Ruslan and Ludmila
About Ruslan and Ludmila
Prince Vladimir of Kiev feasts in his hall and gives his daughter Lyudmila to the knight Ruslan. Thunder, a black wind, and the lights fail. Lyudmila is gone. Ruslan rides after her with two rivals, the fighter Rogdai and the coward Farlaf. In an open field he finds a giant head and, under it, a magic sword. The dwarf Chernomor hears a horn and comes out to fight. Ruslan cuts off the long beard in which the wizard's power sits, and takes Lyudmila back.
Cast & crew
More about Ruslan and Ludmila
Ivan Nikitchenko and Viktor Nevezhin directed the black-and-white film at Mosfilm in 1938, from Alexander Pushkin's 1820 poem. Samuel Bolotin shares the writing credit with Nikitchenko. Nikolai Renkov photographed it. The music is taken from Mikhail Glinka's opera of the same name. Art direction is credited to Andrei Nikulin, Vladimir Nikitchenko, and I. Meden. It runs 50 minutes. The release date on record is 25 March 1939. One account says the project was first offered to Sergei Eisenstein. Nevezhin had finished Eisenstein's VGIK workshop in 1936.
Themes
Making
Mosfilm staged the hall, the giant head, and Chernomor's beard as trick-film effects inside a Pushkin plot.
Look
Nikolai Renkov shot the Kiev hall and the open-field fight in black and white.
Music
The track uses music from Mikhail Glinka's opera Ruslan and Lyudmila.
Preservation
A print circulates. Wikimedia Commons holds a file of the film.
Notes
- Sergei Stolyarov plays Ruslan. Lyudmila Glazova plays Lyudmila.
- Nikolai Bubnov, Nikolai Chaplygin, and Vasiliy Savitskiy are also billed.
- Glinka died in 1857. The film uses his opera, not a score written for the camera.
- A later feature, Aleksandr Ptushko's Ruslan and Lyudmila (1972), tells the same poem in color.
- A Wikimedia file is titled with the year 1938, the production year.
Scenes
- A black whirlwind takes Lyudmila out of Vladimir's hall in the middle of the feast.
- Ruslan cuts off Chernomor's beard, the place where the wizard kept his power.
Influenced by
- Ruslan and Lyudmila (poem by Alexander Pushkin, 1820)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1938. Руслан и Людмила.webm)
