Youth of the Poet
About Youth of the Poet
At the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Alexander Pushkin is a clumsy, sharp-tongued boy in love with Natasha, a serf actress. Three years pass. When her dead owner's debts are settled, Natasha is sold. She tells the eighteen-year-old poet that if they had been rich they could have bought her, and runs off in tears.
Cast & crew
More about Youth of the Poet
Abram Naroditsky directed Aleksandr Slonimsky's script. Apollinary Dudko and Aleksandr Sigaev photographed it. Yuri Kochurov wrote the music. The picture was made for the centenary of Pushkin's death.
Themes
Background
Lenfilm released the biopic on 10 February 1937, during the official Pushkin centenary.
Making
Naroditsky and Slonimsky kept the lyceum boy awkward and untidy rather than playing him as an already finished poet.
Look
Apollinary Dudko and Aleksandr Sigaev photographed the lyceum rooms and the sale of Natasha.
Music
Yuri Kochurov wrote the score.
Preservation
The film survives and is on Wikimedia Commons. It was also sent to the 1937 Paris Exposition.
Notes
- Valentin Litovsky plays Pushkin. Valentina Ivashova plays Natasha.
- Vladimir Gardin plays the tutor Mayer. Alexander Mgebrov plays Derzhavin. Georgy Kranert plays Alexander I.
- Lyceum classmates in the cast include Yan Paramonov as Küchelbecker, Alexander Muruzin as Pushchin, and Oleg Lipkin as Delvig.
- The Russian title is Юность поэта.
Awards
- Gold medal, Paris Exposition (1937)
Scenes
- Natasha tells the eighteen-year-old Pushkin she is being sold, and runs away.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Юность поэта. 1937 год.webm)