“Woman” is a Soviet black-and-white film of 1932, directed by Yefim Dzigan, about village women during the years of collectivization , in which the director “made an attempt to trace the character of a peasant woman who wants to occupy a position on a par with a man”. [one]
| Woman | |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama |
| Producer | Efim Dzigan , Boris Schreiber |
| Author script | Ivan Ivanov |
| Operator | Naum Naumov-Guard |
| Film company | Belgoskino |
| Duration | 64 min. |
| A country |  the USSR |
| Year | 1932 |
| IMDb | ID 0164973 |
In 2017, the film was shown as part of a special project of the Museum of the History of Belarusian Cinema , the show was dedicated to the International Women's Day . [2]
Content
Story
Turning to the fates of four women, the authors talked about the contradictions in which the new was born in the consciousness and life of the peasants. The authors sought to show how difficult it was for people with old habits and beliefs inherited from the past to go to the new age, how fate broke down the age-old downturn, slavish obedience to destiny, as if with difficulty, pain, tears overcame human alienation from each other.
The beginning of the 30s, in one of the distant villages a collective farm is being created, breaking down the old way of life generated by age-old backwardness. The film begins with a scene in which the men are surprised to look into the distance, where a tractor appears over the horizon ... and the tractor driver Anka, who is reproached by relatives for ideological values and avoiding patriarchal values.
The young peasant Masha, too, wants to take control of the tractor and her own fate - but the first tractor in the village, taken by her without demand, remains intact only thanks to Anke. Under the ridicule of fellow villagers, Mashka goes to get a job in the tractor brigade, but she is taken only by the cook. But she does not give up - and steals mechanization textbooks from the garage in order to learn and prove to the tractor drivers that she is no worse than them.
The chairman of the collective farm Petrovich comes to the rescue - a woman leader who entrusts the old widow, Ulyana, who with anger looks at the change of the village, to create a nursery in the village so that Masha and the other girls can leave little children working.
Despite the threats, and then the beatings of her husband, who is burning textbooks on mechanization, which in his opinion distracts his wife from running the house and looking after the children, Mashka is not going to abandon the goal.
Working as a cook in the tractor brigade, Mashka gets access to the tractor and studies it thoroughly, and when at one moment the machine operators are unable to repair the broken tractor, it easily eliminates the breakage.
Seeing her ability to mechanize, she was transferred to the repair shop of the MTS , but there she undergoes humiliation and constant cavils from the mechanic and his assistant.
Somehow, the master, wanting to entertain friends, decides to play a trick on the woman who “doesn’t do the trick”: she orders Mashka to give a piece from the forge, knowing that she is not cold yet. Suspecting nothing, Masha pulls out the part, and her face is distorted by severe pain - under the general laughter of the machine operators, who immediately calms down - Masha does not throw the red-hot piece, while holding it in her hands, with the words “On, take”, slowly goes to the stalemate from her master - because he himself wanted her to give him ...
There is an interesting assembly line : childbirth - the midwife wipes the forceps, the workshop - the mechanic takes forceps with the forceps. The combination of two themes: the mechanic mockingly makes the heroine take the red-hot bolt with her hands, she carries the part, overcoming the pain. Parallel installation - giving birth woman, a symbol of inexhaustible patience.
- The Art of Cinema , 1993
By and large, this is a film about the emergence of new femininity as the engine of progress, in essence, equated with a tractor that needs to be earned, obtained, studied and curbed. Anka, who has found the strength to rebel against the patriarchal structure, gets control of not only the tractor, but also her own body, now it’s not a man who dictates how she should live, but she assigns a date for the guy she liked: “Come, Bear… the forest ... I will wait ... ". The heroic Anka, the tractor driver Mashka, the born chairman, the head of the public nursery Ulyana, satisfied children and the calmly “breathing” Earth - all this now constitutes the essence of the Soviet Woman.
- Film expert S. A. Smagina , 2007 [4]
Cast
This picture, like other tapes devoted to the emergence of a new man, created a world that was desired rather than real.
However, due to the sharpness of the actor's performance, the on-screen images acquired vivid features and persuasiveness.
- Raisa Yesipova - Masha
- Lyubov Mozalevskaya - Uliana
- Tatyana Sukova - Petrovich
- Vera Bendina - Anka
- V. Stukachenko - Director of MTS
- Valentin Piontkovsky - MTS master
- Pavel Molchanov - agronomist
- Efim Nikolaev - Stepan
- Sergey Langovoy - Masha's husband
Criticism
The film was sharply criticized for illustrative purposes, and critics' claims in the spirit of the time were typically reduced to “seeking out certain examples of formalism and naturalism.” [6]
The film "Woman" caused a fierce controversy in print. Disputes touched on the issues of cameramanship.
