Happiness (1935 film)

Happiness
Happiness
	Happiness
Directed by	Aleksandr Medvedkin
Written by	Aleksandr Medvedkin
Starring	Pyotr Zinovyev; Yelena Yegorova
Release date	March 15, 1935;
Running time	99 minutes; West German TV cut: 66 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Languages	Silent film; Russian intertitles

Happiness (Russian: Счастье, romanized: Schastye) is a 1935 silent satirical slapstick (or rather lubok^[1]) comedy set in the Russian Empire before the October Revolution and in the Soviet Union at the time of the collectivization. Medvedkin's original title was The Snatchers or The Possessors (Стяжатели).^[2]

The original print featured an experimental color sequence illustrating a poor peasant's dreams of becoming a king.^[1] It was the first color production of the Mosfilm studio. According to Medvedkin, "At that time the peasant could not dream of anything multicoloured of beautiful. His dream was limited, and in that the technology helped".^[2] The sequence was discarded on account of its poor technical quality and is apparently lost.^[2]

Unnoticed on its release, Happiness became well known in the 1960s among film scholars.^[3] It was especially championed by Chris Marker who included some excerpts from Happiness in his 1992 documentary The Last Bolshevik.

Cast

Peter Zinoviev as The Loser
Elena Egorova as Anna

References

^ ^a ^b "Художественный фильм "Счастье"". Russkoekino.ru. Retrieved 2012-09-22.
^ ^a ^b ^c Emma Widdis. Alexander Medvedkin. I.B.Tauris, 2005. ISBN 9781850434054. Pages 36, 49.
^ "Happiness". Silentsaregolden.com. Retrieved 2012-09-22.

External links

Happiness at IMDb

This article related to a Soviet film of the 1930s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[kino-1] "Художественный фильм "Счастье"". Russkoekino.ru. Retrieved 2012-09-22.

[widdis-2] Emma Widdis. Alexander Medvedkin. I.B.Tauris, 2005. ISBN 9781850434054. Pages 36, 49.

[3] "Happiness". Silentsaregolden.com. Retrieved 2012-09-22.

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