...> was like a middle school essay. Moreover, when translating it into French <...> it was distorted.

- N. Jesuits "Cinema art of pre-revolutionary Russia" - M., 1958, p. 255

Andre Metra’s films were very bad even from the point of view of a very undemanding viewer of those years, and Paté had to finally abandon their production.

- S. Ginzburg "Cinematography of pre-revolutionary Russia" - M., 1963, p. 45

... the tireless Hanzen manages to show a new novelty every week. <...> the major work “Anna Karenina” (350 m) appeared, putting forward the first Russian “star” - N.O. Vasilyeva, who since then has become a regular participant in all Russian paintings by Pat, <...> the films could not be produced . In addition to the tremendous rush, a small footage also prevented me, into which it was necessary to squeeze a grandiose plot. Therefore, only the essence was taken, and the rest was ruthlessly thrown away. The action developed at a frantic pace ...

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, pp. 80-82

A film adaptation of the novel of the same name by L. N. Tolstoy, allegedly produced “with the consent of the writer”.

- V. Vishnevsky "Feature films of pre-revolutionary Russia" - M., 1945, p. 13

“[Prince] Serebryany [and the captive of Barbara]” had imitators, and Hansel (Progress) released: “Grand Duke Vasily the Dark and Dmitry Shemyaka” (550 m.), Which turned out to be an ultra-hack movie, which had no artistic value .

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, p. 87

Farmer Zahar is going to give his daughter Rachel to the elderly but wealthy widower Bacchus. Rachel opposes this marriage because she is pregnant from her older sister's husband. Rachel tells about his grief to his neighbor in love with her. To hide this secret from his father, a neighbor offers Rachel to leave with his sister. There they had an engagement. After some time, Rachel gave birth. Upon learning of this, an angry father drowns the child. From grief and Rachel drowns in a pond. From a strong shock, the old man goes crazy and commits suicide.

- “Sine-Fono”, 1911, No. 4, p. 36

"Strength" <...> tried to imitate Pate and released a rather large <...> Jewish painting "Cruel Father", but was not successful.

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, p. 87

Both the film itself and the work on it were frankly hackish.

- A. Shimon “Pages of the biography of Ukrainian cinema” - M., 1974, p. 142

The winter of 1912 was used by me for shooting “snowy” scenes for two large films - “Life for the Tsar” according to the opera plot and “Napoleon in Russia” [“1812”] according to a special scenario.
With trepidation, I looked at the screen shot pieces. In the "dense" forest Sokolnikov heroically led the Poles Susanin ... Vanya flew on a faithful horse to the monastery ... When the exhausted horse fell, I sighed in relief.
All the filming came out unusually successful and gave the picture a special Russian flavor, which was infinitely pleasant. And how many unrest, failures! At first, the horse’s death scene didn’t work out at all, since the vile animal, which perfectly played the role in front of its Cossack master, didn’t want to fall to the ground after the race and lie still in front of the actor (N.T. Semenov). Much effort was made by both myself and the Forestier operator until we decided on a cinematic trick suggested by N. T. Semenov.
First, we shot an actor depicting despair over a horse’s corpse, and then we shot the horse’s jump and fall, dressing him as a Cossack. In this reverse order, everything went well, and most importantly, both the performers of the role of Vanya, despite changing clothes there on Khodynka, did not catch a cold.

- A. Khanzhonkov “The First Years of Russian Cinematography” - M., 1937, pp. 59-60

The film was created in consultation with the historian Dmitry Yavornitsky, who provided the film crew with samples of antique clothing, weapons and utensils.

A film about the heroic past of the Zaporizhzhya Sich (“The historical past from the Ukrainian life of the 17th century”) - the combat feats of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks Kosheva Ivan Sirko; filmed with the participation of descendants of Zaporizhzhya sechiks in historical places of the former Sich.

- V. Vishnevsky "Feature Films of Pre-Revolutionary Russia" - M., 1945, p. 14

The well-known cinema company of the Pate brothers wants to release the painting “The attack of the Tatars on the Zaporizhzhya Sich”. For this picture to have a real look, the company wants to arrange a demonstration battle on the banks of the Dnieper, on the site of the former Sich. For this purpose, company agents explored the Dnieper all the way between Aleksandrovsky and Yekaterinoslav and stopped at the Pilot Kamenka, as the most suitable place. On the banks of the Dnieper in a hurry are being built kuren, huts and the like. Almost half of the peasants of the village were invited to participate “in battle”. For all those who took part in the battle, the company made the appropriate costumes. This fight was supposed to take place on September 14th.

