I have seen Lt. Kijé
Jun. 14th, 2009 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacNot the famous orchestral suite by Prokofiev. Certainly not the person, who never existed. I mean the 1934 Russian film that the music was originally written for.
I've been curious about this film since I first heard and liked the suite, and that's a very long time. I've wanted to see it for so long that I'd forgotten it was on my want list. It's been very elusive. Early on I read in some reference books that, although the music was written, the film was never actually made. Eventually I found out that this had to be mistaken, because by happenstance I came across a review from when it was shown in the U.S. in the '30s, under the title The Tsar Wants To Sleep. But from the plot description and mention of Prokofiev's music, it was clearly the right film.
But perhaps it had not survived the years? Many films of that age have not. But a few years ago I came across a notice on the web site of some museum in London that has a copy it occasionally screens. Suddenly today it occurred to me to check more widely, and sure enough, it's on the Internet. God bless the Internet. The copy I watched is here (and starts playing immediately). Another copy is here (and doesn't).
As you'll know if you've read the summary Prokofiev attached to the suite, Lt. Kijé is the story of how a typo on a military report creates an imaginary officer who rises in the esteem of the unloved Tsar Paul, circa 1800. He's promoted to General, marries, and dies, all without actually existing.
It turns out in the film that Kijé first becomes useful to courtiers as a scapegoat when an aide shouts in surprise (his girlfriend had playfully pinched his ass) and wakens the angry Tsar in the next room. Kijé is flogged (in the form of a wooden horse), then exiled to Siberia by foot (and yes, the escort actually marches all the way there). But the Tsar then forgives him, and his rapid rise begins.
The film starts rather slowly, but the best part begins at about 47:20, when the same aide, thoroughly hungover after having gotten drunk on receiving orders to present Kijé at court, "fetches" him and then has to endure as his girlfriend is married off to the invisible officer. The physical comedy between the bride and her non-existent husband is excellent. And if anyone wonders why, er, nobody is there, the chief courtier (the hero's uncle) says what he always says in response to those puzzled looks, that Kijé "is confidential, and has no shape."
The boyfriend sneaks into the bridal bower under pretense of congratulating Kijé, and then interestingly - Russian films didn't have to follow the Hays Code - spends the night with the bride in Kijé's bed. The scene starting at 65:10 when the Tsar marches into the room the next morning, looking for Kijé, and finds the undressed boyfriend hiding under the bed is a gem.
And as you watch, you'll hear music that Prokofiev did not include in the suite as well as much that he did. The music playing at 47:20, based on a song the Tsar had sung earlier, and the actual wedding music, are not in the suite. On the other hand you'll hear at 48:50 the main theme of the "Romance" from the suite, but arranged for voice and harp, and what's designated in the suite as the wedding music immediately following the wedding itself at 55:20. Then the middle section of the "Romance" shows up briefly as a Russian/French song at 58:00.
The film is 82 minutes long, and overall there's music during about 32 minutes of it, about 10 minutes of which does not appear in the (20-minute) suite in any form, and that which does is mostly thoroughly rescored. So this film was worth watching musically as well as an example of early Soviet comedy.
After watching the film, I, like the Tsar, went to sleep -- and dreamed that I was watching a dubbed, colorized version with added scenes, one of which had the camera panning over a map towards a town which it couldn't find where it was expecting, so it started scanning the map every which-way in search of it.
I've been curious about this film since I first heard and liked the suite, and that's a very long time. I've wanted to see it for so long that I'd forgotten it was on my want list. It's been very elusive. Early on I read in some reference books that, although the music was written, the film was never actually made. Eventually I found out that this had to be mistaken, because by happenstance I came across a review from when it was shown in the U.S. in the '30s, under the title The Tsar Wants To Sleep. But from the plot description and mention of Prokofiev's music, it was clearly the right film.
But perhaps it had not survived the years? Many films of that age have not. But a few years ago I came across a notice on the web site of some museum in London that has a copy it occasionally screens. Suddenly today it occurred to me to check more widely, and sure enough, it's on the Internet. God bless the Internet. The copy I watched is here (and starts playing immediately). Another copy is here (and doesn't).
As you'll know if you've read the summary Prokofiev attached to the suite, Lt. Kijé is the story of how a typo on a military report creates an imaginary officer who rises in the esteem of the unloved Tsar Paul, circa 1800. He's promoted to General, marries, and dies, all without actually existing.
It turns out in the film that Kijé first becomes useful to courtiers as a scapegoat when an aide shouts in surprise (his girlfriend had playfully pinched his ass) and wakens the angry Tsar in the next room. Kijé is flogged (in the form of a wooden horse), then exiled to Siberia by foot (and yes, the escort actually marches all the way there). But the Tsar then forgives him, and his rapid rise begins.
The film starts rather slowly, but the best part begins at about 47:20, when the same aide, thoroughly hungover after having gotten drunk on receiving orders to present Kijé at court, "fetches" him and then has to endure as his girlfriend is married off to the invisible officer. The physical comedy between the bride and her non-existent husband is excellent. And if anyone wonders why, er, nobody is there, the chief courtier (the hero's uncle) says what he always says in response to those puzzled looks, that Kijé "is confidential, and has no shape."
The boyfriend sneaks into the bridal bower under pretense of congratulating Kijé, and then interestingly - Russian films didn't have to follow the Hays Code - spends the night with the bride in Kijé's bed. The scene starting at 65:10 when the Tsar marches into the room the next morning, looking for Kijé, and finds the undressed boyfriend hiding under the bed is a gem.
And as you watch, you'll hear music that Prokofiev did not include in the suite as well as much that he did. The music playing at 47:20, based on a song the Tsar had sung earlier, and the actual wedding music, are not in the suite. On the other hand you'll hear at 48:50 the main theme of the "Romance" from the suite, but arranged for voice and harp, and what's designated in the suite as the wedding music immediately following the wedding itself at 55:20. Then the middle section of the "Romance" shows up briefly as a Russian/French song at 58:00.
The film is 82 minutes long, and overall there's music during about 32 minutes of it, about 10 minutes of which does not appear in the (20-minute) suite in any form, and that which does is mostly thoroughly rescored. So this film was worth watching musically as well as an example of early Soviet comedy.
After watching the film, I, like the Tsar, went to sleep -- and dreamed that I was watching a dubbed, colorized version with added scenes, one of which had the camera panning over a map towards a town which it couldn't find where it was expecting, so it started scanning the map every which-way in search of it.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 04:16 pm (UTC)