“The truth is good, but happiness is better” - a film-play , a recording of the play of the Maly Theater based on the play of the same name by Alexander Ostrovsky , staged by Boris Nikolsky in 1941. Filmed at the M. Gorky Film Studio (directed by Sergey Alekseev ), commissioned by the Central Television Studio .
| Truth is good, but happiness is better | |
|---|---|
| Genre | film performance , comedy |
| Producer | Sergey Alekseev |
| In the main cast | Nikolay Ryzhov Evdokia Turchaninova Valeria Novak Varvara Ryzhova |
| Operator | Boris Monastyrsky |
| Film company | Gorky Film Studio |
| Duration | 139 min |
| A country | the USSR |
| Tongue | Russian |
| Year | 1951 |
| IMDb | ID 0239829 |
In the history of Soviet television broadcasting, it is known as the first theatrical performance, transmitted not in a "live" broadcast, but in a tape recording [1]. It entered the history of cinema as the first Soviet film-performance [2] [3] , which was followed in 1952-1953 by dozens of other film-plays. They made the performances of the best theaters accessible to the audience of the whole country. , and also made it possible to fill cinema screens with a minimum cost during the “ little picture” crisis .
First shown on television in the late evening of December 31, 1951 . Issued at the box office on January 14, 1952 [4] . The film was a success: attendance was 22.7 million viewers per series [5] [6] .
Content
Story
The plot focuses on the life of a wealthy merchant family, the home of Moscow merchant Amos Panfilovich Baraboshev. In the house, everything is really commanded by his mother, the imperious old woman Mavra Tarasovna. For several years, they have been trying to pick up a rich bridegroom for Baraboshev's young daughter Poliksene. But she is in love with Plato Zybkin, a poor and honest young man, hired by Baraboshev as an accountant.
Baraboshev himself has nothing of his own, he trades by proxy from his mother, and unsuccessfully, at a loss. The clerk, Nikander Mukhoyarov, was deceiving him, and Plato, who refuses to support the deception, was declared unaware of bookkeeping and made a subject of general ridicule, something like a jester in the house. But Plato cannot leave service, because his mother owed Baraboshev two hundred rubles.
The clouds are gathering: Poliksen is going to be extradited as a general in the near future, and Plato was presented with a bill for payment; he now faces a debt prison and shame. Felicata, the old Polysena nanny, decides to help the young. Under the guise of a candidate for the post of guard, she leads to the house of a retired non-commissioned officer Sila Erofeich Groznov, who in her youth was a lover of Mavra Tarasovna and to whom she made a reckless oath as a young woman to fulfill any of his demands.
The key conversation between Sila Erofeyich and Mavra Tarasovna was not shown to the audience, but after it the situation was resolved safely: Poliksene was allowed to marry Plato, who was appointed the main clerk (Mavra Tarasovna now knows about his honesty and the fake reports of the former clerk Nikandr Mukhoyarov).
Filmmakers
The creators of the Maly Theater
- Staged by Boris Nikolsky
- Artist - Konstantin Yuon [comm. one]
- The main director of the theater is Konstantin Zubov
Camera crew
- Director - Sergey Alekseev
- Operator - Boris Monastyrsky
- Sound engineer - N. D. Ozornov
- Editor - B. M. Pogrebinskaya
- Director of the picture - I.V. Vakar
Sergei Alekseev - a native of the Maly Theater [7] , worked there until 1950, in 1950-1959 - the main director of the Central Television [8] .
Cast
- Nikolay Ryzhov - Amos Panfilovich Baraboshev
- Evdokia Turchaninova - Mavra Tarasovna, his mother
- Valeria Novak - Poliksen, daughter of Baraboshev
- Varvara Ryzhova - Filitsata, the old Polysena nanny
- Alexander Kartsev - Nikander Mukhoyarov
- Alexander Sashin-Nikolsky - Gleb Merkulich, gardener
- Valentina Barinova - Pelageya Grigoryevna Zybkina
- Dmitry Pavlov - Plato, her son
- Fedor Grigoriev - Strength Erofeich Groznov, a retired non-commissioned officer .
