By the fireplace (film)

The theme of this film is inspired by the popular romance of those days “You are sitting by the fireplace and looking longingly for the lights to burn out in the fireplace ...”, the plot is partially borrowed from Alexander Druzhinin’s novel “Polinka Saks” written in the 1840s ^{[4] [5 ] ] [6]} .

The plot is based on a traditional love triangle.

The plot came down to the story of a fatal love triangle, where each of the participants played its already stereotypical role: a trusting hardworking husband, a weak-willed wife, a successful seducer (V. Polonsky, V. Kholodnaya, V. Maksimov) ... Tragic ending ... ^{[2 ]}

Beauty Lydia Lanina (her role is played by Vera Kholodnaya ) and her husband (his role is played by Vitold Polonsky ) are happy in marriage. Lydia often sings, and her husband listens to her, sitting by the fireplace.

During a dinner party, Lydia sits down at the piano and sings a romance. At the height of the evening, an order arrives, according to which Lanin should depart on a business trip. The guests gradually disperse, there remains only a handsome prince madly in love with Lydia (actor Vladimir Maximov ) - an old friend of the house. The prince passionately declares to her in love and, in a fit of passion, tries to take possession of her. Lydia is struggling to break out of his arms ^[7] .

The prince feels guilty and is ready to commit suicide. Lydia becomes sorry for him. She agrees to one date and, because of momentary weakness, is unfaithful to her husband. After the return of her husband, she confesses everything to him. The husband is shocked and agrees to give a divorce. After that, all three suffer. The heroine of the film is tormented by shame and separation from her husband. Unable to forgive her husband’s suffering, she passes away. Sorrows former rivals meet at her tomb, but there is no enmity between them and they blame only themselves ^{[5] [7]} .

At the beginning and at the end of the film there was an episode with an aged hero who sits by the fireplace - hence the name of the film - and looks at the embers, recalling the story of his lost happiness ^{[8] [9]} .

The film was a huge success with the audience ^{[1] [9] [10] [11] [12]} . In the Moscow Kine-Journal (1917, No. 11-16), it was written about the movie “By the Fireplace”: “... As an exceptional phenomenon in cinematography, it should be pointed out that in Odessa the picture was shown continuously for 90 days, and in Kharkov - 72 days, and the Ampir theater, the largest in Kharkov, resumed staging it four times, and all the time there were “Chaliapin” lines ” ^{[7] [12] [13]} .

Criticism was strict for the film, although it did not try to belittle its merits ^[14] . In particular, the magazine "Projector" (at that time it was published under the name "Projector") wrote:

“The main idea of ​​the drama is not original and not new ... A beautiful and poetic incarnation allows putting up with the plot ordinary ... The production is rich and refined, but in the interests of greater vitality it would seem not out of place to simplify it in some places” ^{[15] [16]} .

The reviewer of " Kine-magazine " noted the game of Vera Kholodnaya :

“... V.V. Kholodnaya withstood the skill: in the fire of on-screen love she became hardened. The image of the heroine, loving and sacrificing herself, is simply and sincerely conveyed by the artist. Lyrical experiences harmonize with her touching image. Without sudden movements, roughnesses ... the artist showed that she can sensitively and sincerely convey the image of a loving person ” ^{[17] [18]} .

In Soviet times, the film was considered "one of the most characteristic pre-revolutionary salon decadent films" ^[1] .

The famous Soviet film historian S. S. Ginzburg believed that the film attracted the attention of viewers as follows:

Firstly, the fact that the "elegiac sadness" (an expression of modern criticism) that pervaded him distracted the audience from reality - harsh, cruel and tragic, which by no means gives rise to sentimental outpourings. Secondly, the fact that he was all riddled with fatalism and the foreboding of misfortune. “A man is not free to decide his fate,” said the film, “he is a toy in the hands of circumstances, a victim of dark feelings. This idea of ​​the film justified the powerlessness and insecurity that engulfed the bourgeois public ^[8] .

The cameraman and film director Yu.A. Zhelyabuzhsky believed that Peter Chardynin had an excellent command of the camera profession and “made his own film, such as the one that is outstanding from a photographic point of view, like“ By the Fireplace ”” ^[19] .