- Kiev weekly "Zasiv"

... the newly equipped cinema factory "Rodina" (D. Sakhnenko & Co.) made its debut, as befits every case at that time, with a historical film - "Zaporizhzhya Sich" ...

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, pp. 85-86

The famous boulevard writer Breshko-Breshkovsky tried to write a script for the movie (commissioned by Salesfilm), and soon Ignat Podkova appeared on the screen. “Bravo!” Applauded and shouted during the viewing, and the “Vedomosti Vedomosti” solemnly presented Breshko-Breshkovsky with the title of “first Russian film playwright” <...> But this first picture, posed not according to a literary work, but according to a specially written script, success I didn’t and soon completely disappeared from the screen.

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, pp. 87-88

The film consists of a chaotic pile of scenes, devoid of logical connection and infinitely naive.

- newspaper "Courier Warsaw"

... the director strives to realistically recreate events and the historical setting ...

- A. Shimon “Pages of the biography of Ukrainian cinema” - Kiev, 1974, p. 10

... the first place (in terms of artistry) certainly belongs to the "Golden Series" of Timan and Reingradt <...> when <...> "<Kashirskaya antiquity" <...> appears, it literally makes a splash. The size of the picture, staging, shooting, staging, editing, all this at that time was ideal. The main thing was in a completely unusual cast. The poster was full of well-known names <...> and the whole of Moscow burst into the cinema to see their idols on the screen. “Kashirskaya” Timan and Reinhardt immediately won first place in the Russian market, and this film was held on the screen for a long time and was a highlight in all cinemas.

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, pp. 84-85

[Picture] appeared a little later than “Kashira antiquity”, and “Salesfilm” decided to use the same technique as Timan and Reinhardt, that is, collect as many names as possible on the poster. But since the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters categorically forbade its actors to act in films, I had to be satisfied with the actors of the People’s House <...> As a result, the film could not compete with Kashira Antiquity, but in terms of historical accuracy it is one of the best films we have seen still.

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, p. 87

Among the paintings of 1911 a special place is occupied by <...> The Kreutzer Sonata <...>. It is distinguished by footage, the use of fundus, it is also distinguished by the fact that it was delivered by order of the Globus company, therefore, the Chardynin team at that time could already guarantee the quality of their work.

- V. Korotky “Operators and directors of Russian feature films” - M., 2002, p. 402

For the “Kreutzer Sonata" <...> he built pretty decent scenery with real windows and doors, and well furnished them with furniture, royal and carpets brought from Moscow. This setting favorably with the previous scenery, painted on canvas, and the mood was getting better, it was believed in the success of the picture.

- L. Forestier “Memoirs of a cameraman” - M., 1946, p. 54

I was interested in all issues of production, and the more I got acquainted with the state of affairs in modern cinema, the more I was struck by the discrepancies between the acting and the design of the films. Actors strove for realistic performance of roles, but everything was killed by the scenery. And the more realistic the game, the more striking was the contrast between the actors and the environment that surrounded them.
The difficulties of making films were known to me, and, thinking about the ways to overcome them, I came across the idea of ​​using shields, or, as they are now called, fundus. It took a little time to be convinced of the correctness and great commercial benefit that this thought of the entrepreneur should have given me.
<...>
My shields have found great use for the studio. The workers who made them under my supervision were then recruited as specialists by other employers. Soon my invention became widely known to all Russian filmmakers. It was at the beginning of 1910.

- B. Mikhin "Excerpts from the Past" - M., 1946

Film debut of A. Mozhukhin ^[4] .

Among other attempts to create a historical film, one can mention the experience of Sales Film to stage a trifling joke about Peter the Great “Who is he?”

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, p. 87

The movie makers of A. Alekseev were fragments of theatrical performances fixed on film <...> theatrical scenery and costumes were used.