In the history of Soviet cinema and television
The film-performance was made very simply - it “without crafty philosophies” transmitted from beginning to end the production of the Maly Theater [9] [10] . But at that time this unpretentious experience turned out to be very popular. , and in the years 1952-1953, after this first film-performance, about twenty-five more were shot; against the background of "little picture" they accounted for almost half to one third of the annual film production [11] . However, many of these films-performances were no longer just copies of theatrical productions, they boldly used cinematic techniques [9] [comm. 2] . The Central Television Studio, formed in March 1951, was in dire need of such artistic production [12] . But TVs at that time were far from everyone, and cinema with these films performed an important educational function, not only preserving for history, but also showing the performances of leading theaters and the stage life of great actors throughout the country [11] [12] [13] .
Theatrical art on the movie screen
In an article dedicated to this film, published before its wide release, the newspaper Sovetskoe Art wrote that its release should be “the first sign, the beginning of a systematic and demanding work on the production of films that reproduce in all its fullness and brilliance of ideological and artistic qualities included in the golden fund of our classical and Soviet dramatic art and stage art ” [14] .
In the same article, it was noted that before the creation of this film, most professionals saw a different way of introducing the masses to the best creations of theatrical and dramatic art: this way was considered not a direct transfer to the screen of a theatrical performance (in which it loses “the specific features of theatrical performance and does not gain new qualities inherent in the art of cinema ”), and the adaptation of theatrical plays (that is, their special processing using the creative capabilities of the cinema). For example, in other plays by A. Ostrovsky in the 1930s and 1940s, the films “ Blame the Guilty ”, “ Thunderstorm ” (directed by Vladimir Petrov ), and “ Dowry ” (directed by Yakov Protazanov ) were performed by the Moscow Art Theater, Maly and other theaters . However, these films were independent works of cinema, and did not reproduce theatrical productions, while the provincial audience, according to the author of the article, wanted to see the performances of the best theaters in the country. And the new film “True is good, but happiness is better” met this viewer's demand [14] .
Work on the popularization by means of cinema of theatrical performances, theatrical art was carried out before. So, the film expert Rostislav Yurenev compares this and subsequent films-performances with the documentary (popular science) films of the “Moscow Art Theater Masters” created in 1945-1950 [comm. 3] , “The Art of the Actor” (directed by Vladimir Yurenev ) and “Masters of the Maly Theater” [comm. 3] (director Alexander Razumny ). These films included fragments of various performances and had the task of capturing theatrical action, while using, emphasizes Yurenev, the expressive means of cinema.
But the films-performances of the 1950s, according to Rostislav Yurenev, were in this series by chance, they were not conceived as "a continuation of the work begun on the reproduction of theatrical art" on the movie screen. The first of them, “Truth is good, but happiness is better” was born from the needs of television . (“In order not to bore the masters of the Maly Theater with repeated performances under the hot rays of television spotlights”) [10] [comm. 4] .
“The thought of renting this film also came by accident,” continues Rostislav Yurenev. Trial sessions in Ryazan cinemas gave an unexpected commercial success, after which the film performance was released in several other cities, and later came out in Moscow [10] .
History of Television
On December 31, 1951, the Central Television Studio for the first time showed a screen version of the Moscow Maly Theater “Truth is Good, but Happiness is Better” (director S. Alekseev). This marked the beginning of the fixation of works of theatrical art on film.
In the early 1950s, especially after the adoption of the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On the Organization of Regular Television Broadcasts in Moscow” on March 22, 1951 , television systematically broadcast live performances of leading theaters [14] [16] , but it didn’t had technical means of preliminary fixation of transmissions, that is, recording them before being broadcast. The historian of television Alexander Yurovsky calls the first step in terms of pre-recording television shows “the production of television films shot with a movie camera in the usual way for a movie” and notes that this opportunity began to be used in 1951, when the Gorky film studio made the first film play “True “Good, but happiness is better.” After that, a similar practice of producing films by film studios commissioned by television became widespread [17] .
