The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish
About The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish
An old man and an old woman live in a dugout by the blue sea. He nets a golden fish. It asks to be thrown back and offers a wish. He asks for nothing. His wife sends him back, and the wishes climb: a new trough, then a cottage, then rank, then to be tsarina. She sends him once more, to rule the sea itself. He returns and finds the dugout and the broken trough again.
Cast & crew
More about The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish
Aleksandr Ptushko wrote and directed the puppet film from Alexander Pushkin's 1833 tale. Mosfilm released it on 1 November 1937. It runs 30 minutes. Fyodor Firsov photographed it. Vyacheslav Leshchev recorded the sound. Lev Shvarts wrote the music. The color was Pavel Mershin's three-color process, one of the first Soviet films made that way.
Themes
Making
Ptushko shot the puppets in color at Mosfilm, in a department set up for Mershin's three-color process. The sea, the fish, and the wife's rising state are the things the process was there to show.
Look
Fyodor Firsov photographed the puppet sea and the dugout in Mershin's three-color process.
Technique
The picture is one of the first Soviet films printed by Pavel Mershin's three-color method.
Music
Lev Shvarts wrote the music. Vyacheslav Leshchev was the sound recordist.
Preservation
A 30-minute color print survives. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The Russian title is Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке.
- It is puppet animation, not drawn cels.
- The fisherman's first choice is to let the fish go. Every later trip is his wife's demand.
- The last wish, to command the sea, undoes the others.
- Pushkin's poem is the 1833 text. The film is a direct telling, not a second plot laid on top of it.
Scenes
- The fisherman lets the golden fish go without a wish.
- The wife sends him back until she asks to rule the sea.
- He comes home to the dugout and the broken trough.
Influenced by
- Alexander Pushkin's The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish (1833)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1937. Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке.webm)
