Lermontov

1943 DramaHistory 80 minutes Directed by Albert Gendelshtein

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About Lermontov

The film opens on Alexander Pushkin's last days in 1837. Cornet Mikhail Lermontov writes the poem on Pushkin's death and turns that poem against the court. The picture follows him through exile, the duel with Ernest de Barante, and his own fatal duel. Aleksey Konsovsky plays Lermontov. Nina Shaternikova, Georgy Menglet, and Pavel Massalsky are in the cast.

Cast & crew

More about Lermontov

Albert Gendelshtein directed from a script by Konstantin Paustovsky. Work began in 1941 at Soyuzdetfilm for the centenary of Lermontov's death and stopped when Germany invaded. It resumed in 1942 in evacuation at the combined Stalinabad and Soyuzdetfilm studio and was finished in 1943. Aleksandr Shelenkov and Mark Magidson photographed it. Sergei Prokofiev and Venedikt Pushkov are credited with the music. The censor did not pass the film for general release.

Themes

  • Pushkin's death as the start
  • The poem that attacks the court
  • Lermontov's own duel
  • Lermontov
  • Pushkin
  • Death of the Poet
  • duel
  • de Barante
  • Stalinabad
  • Paustovsky

Background

Shooting started in the year of the 1841–1941 centenary and was broken up by the German invasion. The company finished the picture in Stalinabad.

Making

The centenary release planned for 1941 did not happen. The negative was finished in Central Asia two years later, and the finished film still did not get a mass opening.

Audiences

The censor withheld it from general release, so it did not play to a mass audience in 1943.

Look

Aleksandr Shelenkov and Mark Magidson photographed the black-and-white film, including the ballroom opening and the duels, after the unit had moved to Stalinabad.

Music

Sergei Prokofiev and Venedikt Pushkov are both credited with the music.

Preservation

An 80-minute print survives. It was not approved for general release in 1943.

Notes

  • The Russian title is Лермонтов.
  • It starts in 1837, with Pushkin, and does not stage Lermontov's childhood.
  • In the de Barante quarrel the Frenchman's son tells Lermontov that his countrymen have killed a Russian poet before.
  • After this picture Gendelshtein did not direct another fiction feature.
  • The evacuated company worked at the combined Stalinabad studio, later credited as Tajikfilm.

Scenes

  • The picture opens on Pushkin's last days.
  • Lermontov arrives at a ball as a cornet, with the poem on Pushkin already the scandal.
  • Ernest de Barante taunts him that Frenchmen have killed a Russian poet before.
  • The film ends at Lermontov's own fatal duel.