When fixing, “at that time they preferred to maintain an imitation of broadcast, since it was precisely the simultaneity of the event and its display that in those years was the main advantage of television” [16] . So this performance was recorded . It was shown late in the evening on December 31, 1951 and for the first time freed the employees of the Central Television Studio from onerous work on New Year's Eve. For a more convincing illusion of direct transmission between acts, the curtain of the Maly Theater was demonstrated. According to Alexander Yurovsky, viewers did not notice the substitution [18] .
Movie rental during the “low picture” period
The creation of the film play “The Truth is Good, but Happiness is Better” fell at the peak of the so-called “ little picture ” period: in 1951, only 9 films were shot by all USSR film studios [comm. 5] . This time is characterized by a rigid repertoire policy (a shift in the repertoire towards ideologization and political propaganda) and a difficult procedure for selecting projects under the strict supervision of supervisory authorities [19] .
It has become increasingly difficult for film distribution to fulfill revenue plans [20] . The screens had to be filled mainly with captured foreign films [21] [22] . Old Soviet films were also shown [23] .
The experience of creating the first film-play showed the method “easily and quickly, without the expense of funds, creative efforts and nervous energy required for the passage of the original scripts through various instances, to create tapes suitable for demonstration in movie theaters” [9] . According to Alexander Lipkov , “the effect of this discovery was literally stunning”: in 1952, out of 24 films released on the screens of the country, 10 were performance films [9] .
Filming a play
As with the live broadcast from the theater, the camera was located in the auditorium and filmed the action going on stage. The differences were that there were no spectators in the hall, and the camera was only one, and not three, as when using the TCP . Therefore, the shooting was conducted not in a television but in a cinematic way: with “takes” and subsequent editing [24] .
19 film days and 403 thousand rubles were spent on the entire film. (For comparison: the production of a feature film on average took about a year and 7-8 million rubles) [23] [25] .
Art features. Critics' ratings
Alexander Yurovsky compares the film performance “True is good, but happiness is better” with silent films produced at the beginning of the century by the French company “ Film d'Art ”, which recorded theatrical performances “through the eyes of the gentleman from the orchestra,” and notes only the following differences in the aesthetics of this works:
- image quality;
- the presence of sound;
- close-ups [26] .
But these differences, Alexander Yurovsky continues, are very significant: the sound film-performance could completely preserve the verbal side of the theatrical performance, and the close-up was well conveyed by the actors ’play on a small television screen [26] .
The performance is recorded from different points of view. If in the theater the viewer always sees the whole area of the stage, then on the screen a close-up allows you to highlight the character you need to focus on at the moment, allows you to emphasize important details of the situation or the behavior of the characters. Sometimes the character’s voice sounds off-screen, and the viewer can see the reaction of another participant in the dialogue. Sometimes the viewer sees from a new perspective the room of Pelageya Zybkina, the dining room of the Baraboshevs. According to the author of the newspaper " Soviet Art ", "these external deviations from the course of the play are completely justified, they are caused by the desire to more deeply reveal the meaning of what is happening, to give at the same time greater dynamism to the deployment of the action" [14] .
Another author of the same newspaper, comparing this first film-performance with the subsequent ones, notes that in it all the scenes are “taken directly from the play, and in many cases theatrical convention violates the life credibility, which is the main force of the movie”. In later works, on the contrary, many of the staging scenes are reworked and theatrical conventions are felt less (examples of films-performances “ For every sage are quite simple ” and “ Living corpse ” are given) [27] .
The film imitated the live broadcast of the play from the theater and at the same time turned out to be better than the usual field broadcast: it did not contain “marriage, either in image or sound” [18] . However, after going to the box office, this and other films-performances “came into the view of film critics who unanimously criticized them for their inconsistency with the specifics of cinema art” [28] .
According to Rostislav Yurenev , “the theatricality of this work was deafening, almost unbearable, especially in the first scene - in the garden. This scene was shot ... in the excellent scenery of C. Yuon . However, on the screen, these decorations looked comical: a plank floor was visible in the garden, wadded apples hung on motionless trees. The action unfolds terribly slowly ... All this more likely resembled a kind of parody of the theater. " However, the excellent play of the actors allowed the viewer to forget about the absurdities of the design of the film-performance. Yurenev singles out the game of Varvara Ryzhova in the roles of Filizata, Evdokia Turchaninova - Mavra Tarasovna and Fedor Grigoryev - Groznov [10] .
