Silent Witnesses (film)

The film is about the love of the maid to the master ^[1] .

The girl Nastya, the daughter of a porter, works as a maid in the rich house of the Kostritsyns. She cares for him. The young gentleman seduces her, unsuccessfully caring for the girl of his circle. However, after some time, the beloved owner Ellen returns to him again, and he loses interest in the maid.

For Nastya come hard days. In the house there is a new mistress. Nastya endured everything, except for Ellen’s treason to her husband. She requires care lover from home. Ellen is crying and wants to go abroad. Seeing the gentlemen at the station, Nastya burst into tears. Kostritsyna's old woman reminds her that “you shouldn't dissolve like that” and advises you to pay more attention to your duties.

This is the story of the doorman, who lives in a rich manor house, and his granddaughter, the maid Nastya. The actor Cherubimov created an image of the uncle in the uniform diametrically opposed to what a colleague-doorman in the German film The Last Man Murnau would later be shown. The doorman at Bauer is devoid of ambition, all given to a single feeling - the love of his granddaughter, which seduces the handsome gentleman. The plot is embodied by Bauer in the tradition of Russian classical prose of the XIX century, St. Petersburg stories of Gogol and Dostoevsky ^[3] .

• Director: Eugene Bauer
• Operator: Boris Zavelev
• Producer: Alexander Khanzhonkov

The film was noted as one of the best productions ^[1] . Critics noted the social orientation of the film. In particular, the magazine "Herald of Cinematography" noted:

“The boundary that sharply divides the estates and lays a solid barrier in the relations of people of the highest and lowest rank is the main thesis of the present work. A gentleman and a maid, a lord and a slave - two values, two psychologies, two different poles ” ^{[4] [5]} .

Quite restrainedly appreciated the film reviewer "Theatrical newspaper." He found the screenplay of the film too pretentious and believed that the picture was resolved "at some slower pace, at a speed of" no more than four versts per hour "" and "the action is monotonous" ^{[6] [7]} . At the same time, “cinematic expressiveness, sense of cinematic rhythm” by actress Dora Chitorina was noted and the cinematic abilities of Elsa Kruger, a well-known dancer, were not highly appreciated ^[6] .

At the same time, since the release of the screen, many critics put the film in a number of the best works of Russian cinematography ^{[8] [9]} . Soviet film historians attributed this picture to the first creative victories of the Russian screen ^[10] .

Romil Sobolev examined this film in detail in his book “People and Films of Pre-Revolutionary Cinema”, noting that it “strikes with its skill of directing, realistic content and expressive means” ^[11] . He pointed out that the success of the film was promoted by “a very good casting for all roles, including episodic,” especially highlighting the role of Nastya performed by D. Chitorina: “Having shown that Nastya’s“ fall ”happened because she believed in the love of the baric, Chitorina was very sparingly, but strongly shows the tragedy of deceived trust ” ^[12] .

In general, in this film, Bower was able to get from the performers a completely exceptional avarice of expression of feelings. <...> Neither shouts, nor tragic gestures, nor curses. This naturalness and simplicity, which we now appreciate in films, was something absolutely incredible at the time ^[12] .

R. Sobolev noted other features of expressive means in the film:

The film is of interest from the point of view of the development of the cinematic alphabet and grammar. Bauer and the operator B. Zavelev boldly used many new means of expression for that time. Since almost all events take place in two or three sets, they had to change their shooting points often to avoid the monotony of the story. But the movement of the apparatus in different corners of the same room, as well as the movement of the actors in front of the apparatus, enriched the film with an unexpectedly large number of plans of various sizes. <...> They also shoot a scene on the street from the window of the second floor successfully, and in this case the movie camera is the “eye of the hero” ... They “cut” the frame in half, simultaneously showing the telephone conversation of two people, and another time they are taking pictures of people talking on the phone , Alternately ^[13] .

The historian of cinema C. Ginzburg singled out the acting work of D. Chitorina and A. Kheruvimova.

D. Chitorina, who played the role of Nastya, was really young, direct and touching in the image of unrequited love she created. The same is true of A. Cherubimov in the small and very difficult role of the doorman. He was almost deprived of actions, with the help of which he could reveal the character of his hero, but he created this character with subtle details of behavior, how he met the residents of the house, handed them clothes, talked to his daughter ... Something makes us recall this image about the remarkable image of the doorman, created by E. Janings in the Murnau film “The Last Man”; however, in the Cherubim porter there is no holuy importance at all, which Yanings so ridiculously ridiculed ^[14] .

At the same time, he considered the roles of A. Chargonin unsuccessful (“he posed for the apparatus, frankly playing the feeling in the scenes with his fiancée”), E. Kruger (in his opinion, “she was deprived of feminine charm, although she portrayed the heart-thief”) and V. Petipa (“not at all interesting in the role of lover”) ^[15] . “Nevertheless,” the critic believed, “despite the failure of the three performers, despite the unacceptable for us spirit of submission to fate, which permeated the whole conception of the scriptwriter, this film is humanistic, full of subtle psychological observations, and still retains its artistic value” ^[15] . “The strength, the credibility of the film,” he continued, “is that the truth of personal experiences is not divorced in it from everyday life, from the truth of real human relationships.”

C. Ginzburg wrote that "the film" Silent Witnesses ", both in its screenplay basis and in its directorial interpretation, was made with mature cinematic skill" ^[16] .