In the film there is a scene in which the fist depicts the benefits of the pre-revolutionary life. The speech of the fist, given in the credits, was illustrated with frames, the meaning of which sharply contradicted his statements. These scenes were filmed with pointedly stylized pictorialism, as if exposing the falsity of kulak tales. It was a sharp reception.
- The Art of Cinema , 1963
The most successful episode in the workshop of MTS. Unfortunately, there are few similar interesting episodes in the film. A deep study of characters is most often replaced by a straightforward illustration. The atmosphere of the action was not clearly enough conveyed by the director — the life of the village at a crucial period of collectivization.
- History of Soviet cinema, Volume 1, 1969 [1]
Film expert V. I. Smal noted that criticism was not always objective: [6]
One of the best in the film “Woman” is a purely genre, everyday life scene at the well, when peasant women pour water on each other during a fight, was declared naturalistic.
It was noted that the beginning of the film is a scene where men look in surprise into the distance where a tractor appears from behind the horizon, echoes A. Dovzhenko’s film “ Earth ” in which there is a similar scene [4] , and it’s as if he anticipated the film by A. Zarkhi and I. Kheyfits " Member of the Government " [1]
Actors Game
Film expert V.I. Smal noted the performance of the role of Mashka performed by actress Raisa Esipova : [6]
The most interesting was the character of Mashka (art. R. Esipova) - a woman of the new socialist era, who, overcoming the ridicule of her fellow villagers and the resistance of her short-sighted husband, who believed that women's business is children and household, becomes a tractor driver.
Film historian Alexei Tremasov called Yessipova the best role “a simple peasant woman, Masha, hammered with life in the film Woman (1932). Her heroine wanted to get out of the wilds of the peasant way of life, attachment to the house, household, wanted to become a mechanic and finally achieved her goal. ” [7]
Also, the criticism highlights the game of Love of Mozalevskaya - this is the second appearance of the actress on the screen, while it is noted that this role became the continuation of her small role of the collective farmer from the first film - “ Fighting Towards ”, and was perfectly played by an actress who gradually revealed the nature of character:
Broken, but not broken, man gradually straightens up to live, not to exist, to look at the world directly, openly, and not fearfully, frightened. This man is Ulyana Mozalevskaya, played by an actress with that inner dedication, with her inherent ability to dissolve in an image when it is difficult to imagine another artist in this role.
- Screen and Cultural Heritage of Belarus, 2011 [3]
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 History of Soviet cinema, Volume 1 - Institute of Art History, Moscow. - M .: Art, 1969 - p. 608
- ↑ Special museum project "Cinema Culture". Film "Woman" // Museum of the History of Belarusian Cinema
- ↑ 1 2 Screen and cultural heritage of Belarus / A. A. Karpilova and others; Nat Acad. Institute of Art, Ethnography and Folklore. - Minsk: Belaruskaya Navuka, 2011. - 383 p.
- ↑ 1 2 S. A. Smagina - The Image of the “New Woman” in Soviet Cinema of the 1930s (on the example of the films “Earth in captivity” and “Woman”) // Manuscript Magazine, 2007
- ↑ Vladimir Malyshev - Cinema of Belarus and VGIK - VGIK, 2018
- ↑ 1 2 3 Vatslav Ivanovich Smal - Through the prism of decades: on the politics of the Communist Party of Belarus in the field of cinema in the 1920s and 1930s - Science and Technology, 1980–148 p. - p. 107
- ↑ Sergey Mukhanov - Smolyan in Stalin's cinema. Part I // Smolensk People's Newspaper, December 16, 2017
Sources
- Excerpt under the title. "Women" // Newspaper "Cinema", December 24, 1932
- Women // Soviet movies: Silent films, 1918-1935 / All-Union State Film Foundation, Moscow. - M .: Art, 1961 - p. 457
- Women // Life and Films: Articles, Testimonies, Memories, Thoughts / Efim L. Dzigan - Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1981–231 p. - p. 229
- S.A. Smagina - The Image of the “New Woman” in Soviet Cinema of the 1930s (on the example of the films “Earth in captivity” and “Woman”) // Manuscript Magazine, 2007
- Women // Gosfilmfond