Yurovsky, partly agreeing with the criticism (“from the point of view of the film expert, this criticism is valid”), however, indicates that it proceeds only from the criteria of cinema aesthetics and does not at all take into account the important fact that the film was not intended for moviegoers. And he was perceived differently by the viewer. Firstly, on a small KVN TV screen, cotton apples and a plank floor are not so noticeable. Secondly, "television created the illusion of the presence of the viewer in the very act of creativity, the illusion of a" live "broadcast." Thus, despite all the shortcomings of the film-performance as a movie spectacle, it “was quite satisfactory as a pre-recorded television program” [28] .
Comments
- ↑ In 1941, the play was staged on the stage of the branch in the design of the artist Boris Knoblok , and later was transferred to the main stage of the theater in the design of Konstantin Yuon. (The performance went on simultaneously on both stages).
- Maly Theater (Moscow). “The truth is good, but happiness is better” / Before zagl. author plays: A.N. Ostrovsky. - M., L .: Art, 1949 - S. 49, 65-66. - 68 p. 5000 copies - ↑ In the words of R. Yurenev, “films-performances became more and more films, less and less performances” ( Yurenev, 1955 , p. 419)
- ↑ 1 2 According to other sources, films are called “Stage Masters” (Moscow Art Theater) and “Maly Theater and Its Masters”.
- A brief history of Soviet cinema. 1917-1967 / All-Union. state Institute of Cinematography. A. Groshev, S. Ginzburg, I. Dolinsky and others; Entry article and commonly ed. V. Zhdana. - M .: Art, 1969. - S. 377. - 615 p. - 25,000 copies. - ↑ The previously mentioned newspaper article also states that “he was not born as a result of any new fundamental creative attitudes. The film was shot with a narrowly utilitarian purpose ”( Belyavsky, 1952 )
- ↑ In 1946-1947, the production of motion picture films was kept at the level of the war years (about 25 a year), in 1948-1949 it decreased to 17, 13 were made in 1950, and only 9 films were made in 1951 ( Yurenev, 1997 , p. . 98).
Notes
- ↑ Lapin S.G. Television // Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 30 vol. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1976. - V. 25 .
- ↑ Soviet feature films, 1961 , p. 457.
- ↑ Yurenev, 1955 , p. 417.
- ↑ Soviet feature films, 1961 , p. 456.
- ↑ "... was a great success at the box office, having managed to attract 22.7 million viewers per series, only 0.2 million losing to the captured American film" Adventures Of Robin Hood "/ Adventures Of Robin Hood, The / (1938) and ahead of 1.4 million purchased French “ Dangerous Similarity ” / Ruy Blas / (1948). "
- Kudryavtsev S.V. Records and myths of Soviet film distribution: How Tarzan saved Soviet cinema from Stalin : [ arch. 03/23/2016 ] // Film portal Film.ru. - 2007. - August 8. - Date of appeal: 03/10/2017. - ↑ Kudryavtsev S.V. - M .: Dubl-D, 1998 .-- 492 p.
The list of domestic films from this book was published in the LiveJournal of the author: Kudryavtsev S.V. Domestic films in Soviet film distribution, part 5 : [ arch. 03/10/2017 ] // Attendance of domestic and foreign films in Soviet film distribution . - 2007. - April 22. - Date of appeal: 03/10/2017. - ↑ Boretsky, R. A. Conversations on the history of television: lectures given at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University in February-May 2010 - M.: Ikar, 2011. - P. 73. - 176, [1] p .; 20 cm.; ISBN 978-5-7974-0244-2
- ↑ Screenwriters of Soviet feature films. 1917-1967: Reference book / State Film Fund of the USSR. - Moscow: Art, 1972. - S. 17. - 439 p.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Lipkov A. Problems of the television movie performance // Poetics of the television theater: Collection of articles / All-Russian Research Institute of Art History ; Repl. ed. Yu. Bogomolov , An. Vartanov , A. Lipkov. - M .: Art, 1979. - S. 102 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Yurenev, 1955 , p. 418.