Cinema expert I.V. Belenky noted that the film expressed its time:

The events of the film were framed by an episode (that is, the film began with it and ended with it, where Panin [Lanin], aged and turned gray, sitting by the fireplace - hence the name of the film - and looking at the embers, recalled the story of his lost happiness. This feeling of lost happiness is like it could not be better suited to the situation that had developed in Russian society after the February Revolution of 1917 and the abdication of the tsar: Confusion, powerlessness to change the course of events, uncertainty in the future, dreary memories of the past stable and prosperous second life - that's what this film is expressed ^[9] .

Film critic and film historian I. Grashchenkova noted that producer Kharitonov sensed and guessed one of the main secrets of Russian film addiction. He was “a special love for the“ queen ”and the“ king ”of the screen - close to deification, mystical, shrouded in mystery, full of gentle reverence, bewitched the soul” ^[20] .

Such Khariton’s films like “By the Fireplace, ” “Forget about the Fireplace , ” “Be Silent, Sorrow ... Be Silent,” have been on the screens for months. The “novelty complex”, one of the main movers of the repertoire, designed for a single viewing, was overcome. The opposite was claimed when the repertoire was held on multiple views of the film by the viewer ... ^[20] .

The historian and culturologist Vera Ustyugova noted:

The glory of Vera Kholodnaya reached its zenith in 1917 <...> D. Kharitonov and P. Chardynin, having contracted almost all the leading stars of Russian cinema, launched a series of sentimental melodramas with the same heroes and similar plots, but they were all loved there kings of the screen and heartbreaking passion around one queen. It was then that V. Kholodna ascended the throne, and the series of movie novels released with her (By the Fireplace, Forget the Fireplace, Silence, Sadness, Silence) with all the stamps of a former movie, like the last chords like no other films , met the aspirations of a defunct bourgeois Russia ^[21] .

• Vishnevsky V.E. Feature films of pre-revolutionary Russia. - M .: Goskinoizdat, 1945. - S. 140. - 194 p.
• Ginzburg S. S. Cinematography of pre-revolutionary Russia. - M .: Art, 1963. - S. 143, 163, 370-372. - 456 p.
• Ginzburg S. S. Cinematography of pre-revolutionary Russia. - M .: Agraf, 2007 .-- S. 453. - 508 p.
• Zhelyabuzhsky Yu. Mastery of Soviet operators. A brief outline of development // Cinema notes. - 2004. - No. 69 . - S. 246-273 .
• Belenky I.V. Lectures on the general history of cinema. Years of soundlessness. - M .: GITR, 2008 .-- S. 146-147. - 416 p.
• Zorkaya N.M. The history of Soviet cinema. - SPb. : Aletheia, 2005 .-- S. 32 .-- 544 p.
• Mislavsky V.N. Cinema in Ukraine. 1896-1921. Data. Films. Them. - Torsing, 2005 .-- S. 168. - 576 p.
• Grashchenkova I.N. Cinema of the Silver Age. Russian cinema of the 10s and Cinema of the Russian post-October foreign countries of the 20s. - M. , 2005 .-- S. 40–41. - 432 s.
• Short V.M. Operators and directors of Russian feature films. 1897-1921. - M .: Research Institute of Cinema, 2009. - S. 409-410. - 430 s.
• Yani A.V. Vera Kholodnaya: the first love of a Russian moviegoer. - SPb. : Doe, 2012 .-- S. 172-177. - 224 p.
• Prokofieva E.V. Vera Cold. Queen of the silent screen. - M .: Veche, 2013 .-- S. 106-110. - 256 s.
• Zaitseva L.A. The formation of expressiveness in Russian subsonic cinema. - M .: VGIK, 2013 .-- S. 70. - 311 p.
• Film entrepreneur Dmitry Kharitonov . Life and movies. Kharkov: Torsing plus, 2012.216 s. : 197 ill.
• Ustyugova V.V. “Cinema fever” of the First World War: production and rental trends // Dialogue with time. - 2016. - No. 55 . - S. 268-286 .

• "By the fireplace" on the site "Encyclopedia of Russian Cinema"
• U kamina (Czech)