Tortured Souls (film)

Count and Countess Rutsky visit the estate of a wealthy landowner. His godson engineer Karin falls in love with the countess, she reciprocates.

Engineer Karin kills his godfather with an accidental shot on a hunt. As later discovered, he was his own father, who left him his entire fortune. Karin is under investigation and asks Countess Rutskaya to cut off all letters testifying to their love affair.

Count Rutsky initially gives testimony testifying to the unintentional killing. However, upon learning of his wife’s betrayal, he takes the opportunity to take revenge on his rival. He gives false testimony against him in the direction that the shot was not random, but intentional and malicious.

The engineer is threatened with hard labor, but a loving woman saves him by revealing her secret at the trial as the reason for her husband’s false testimony. Annoyed Count Rutsky shoots his wife and injures her. In the final, Karina is justified and a happy reunion of lovers takes place.

“There is little movement in the play, but many dramatic moments: the murder of a father by his son, the discovery of his wife’s infidelity, her confession in court, etc.”, Projector magazine wrote in 1917 ^{[5] [6]} .

The play of the artists is generally excellent; good gg. Cold, Runich and Khudoleev. Without unnecessarily pathetic, they spend their dramatic scenes, but every detail of their game shows that they thought out the roles. The photo is excellent, winter field surveys are distinct and very beautiful ^[5] .

A reviewer of the Kine Journal (1917, No. 11-16, p. 112) wrote that "the author did not very well cope with the so-called scenario technique, as a result of which the action develops smoothly, some techniques are monotonously repeated" ^{[5] [7]} .

The performers had to atone for the shortcomings of the author’s work, and they performed this difficult task perfectly. Ms. Kholodnaya and Mr. Runich gave interesting lively images. Mr. Khudoleev is somewhat less convincing. The production is good, with the exception of a few scenes - the scenes of hunting and court. The photo is also good ^[5] .

It was noted in the journal Kulisa (1917) that “the scenes with letters from Ms. Kholodnaya and the scene from the investigator, where Mr. Khudoleev is very successful, deserve attention” ^[8] . Highlighting the roles performed by V. Kholodnaya and I. Khudoleev, the reviewer wrote that “Runich failed in his role - the artist gave little shades of his experiences” ^[5] .

The film is mentioned in connection with ambiguous assessments of the acting abilities of Vera Kholodnaya ^{[9] [10]} . Director V. Kasyanov, who worked in 1917 with the actress on the film "Tortured Souls", recalled that she had great charm, but did not always cope with difficult acting tasks ^{[9] [11]} . At the same time, the director Kasyanov believed that “the“ failure ”inherent in the film actress Vera Kholodnaya was much preferable to the theatrical performance of Runich” ^{[9] [10]} .

The film expert Vanda Rosolovskaya examined the film in detail in the book Russian Cinematography in 1917 (1937) ^{[12] [13] [14]} .

Whereas in ordinary films, the role of the villain in the classic family triangle was played by the seducer, pushing the woman of light to an extramarital affair, here, in the film "Tortured Souls", the role of the villain passed to the husband, which interferes with the union of the two lovers. The law of society was on their side. The recognition of Rutskoi did not arouse contempt for her, but, on the contrary, surrounded her with a halo of glory. The triumph of love over the conventions of secular opinion and the chains of marriage found its vivid expression in the film ^[15] .

V. Rosolovskaya analyzed “two parts of the film - the second and fifth, differing in the diversity of the situation and the severity of the action” ^[16] . “In the second fragment, chosen for the study,” she noted, “there is much more than directorial ingenuity and the actual cinematic art, and the scriptural provisions are more acute” ^[17] .

Judging by the film "Tortured Souls" - the art of editing in 1917, even in an ordinary film, stood at a relatively high level. The scene was no longer filmed from a single point, as in an earlier period. The scene was divided into a series of editing phrases in accordance with the dramatic provisions and the actor’s play; the logic of intraframe action and the actor’s movement in the frame correlated with the length and nature of the assembly phrase ^[18] .

• Rosolovskaya V.S. Russian cinematography in 1917: materials for history. - M., L .: Art, 1937. - S. 146-163. - 200 p.
• Vishnevsky V.E. Feature films of pre-revolutionary Russia. - M .: Goskinoizdat, 1945 .-- S. 129. - 194 p.
• Kasyanov V. Near the cinema. Excerpts from memories. 1896-1917 // Cinema notes. - 1992. - No. 13 . - S. 173-185 .
• The Great Kinemo: Catalog of preserved feature films of Russia (1908-1919) / Comp .: V. Ivanova, V. Mylnikova, S. Skovorodnikova, Yu. Tsivyan, R. Yangirov. - M .: New Literary Review, 2002. - S. 375-377. - 568 p.
• Mislavsky V.N. Tortured souls. Life and films of Dmitry Kharitonov. - Kharkov: KHMGU, 2007. - S. 32-33. - 152 p.
• Short V.M. Operators and directors of Russian feature films. 1897-1921. - M .: Scientific Research Institute of Cinema, 2009 .-- S. 184, 308. - 430 p.
• Yani A.V. Vera Kholodnaya: the first love of a Russian moviegoer. - SPb. : Doe, 2012 .-- S. 178-181. - 224 p.

• "Tortured Souls" on the site "Encyclopedia of Russian Cinema"