Be Silent, My Sorrow, Be Silent
About Be Silent, My Sorrow, Be Silent
Paula (Vera Kholodnaya), a circus performer, is married to the clown-acrobat Lorio (Pyotr Chardynin). He is badly hurt while performing drunk, and the two are reduced to playing in the street. Wealthy men who saw her at the circus invite them to a private party, give her a necklace, and offer Lorio money to hand her over. She walks out, then, destitute, becomes the mistress of the painter Volyntsev. When he tries to pass her to Telepnev she leaves with the gambler Zaritskiy, who is shot in the dark while she sings as cover for his attempt to steal a cheque from a safe. Reviews of the lost second half have the hypnotist Presvich take her on a foreign tour, and have her die of the ordeal.
Cast & crew
More about Be Silent, My Sorrow, Be Silent
Pyotr Chardynin directed, wrote, and played Lorio, for Dmitry Kharitonov's company. Vladimir Siversen photographed. Russian intertitles. The original film ran 81 minutes in two parts. Only the first part, 44 minutes, survives. It was also called Still, Sadness, Still, and the Russian title Сказка любви дорогой. Later reference works split on whether to file the 1918 production under the Russian Empire or as a Soviet film.
Themes
Background
Kharitonov's private company was still making star melodramas in 1918, with Vera Kholodnaya as the attraction.
Making
Chardynin cast himself as the acrobat whose drinking ends the circus act, opposite Kholodnaya, the star Kharitonov's melodramas were built around.
Reviews
Critic Lidiya Zaytseva described the film as a sum of the genre habits of Russian cinema to that date, drawn from the stage and from literary melodrama.
Look
Vladimir Siversen photographed the circus, the street performances, and the party where Paula sings while Zaritskiy goes for the safe.
Preservation
The first part, 44 minutes, survives. The second part is lost. A copy of the surviving half is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Ossip Runitsch plays Zaritskiy, a barrister. Vitold Polonsky is Telepnev. Vladimir Maksimov is the artist Volyntsev. Konstantin Khokhlov is the hypnotist Olekso Presvich. Ivan Khudoleyev is the merchant Prakhov. Olga Rakhmanova is Volyntsev's mother.
- The second part is lost. Its story, a duel between Telepnev and Volyntsev and Presvich's hold on Paula, comes from contemporary reviews rather than from a print.
Scenes
- Lorio is injured during a performance he tries to give while drunk.
- At the bachelor party the men offer Lorio money for Paula.
- Paula sings for the guests while Zaritskiy sets off the alarm at the safe, and Telepnev shoots him in the dark.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Молчи, грусть… молчи. (1918).webm)
