Daydreams
About Daydreams
Sergei Nikolaevich Nedelin’s wife Yelena dies. He keeps her braid in the house like a relic and sees her ghost. On the street he meets Tina, an actress who looks like Yelena, and he treats the likeness as a return. Her manner starts to offend the memory. His friend Solsky, a painter, tells him Tina is not worth the love. Nedelin strangles her with Yelena’s braid. The film follows Georges Rodenbach’s novel Bruges-la-Morte. The Russian title is Gryozy. It was also called Obmanutye mechty, Deceived Dreams.
Cast & crew
More about Daydreams
Yevgeni Bauer directed. M. Basov and Valentin Turkin wrote the script. Boris Zavelev photographed it. Aleksandr Khanzhonkov produced. Russian Wikipedia dates the release 10 October 1915 and says the print survives without intertitles. English Wikipedia times it at 37 minutes.
Themes
Making
Bauer staged Rodenbach’s dead-city novel as a Moscow-produced drama for Khanzhonkov, with Zavelev on the camera and the braid as the last prop.
Look
Boris Zavelev shot Nedelin’s rooms, the ghost of Yelena, and the actress who wears her face.
Preservation
Russian Wikipedia says the film survives without its intertitles. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Alexandr Vyrubov plays Nedelin. N. Chernobajewa plays Tina Wlarskaja. Viktor Arens plays Solsky. F. Werchowzewa plays Yelena.
- Tina is an opera actress in the Russian plot summary, not a stranger with no job.
- The braid is the murder weapon, not only a keepsake.
- A Commons file is titled Daydreams (1915).
Scenes
- Nedelin keeps Yelena’s braid in the house and sees her ghost.
- He courts Tina because she has Yelena’s face.
- He kills Tina with the braid after Solsky tells him she is unworthy of it.
Influenced by
- Georges Rodenbach’s novel Bruges-la-Morte
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Daydreams (1915).webm)