- V. Mislavsky “Cinema in Ukraine” - Kharkov, 2005, p. 97

In the autumn of 1911 <...> Kuznetsov calls in to me and offers to write several cinematic plays on the subjects of Russian folk songs <...> He knew that I was “writing” a little, and therefore remembered about me <...> Someone Persky <...> having met him, invited him to put together several Russian paintings <...> I <...> processed several Russian songs for the screen <...> I liked my plays <...> the other day Persky appoints the shooting <...> He invited Kuznetsov as a companion and director, as a person who knows the stage and has an extensive circle of acquaintances among the media actors <...> Putting decided my play at Nekrasov's poem "The Song Kudryavicha scorcher". Likhacha was played by Kuznetsov himself <...> Actors knew only that the shooting would take place all day and would try to shoot as much as possible, and what exactly to shoot, what scenes and how they would be shot, it already depended on the terrain <...> from the director’s imagination and sudden creativity, and most of all from the orders of Mr. Persky himself. From "Lihach Kudryavich" half of the drama that was played out in the village was shot on the same day. And in these scenes he tried to give the Russian village a full life <...> The shooting went without almost any system, but everything that was characteristic and suitable immediately hit the screen.

- B. Tchaikovsky "Notes of the film director" - M., 1918, p. 2

  The film “had neither artistic nor material success” [1] .

A kind of game "cultural film" about the construction of St. Petersburg and the great historical monuments of the northern Russian capital. The plot is framed as the dreams of the founder of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great, standing "on the shore of the desert waves"; the inscriptions are borrowed from the introduction to the poem by A. Pushkin "Poltava".

- V. Vishnevsky "Feature films of pre-revolutionary Russia" - M., 1945, p. 16

Filming of the historical places of St. Petersburg, plotted as the "Dreams of the founder of St. Petersburg" Peter the Great <...> the film tells about the emergence and growth of St. Petersburg.

- V. Vishnevsky “Documentary films of pre-revolutionary Russia” - M., 1996, p. 107

... each company, having learned that a competitor is shooting a picture, considered it their duty to shoot the same story, and to release it to the market before the competitor. In addition to the feature film, the same competition was in the field of chronicle, with the only difference being that they tried to outshine each other by the number of meters. So, for example, when Pate released the film “Fall Yourself as the Sign of the Cross, Orthodox People” (105 meters) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the peasants, Khanzhonkov immediately shot “On the Eve of the Manifesto” (241 meters), both of which were made according to the same scenario. However, in this case, both films suffered a completely unforeseen fate: two days before the festivities, all the paintings related to the liberation of the peasants were confiscated.

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, pp. 82-83

In connection with the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the peasants, three days before it (February 16), at night, a telegram was received from St. Petersburg banning the demonstration throughout Russia of paintings related to this historic event. And this event was directly and directly related to both the anniversary picture of our company under the name "On the Eve of the manifesto", 300 meters, and the picture "br. Pate ”entitled“ Autumn yourself with the cross banner, Russian people ”(165 m). Both of these paintings, after a request from our side, were timely authorized for release.
The release of these paintings again caused fierce competition between firms "br. Pate ”and“ Khanzhonkova ”, and the company“ Pate ”, in order to achieve a greater circulation of his short work, put it on sale at an all-time low price - 35 k. Per meter.

- A. Khanzhonkov “The First Years of Russian Cinematography” - M., 1937, p. 46

In 1911, on the anniversary of the "liberation" of the peasants from serfdom, two films were released: Khanzhonkov ("On the eve of the manifesto of February 19") and Pate ("Fall yourself with the sign of the Cross, Orthodox Russian people"). It is curious that, despite the clearly reactionary orientation of both films, they were not allowed to demonstrate. The tsarist government was afraid of any mention of the peasant question.

- J. Sadul "The General History of Cinema", v.2 - M., 1958, p. 299

In early 1911, the name of [Andre] Maetra suddenly disappears from the filmography. One can assume the reason why he was hastily recalled from Moscow. In 1910, an article by M. Aleinikov appeared in Sine-Fono, which predicted that village plots would be in special demand in connection with the 50th anniversary of the liberation of peasants: “Write a domestic drama or use the material already available in literature and show the Russian peasant before and after the reform time ”(C [in-] F [it]. 1910. No. 23. [p.] 8). Apparently, Mater underestimated the political background of such appeals, taking them for a reliable commercial forecast. The Moscow branch of Pate seized on a new theme, considering it a winner for French hire. Starting to shoot, Mater turned to the Russian actors Pate for help: “Making such films is difficult, very difficult. I do not know what a Russian village is, I have never been there, I have never seen these peasants. Who are they? How do they live? ”(S. Goslavskaya [“ Notes of a film actress ”- M.], 1974. [p.] 86). It should be noted that for this side of the matter Mater was worried in vain: the Russian films “Pate” were successful in Russia precisely because of their emphasized ethnography, whether it be Slavic paganism “Mary” or Jewish rites in the famous film “L'Haim”, and the correspondence of screen ethnography the true realities of everyday life have never entered the expectation of a movie audience. The master brought another thing - not so much ignorance of Russian life as a lack of understanding of the conditions of Russian film distribution. As the anniversary of the peasant reform approached, censorship began to prohibit films on a rural theme everywhere. Now Sine-Fono had to calculate melancholy: “On the ban on paintings prepared for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the peasants, Pate’s losses are estimated at about 15 thousand rubles” (SF. 1911. No. 11. [p.] 6). It seems that this miscalculation cost Matru a place in the Moscow branch of Pate. In any case, from February 1911, Kai Hanzen directed the company’s productions in Russia.

