Happiness
About Happiness
A man named Loser, played by Pyotr Zinovyev, meets greedy clergy, a tired horse, and a walking granary on the road. The silent comedy is set in the Russian Empire before the October Revolution and in the Soviet Union at collectivization. Medvedkin's first title was The Snatchers.
Cast & crew
More about Happiness
Aleksandr Medvedkin wrote and directed this lubok slapstick. Gleb Troyansky photographed it. It opened on 15 March 1935 and runs 95 minutes. A color sequence of a poor peasant dreaming he is king was the first color work at Mosfilm. Medvedkin said the peasant's dream was limited, and the technology showed that limit. The sequence was thrown out for poor quality and is lost. Yelena Yegorova, Viktor Kulakov, and Nikolai Cherkasov are billed. A Commons file is labeled 1934. Chris Marker used excerpts in The Last Bolshevik (1992).
Themes
Background
The story crosses the last years of the empire and the collectivization drive.
Look
Gleb Troyansky shot the black-and-white comedy. A separate color dream sequence was printed and then discarded.
Preservation
The color dream sequence is lost. A black-and-white copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The Russian title is Счастье. The working title was Стяжатели.
- It drew little notice in 1935 and was taken up by film scholars in the 1960s.
- The color dream is not in the surviving black-and-white print.
Scenes
- Loser meets the clergy, the tired horse, and the walking granary on the road.
- A lost color shot showed the peasant dreaming he is king.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Счастье)