The action, which was not supported and not explained by any title (the film was without writing!), Developed consistently, all the actions of the actors are psychologically motivated. The details of life and furnishings (Swiss cuisine, the staircase of a profitable house with tenants passing through it), not emphasized anywhere, created a true atmosphere for the developing small petty-bourgeois drama. But the main thing is that the truth of their characters is expressed in the behavior of the film’s characters ^[16] .

The encyclopedia "The First Century of Cinema" also drew attention to the creation of a volumetric frame structure.

In Silent Witnesses (1914), Bauer builds a mise-en-scene, where four characters are placed in depth along the lens line — a three-dimensional dramatic structure is created. The entrance hall of the apartment building, in the depth - the front door, through the glass of which you can see the street (additional depth order). To the left, closer to us is the door to the janitor’s closet, next to it is a shop, next is the beginning of the main staircase leading upstairs. The old doorman sat down on the bench, his daughter Nastya peeks out of the closet, a gentleman, the future seducer Nastya, comes down the stairs, a servant, who is here not by chance, is in love with Nastya at the front door. Taking into account the front door, which is dramatically important, - five levels of frame development ... ^[17] .

Neya Zorkaya noted that “the atmosphere of the picture is full of remarkably precise everyday details, the living air of time, embossed portraits, fleeting sketches made intelligently and gracefully” ^{[18] [3]} . She considered that “according to the film one could study the manners of that time, life, entertainment, customs, fashion” ^[19] . She called the film director “meeting the high standards of modern craftsmanship, and for those years simply outstanding,” and also highlighted “B. Zavelev's excellent camera work, tactful and subtle play by the main performers D. Chitorina and A. Cherubimova” ^[20] .

Art historian E.S. Gromov believed that the film “Silent Witnesses” is the best domestic film of 1914 and “the glory of Bauer begins as the leading master of Russian cinema” ^{[21] [22] [23]} . “Watching“ Silent Witnesses, ”he wrote,“ and the spectator of the 80s is not indifferently watching the screen life of the maid Nastya, who is seduced by the young master. ” Gromov paid special attention to the artistic authenticity that Bauer sought in the decorative design of the film: “The modest interior is cheap wallpaper, two or three pictures on the wall, a neatly made bed, the image of the doorman revealed simply and clearly. There are relatively few subjects, but they are all in place. ” ^[24]

Film expert Irina Grashchenkova named the film among the best Russian movie theaters of the 1910s ^[25] :

““ Silent Witnesses ”(1914) is a true masterpiece of Russian silent psychological cinema. There is some mystery of the inner scale and the hidden poetry of this very simple story of a maid’s love for a master, which ended with his marriage to the immoral woman of his circle. Bauer's lacy direction, the organic, artless play of the young actress Dora Chitorina adorns the film. ” ^[26]

I. Grashchenkova also cites the film and one of the frames from it as an example of the fact that "Bauer's direction was centripetal to the frame, as a voluminous, living cell of the film."

Here is the famous film “Silent Witnesses” and a frame from it, in which there is no action, but in it a drama is declared, the main characters are represented. A maid is peeking out of the Swiss door under the stairs to see her lover, the gentleman, going down to the exit. An old doorman, her grandfather, sat down on a bench next to the closet. At the front door is a servant in love with the maid. Through the glass of the door you can see the life of the street. There are only five levels of the frame, and in their conjugation there is a quiet, smoldering, out of silence, sighs, glances, the emerging drama of those who are called mute witnesses. Those who see everything, but will not tell anything to anyone - people of the lower class, servants. But it is also the audience, on the sympathy, which the director expects empathy ^[27] .

• Vishnevsky V.E. Feature films of pre-revolutionary Russia. - M .: Goskinoizdat, 1945. - p. 68. - 194 p.
• The Great Kinemo: A catalog of surviving feature films of Russia (1908-1919) / Comp.: V. Ivanova, V. Mylnikova, S. Skovorodnikova, Yu. Tsivyan, R. Yangirov. - M .: New Literary Review, 2002. - p. 210-212. - 568 s.
• Korotky V.M. Operators and directors of Russian feature films. 1897-1921. - M .: Scientific Research Institute of Cinema, 2009. - p. 38. - 430 p.
• Sobolev R.P. People and films of Russian pre-revolutionary cinema. - M .: Art, 1961. - P. 105-107. - 175 s.
• Ginzburg S.S. Cinematography of pre-revolutionary Russia. - M .: Art, 1963. - p. 296-297. - 456 s.
• The first century of cinema. Popular Encyclopedia / Ed. K. Razlogov, S. Lavrentyev, E. Margolit. - M .: Lokid, 1996. - T. 1. - p. 196-197. - 720 s.
• Sharp N.M. At the turn of the century. At the origins of mass art in Russia in 1900-1910. - M .: Science, 1976. - P. 271-272. - 298 s.
• Sharp N.M. The history of Soviet cinema. - SPb. : Aletheia, 2005. pp. 63-64. - 544 s.
• Gromov E.S. Genealogy of Innovation // Art of Cinema. - 1982. - № 9 . - p . 113-127 .
• Gromov E.S. Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov. - Art, 1984. - p. 24. - 319 p.
• Grashchenkova I.N. Silver Age Cinema. Russian cinema of the 10s and Cinema of the Russian post-October abroad of the 20s. - M. , 2005. - p. 74, 219, 255. - 432 p.

• "Silent Witnesses" on the site "Encyclopedia of the national cinema"