- Yu. Tsivyan “The catalog of preserved feature films of Russia” - M., 2002, pp. 513-514

There are only laudatory reviews about the film <...> The photo leaves much to be desired, and several scenes are simply inimitable, for example, the death scene of Oleg, shot against the sun, surprises with the depth of the relief of the figures, and the landscape itself is filled with poetic haze filled with light birches. <...>
With a certain tonality especially characteristic of Pushkin’s verse, the whole song is sustained, “Song of the Prophetic Oleg”. The work feels great taste and a noticeably progressive love relationship for Russian history <...> Costumes in groups correspond to the era being depicted, and Oleg’s clothes, according to Vasnetsov, are especially noteworthy. In some places of the song, there are a lot of little things that were treated with great understanding, and did not forget <...> if the director did not watch the battle with the Khazars, which is positively necessary here to justify Oleg’s life and work, the picture would be perfect.

- V. Vishnevsky “A. S. Pushkin and his work on the screen "- M., 1937, pp. 187-188

... the first place (in terms of artistry) certainly belongs to the "Golden Series" of Timan and Reinhardt: "Song of the convict" <...> and "Rogned" <...> turn out to be simply good paintings in every respect ...

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, pp. 84-85

Nikolai Saltykov was a very difficult person. His character was distinguished by extreme inconstancy <...> Great hopes were pinned on him after the publication of "Songs of the convict" <...> But because of some trifle, Saltykov quarreled with Protazanov.

- A. Bek-Nazarov “Notes of the actor and film director” - M., 1965, p. 80

A fragment of the film is preserved in the GFF ^[9] .

The script was written by the Amphitheaters based on their own play. Likhachev called the film "just a good picture in every way."

The hero of the picture, the shoemaker Boruch, who is struggling to make ends meet, refuses to sell his Stradivarius violin to the visiting violinist Kalina, but gives it to Leah, the daughter of the antique dealer Naum, who admired the girl’s play. Naum gives the instrument to Kalin for money, however, only for one concert.

- V. Mislavsky “The Jewish theme in cinema” - Kharkov, 2013, p. 58

Pate’s paintings didn’t go beyond his usual level and didn’t have much success, although they were distinguished by a more thorough finish compared to previous films of the same company. Only two films are worthy of attention, representing an attempt to give a comedy picture - “A novel with double bass” <...> and “A Midsummer Night's Dream” ...

- B. Likhachev “Cinema in Russia” - L., 1927, p. 85

In the season 1911/12, Hansen began to put short comedy films on modern material about the adventures of a village guy who first came to the city <...>. The first picture of this series is “A Midsummer Night's Dream” (25.X.1911). It was followed by “On poor Mityukha all the bumps are falling” (31.I) and “Mityukhin’s head gives him no rest” (15.XII, both 1912). S. Ginzburg writes that these films were not successful, and, in his opinion, deservedly, although the authors in the image of the protagonist made an "attempt to reflect some national features."

- V. Korotky “Directors and operators of Russian feature films” - M., 2009, pp. 109-110

Muscovites amused a series of paintings about the adventures of the peasant guy Mityukha in Belokamennaya. In his wanderings around the Mother See, Mityukha constantly fell into various comical situations. Once on Tverskaya street Mityuhu riding a tram on a buffer (“sausage”), he noticed a policeman. Uninitiated in the secrets of shooting, the city man whistled a whistle, fiercely threatened with his fist and, apparently deciding to roughly punish the troublemaker, rushed after the tram.

- V. Mikhailov “Tales of the cinema of old Moscow” - M., 2002, p. 216

It was a noble intention to show the public the tragedy of Eva Pobratimskaya from The Judges <...>, but to fit a multi-volume psychological novel into the framework of an hour-long film meant inevitably vulgarizing the literary source. <...> The participation of theatrical actors <...> explains to some extent the special addiction of Polish cinematography to theatricality.

