St. Jorgen's Day

St. Jorgen's Day
St. Jorgen's Day
	Official film poster
Directed by	Yakov Protazanov
Written by	Harald Bergstedt (novel); Yakov Protazanov (screenplay); Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov and Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (cues)
Cinematography	Pyotr Yermolov
Music by	Sergei Boguslavsky
Release date	1930;
Running time	83 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Languages	Russian; Part-talkie with; Russian intertitles

St. Jorgen's Day,^[1]^[2] (Holiday of St. Jorgen, The Feast of St. Jorgen, Russian: Праздник Святого Йоргена, romanized: Prazdnik svyatogo Yorgena) is a 1930 Soviet, partly silent comedy film by Yakov Protazanov and starring Igor Ilyinsky.

Uncredited are the original novel by Harald Bergstedt, and the cues written by Ilf and Petrov (with the additional contribution of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky).

Plot summary

Before the church holiday celebrating St. Jorgen, the thief Korkis (Anatoly Ktorov) escapes from prison and mingles with the gathering celebrants. He sees the large amounts of money being made by those hosting the celebration, who are mainly clergy. Korkis cannot refrain from getting involved in this venture. Together with an accomplice (Igor Ilyinsky) they conceive and realize a way to fraudulently extract at least a small part of the money flowing into the hosts' coffers.

Cast

Igor Ilyinsky as Franz Schulz
Anatoly Ktorov as Michael Korkis
Mikhail Klimov as adjunct of the St. Jorgen church
Ivan Arkadin as treasurer of St. Jorgen Church
Mariya Strelkova as Oleandra
Vladimir Uralsky as conductor of the railway
Anatoly Goryunov as relic seller

Credited crew

Director: Yakov Protazanov
Script: Yakov Protazanov, Vladimir Shveitser
Operator: P. Yermolov
Co-director: Porfiri Podobed
Composer: Sergei Bugoslavsky
Soundmaster: D. Blok
Zvuk: S. Yurtsev, N. Ozornov
Orchestra and chorus of Mezhrabpom-Film
Tagefon sound system

Part-talkie

Films from this period often combine silent and sound sequences.

Most of St. Jorgen's Day was shot without recorded sound. These sequences have Russian intertitles, an orchestral and choral score, and occasional sound effects (e.g. the sound of a hand knocking on a door) or added dialogue. A specific scene can use sound effects and intertitles together. The often-impressive exterior scenes were shot silent on location. Interspersed throughout the film are short indoor scenes with recorded sound. The opening credit sequence uses sound, with the principal performers speaking in costume as their characters.^[3]

Quotes

«The primary task for a thief profession and for a saint is to vanish at right time!»
«Learn how to handle it without a jemmy!»
When I was just an infant... My dear poor mother had dropped me from the ...nth floor...
- Please, make one more miracle - an ascension!
- And how about ascendables? (Korkis, talking about money)

References

^ Jay Leyda (1960). Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film. George Allen & Unwin. p. 270.
^ "The crudely antireligious Holiday of St. Iorgen (aka St. Jorgen's Day...)", Rollberg (q.v.), p. 548.
^ Source: DVD release from Незабытое Кино.

Rollberg, Peter. Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema.

External links

St. Jorgen's Day at IMDb

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[leyda-1] Jay Leyda (1960). Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film. George Allen & Unwin. p. 270.

[2] "The crudely antireligious Holiday of St. Iorgen (aka St. Jorgen's Day...)", Rollberg (q.v.), p. 548.

[3] Source: DVD release from Незабытое Кино.

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