Ruslan and Lyudmila (film, 1938)

In general terms, the film follows the Pushkin story:

“Kiev prince Vladimir Yasnoe Sunny feasts in his high grid. He gives out his daughter, the beautiful Lyudmila, for the brave hero of Ruslan. Suddenly there is thunder, light fades, a black whirlwind bursts into the windows. Ludmila disappears. Ruslan and his two rivals in love, the militant Rogdai and the cowardly Farlaf, set off in search of the prince's abducted daughter. In the open field, Ruslan sees a huge head, under which he finds a magic battle sword.
Lyudmila is captured by an evil wizard - the long-bearded dwarf of Chernomor. She wanders in fairy gardens and is sad about Ruslan. Her savior is near. The evil dwarf hears the menacing sound of the horn - this Russian knight calls him to battle. In a fierce battle, Ruslan defeats Chernomor and cuts off a long beard, in which all the witch's wilderness lurked. With Lyudmila, embraced by a witchcraft awake dream, the knight embarks on the return journey. Ruslan's inglorious rival, Farlaf, thieves attacking Ruslan, weary of a long journey, and rushes with Lyudmila to Kiev. But in the father’s grid, Lyudmila continues to sleep in deep sleep. Only the kiss of Ruslan, who returned to Kiev, awakens the beauty. "

- Soviet feature films. Annotated directory. Volume II from. 172-173 ^[1]

Widely celebrated in 1937, the centenary of the death of A.S. Pushkin could not pass by Soviet cinema, which did not stand still. The development of film technologies, and the shooting technique itself, the development of new methods of combined shooting - such as, for example, transparent ones - allowed us to turn to this plot again. In addition, few people remembered the first film adaptation of " Ruslan and Lyudmila " (1914) by Vladislav Starevich , which had been lost by then. And in Mosfilm’s plans in 1937 this name appears ^[2] , the production is entrusted to Ivan Nikitchenko , who knows a lot about miracles in films, and Viktor Nevezhin, a recent graduate of the State Electoral Committee (1936) (workshop of S. M. Eisenstein ).

“The Pushkin fairy tale and the staged decision by I. Nikitchenko, the artist of combined shooting and the director of the film, made it possible to use the whole palette of techniques and methods of combined shooting - perspective combination (Ruslan’s battle with Golova), prototype shooting (views of ancient Kiev and Chernomor castle), rear projection ( the heroes of the film on the background of the layout), the subsequent small box (Ruslan’s aisles to Chernomor’s castle), as well as creating unique solutions, for example, a method of relocation and projection masks for shooting original shots of Ruslan’s battle with the dragon. The combination of the projection image with the animated animations made it possible to shoot a general plan where Ruslan throws Rogdai into the abyss. ”

- Dmitry Masurenkov, “Masters of visual effects”, 2006 - to the 100th anniversary of N. S. Renkov ^[3]

Figuratively, the picture was solved in the images that had developed by the 20th century in Russian fine art, recalling the canvases of V. M. and A. M. Vasnetsov , V. V. Vereshchagin , I. N. Kramsky , N. N. Ge .

The main feature of "Ruslan and Lyudmila" was the style of silent cinema - not one of the characters makes a sound on the camera, everything is given to a voiceover and at the same time, the actors' play is not fancy as in the former dumb .

There is evidence that the final version of the film’s editing was finalized by S. M. Eisenstein, who always closely watched his students ^[4] . In any case, the film expert Naum Kleiman noticed Eisenstein’s direct quotation of some scenes in Alexander Nevsky , on which he worked then, in particular, a dead field covered with bones ^[5] .

• Sergey Stolyarov - Ruslan
• Lyudmila Glazova - Lyudmila
• Nikolay Bubnov - Vladimir
• Nikolay Chaplygin - Rogday
• Boris Keropian - Farlaf
• K. Komarov - Black Sea
• Maria Shlyonska - Naina
• Vasily Savitsky - Head
• Voice-over - Vladimir Ershov

• Scenario - Ivan Nikitchenko , Victor Nevezhin , Samuel Bolotin
• Production - Ivan Nikitchenko , Victor Nevezhin
• The main operator - Nikolai Renkov
• Operators - Tamara Lobova , A. Priezhev
• Assistant operator - I. Antonov
• Combined Shooting
  • Operators - Nikolai Renkov , P. Malanichev (additional work)
  • Artists - Andrey Nikulin (sketches and drawings), Vladimir Nikitchenko (tricks), I. Meden
• Sound engineer - Vyacheslav Leshchev
• Sound Design - Raisa Lukina
• Edited by Grigory Shirokov
• Chief Executive Officer - B. Chizhov
• Musical arrangement - Lev Steinberg and the Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra

• Country of manufacture: USSR
• Film languages: Russian
• Film strip: 35 mm
• Number of Pieces: 6
• Metric area: 1430 m
• Color: black and white
• Sound: mono

It was released on the screens of the USSR on March 25, 1939.
In Finland (Ruslan ja Lydmila) - October 15, 1944.

The viewer admired the fabulous landscapes and palaces, and film specialists examined the technical side of the picture in detail, looking for the pros and cons in its intricate shootings: “... the introduction of the picture into the frame should be done especially carefully and carefully, otherwise the nature in the frame will look lifeless. Excessive congestion in the picture frame led the film “Ruslan and Lyudmila” to the fact that in some of his shots there is a noticeable lack of aerial perspective ” ^[6] .

The film was released on DVD by the Moscow company Flagman-Trade on February 25, 2010 ^[7] .

• Ptushko A. , Renkov N. Combined and stunt filming / N. Markovin. - M .: Goskinoizdat, 1941 .-- 135 p. - 2000 copies.
• Ptushko A. , Renkov N. Combined and stunt filming / N. Harvey. - M .: Goskinoizdat, 1948 .-- 256 p. - 4500 copies.
• Cinema: Encyclopedic Dictionary in 2 volumes / Ch. ed. S. I. Yutkevich, Moscow, Soviet Encyclopedia, 1966-1970

• Ruslan and Ludmila on the Internet Movie Database