- ↑ 1 2 Grashchenkova I. N. Release of the first films-performances // The First Century of Our Cinema: Encyclopedia: Films, Events, Heroes, Documents / Chairman ed. collegium K. E. Razlogov. - M .: Lokid-Press, 2006 .-- S. 394-395 . - ISBN 5-98601-027-2 .
- ↑ 1 2 Wrestler A.I. Performance on Mondays // Films-plays: annotated catalog / State Radio and Television Fund . Compiled by A. Yu. Sokolov. Under the total. ed. Candidate of Art History A. I. Vystorobts. - M .: Modern notebooks, 2002 .-- S. 5 . - ISBN 5-88289-183-3 .
- ↑ Yurenev, 1955 , p. 412-414.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Belyavsky, 1952 .
- ↑ Glazer M.S. Radio and Television in the USSR: Dates and Facts (1917-1986) / State. com USSR Television and Radio Broadcasting, Ch. ed. letters and sociol. Researched .. - M .: Art, 1989. - S. 71. - 140 p. - 1000 copies.
- ↑ 1 2 Novikova A. A. Television and theater: intersections of patterns / preface by A. A. Sherel. - 2nd ed. - M .: URSS editorial, 2010 .-- S. 36-37. - 176 p. - ISBN 978-5-354-01257-2 .
- ↑ Yurovsky, 1983 , p. 49.
- ↑ 1 2 Yurovsky, 1983 , p. 159.
- ↑ Kosinova M.I. Soviet cinema and film distribution in the second half of the 1940s. “Trophy movie” - rescue of the film industry during the “Malocartinha” period // Service plus: magazine. - M .: FSBEI HPE “RGUTiS” , 2015. - V. 9 , No. 3 . - S. 60-61 . - ISSN 1993-7768 . - DOI : 10.12737 / 12541 . (inaccessible link)
- ↑ Kosinova, 2015 , p. 62.
- ↑ Yurenev R.N. A Brief History of Cinema. - M .: Publishing House Center "Academy", 1997. - S. 109. - 286 p. - ISBN 5-7695-0145-6 .
- ↑ Kosinova, 2015 , p. 64-67.
- ↑ 1 2 Kosinova, 2015 , p. 63.
- ↑ Yurovsky, 1983 , p. 158-159.
- ↑ Kremlin Cinema: 1928-1953: documents / Ruhr University (Bochum, Germany), Institute of Russian and Soviet Culture Yu. M. Lotman, Federal Archival Agency, Ros. state archive of socio-political history; comp .: K. M. Anderson [et al.]; ed. G. L. Bondareva. - M .: ROSSPEN, 2005 .-- S. 902. - 1120 p. - (Culture and power from Stalin to Gorbachev). - ISBN 5-8243-0532-3 .
- ↑ 1 2 Yurovsky, 1983 , p. 158.
- ↑ Maryanov M. Performance on the screen // Soviet Art : Newspaper. - 1952. - September 6 ( No. 72 ). - S. 3 .
- ↑ 1 2 Yurovsky, 1983 , p. 160.
Literature
- Bielawski Mic. Fulfilling the wishes of the audience: The performance of the Maly Theater “Truth is good, but happiness is better” on the screen // Soviet Art : Newspaper. - 1952. - January 5 ( No. 2 ). - S. 2 .
- Yurenev R. N. Films-plays // Questions of cinema art: Collection of articles / Otv. ed. Yu. S. Kalashnikov; Acad. sciences of the USSR. Institute of Art History. - M .: Art, 1955. - S. 412-427 .
- Yurovsky A. Ya. Television - searches and solutions: Essays on the history and theory of Soviet television journalism. - 2nd ed., Additional .. - M .: Art, 1983. - 215 p.
- Soviet feature films: Annotated catalog . - M .: Art, 1961. - T. 2. - S. 456-457. - 784 p.
Links
- The film-play “Truth is Good, but Happiness is Better” in the catalog of the State Radio and Television Fund : 1st series ; 2nd series
- Central Television Studio of the USSR: March 22, 2016 marks the 65th anniversary of the creation of the Central Television Studio : [ arch. 03/23/2016 ] // RIA Novosti . - 2016 .-- March 22. - Date of appeal: 03/22/2017.