- E. Toeplitz , “History of cinema art”, t.1 - M., 1968, pp. 304-305

Poor Trakhtman kills a merchant who has stayed with him for the night to pay the landlord Steingherts for an apartment. The eight-year-old son of Trakhtman witnessed this murder. To hush up the trace of the crime, Trakhtman hid his son in a forest cave and threw a bloody ax to the Steingerts house. Steinhertz was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. After 15 years, Trakhtman is trying to give his daughter away for a young lawyer taking care of her, not suspecting that he is the son of a merchant killed by him ...

- “Sine-Fono”, 1911, No. 6, p. 34

... there was a way of animated (graphic and volumetric) modeling of objects, direct observation of which is difficult or even impossible. In Russian cinema, this method was first applied by Vladislav Starevich and Nikolai Baklin in the film “Electric Telegraph”.

V.K. Arkadyev proposed the topic of "Electric Telegraph" and he himself wrote a plan for the future film. Its content was conceived as follows: a certain person passes a telegram. The telegraph operator sends it along the line, and the viewer sees illustrations of the physical process of transmitting the telegram. Then comes the game ending — the telegraph operator receives the telegram, writes it on the form and sends it to the messenger, who takes it to the addressee’s apartment. The educational part of this film was decided to be made by means of volumetric and planar animation.

The operation of the electric telegraph was demonstrated on the following model. A “winding” was made on both branches of the horseshoe-shaped magnet, made of a curved spiral glass tube, the ends of which entered a conventional current source. A gap was made at one end of the glass tube, which closed by means of a rubber tube. A mushy mixture of black and white balls was pumped into the tube with an air pump. When the ends of the gap were connected with a rubber tube, the mixture moved, “flowed” along the “winding” of the horseshoe. When the ends opened, the movement of the mass ceased. Over the horseshoe was attached hanging on a spring metal bar - "anchor". When the current was switched off from the battery placed behind the background, the electromagnets disguised at the end of the horseshoe attracted the anchor to the horseshoe. At the end of the anchor, a glass tube was fixed in which ink was poured. When the anchor was lowered under the horseshoe, the tube touched the reel with a wide paper tape wound around it and, depending on the duration of turning on the electric current from the battery, left a trace on the paper in the form of a dash or dot. The advancement of the tape was not mechanized — it was simply pulled off-screen by hand.

Shooting began when the detachable ends of the tube were disconnected. On the side, a hand entered the frame, connected the ends of the glass tube, and the slurry (“electric current”) began to move in the tube. A “current” flowed around and “magnetized” a fake horseshoe, an electromagnet pulled an anchor in the horseshoe, an ink tube touched the ribbon and marked Morse code on it. Thus, the viewer created the idea that the heart of the telegraph apparatus is an electromagnet that begins to act as soon as current flows through its windings. We preferred to show the movement of current using a specially prepared bright slurry, rather than using arrows, as is usually done so far. However, we were not able to completely abandon this familiar symbol. It was necessary to show how the transmission goes by wire over a distance. To do this, we vertically divided the final frame of the technical part of the film into three parts. On the left and right, the frame depicts a Morse apparatus, sending signals to the left, and receiving to the right; in the middle of the frame was placed a picture depicting a landscape with telegraph poles and wires. We did not own the hand-drawn animation at that time and replaced it with frame-by-frame shooting of an arrow moving along the wires and attached with a pin. The sealed positive of this shot afflicted us, since moving the arrow along the wires looked rather comical. However, the film was not bad for its time. True, he did not satisfy us, but he allowed us to understand our mistakes. First of all, we clearly understood that it is inappropriate to introduce game footage into such a film, which is essentially educational. Secondly, we decided to abandon the operator — A.G. Kalashnikov, who was interested in photography, perfectly mastered the camera.

- Nikolai Baklin “Memories of the pre-revolutionary period in cinema”

The main character is a beautiful girl, the daughter of an old violinist. Seduced by a young landowner, she adopts Christianity to marry her lover. But he leaves her. With grief, a young woman rushes into the pool of reckless life. Once in a restaurant Esterke hears wonderful music. In the musician-violinist, she recognizes her father and dies in his arms.

- V. Mislavsky “The Jewish theme in cinema” - Kharkov, 2013, p. 59